I guess my needing that PCI slot definitely falls into the insane category, haha. I really don't want to deal with a riser though. Also don't want to deal with an OS upgrade to Windoze 10. Who knows what compatibility issues I would run into with some of my legacy devices. Not time to upgrade everything all at once. I haven't hit that lottery yet! Also, since the 8700K is released now, it should further drive down the entry cost for this upgrade. Especially right around the corner black Friday sales are coming.

Really having trouble settling on a motherboard. ASUS doesn't seem to offer anything with PCI and Bluetooth built in.

 

If you've got a PCI card that you're satisfied with, like I have [RME HDSP 9652], of course you'd like to be able to use it DD.

Asus has some great motherboards for audio, with PCI slots. Check out Asus Prime Z270-K for instance. I'm currently assembling a PC with it and 7700K for a client. It's really good!

Oh btw. I installed Windows 7 on it... no problems. Except that I had to inject Z270 SATA and USB3 drivers into the W7 installation. That might be a problem for you. I use Win Toolkit to do it.

 

That's awesome to hear! That really lays a lot of my concerns to rest.
As far as injecting the Z270 SATA and USB3 drivers goes, thanks for that tip! What I would like to do is simply use the working (like a champ!) W7 install already on my SSD. Just pull the AMD Phenom II Mobo/CPU/RAM and replace with the upgrade. Hopefully not have to do a complete re-install of the OS.
Maybe it would be best in that situation to try to get the Z270 Drivers installed while the AMD Mobo is in place so the system can detect and locate them after the upgrade. If the driver install executable would let me install without the hardware in place. Or manually place the drivers where they need to be. Have you ever done one this way?

 

No, I haven't. It will probably bluescreen or freeze when started on this new PC, because the differences are too great. Chipset, USB3, CPU... new graphic card? It's always a much better idea to do a clean install anyway. But it wouldn't hurt to try it, eh?

I feel you completely regarding the re-installaton. Typically, I assemble a PC within 2-3 hours [I'm extremely pedantic, it could be done in half an hour], installing the OS takes maybe 20 minutes, drivers another 20 minutes and plugins... plugins take weeks, several "sessions" with a client. But hey, I always tell myself "it is worth it, since it will be used for years and years to come."

Yes, installing plugins is really tedious, especially when they're protected in different ways and there could be problems with having all the different intrusive protections in one OS, like iLok+eLicenser. That's why I always suggest them to use plugins that have friendly protection - just a serial nr, or big packs of plugins like Waves, NI Komplete, IK Multimedia and Arturia. I mean, if you have these 4 what else do you need? [heh.. Fabfilter, ToneBoosters and some Voxengos perhaps ;)]

You can always PM me and I might be able to help or give you some ideas, but I'm not checking PMs every day. I think you know about dealing with computers quite enough, though. ;)

 

Last edited: Oct 27, 2017

I don't think it'll work, such a major change will drive your windows crazy. ;)

 

For Z370 motherboards, check http://www.overclock.net/t/1638955/z370-z390-vrm-discussion-thread
and click in the first post(br0da) comments for the recommendation regarding VRM quality.

I do not know how reliable the tests are, but they have a very good comparative tables
https://uk.hardware.info/reviews/76...s-round-up-17-times-coffee-lake-audio-quality

And some good tests at https://www.tweaktown.com/cat/motherboards/socket-lga-1150/index.html



For Z170/Z270/Z370/Z390 VRM
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f12/lga-1151-mainboard-vrm-liste-1175784.html

Intel motherboards http://www.overclock.net/f/6/intel-motherboards

 

Hi, ive just upgraded from a Q8300 to an i7 7800K. I was advised to upgrade to w10 from w7 before hand to make it a lot easier. It was effectivekty a plug and play swap as I changed my MB, CPU, RAM, Case, PSU and fan. The only things carried over from my old build were a 250Gb SSD running the new w10 OS and a 2TB HDD. As I mentioned, it was a complete plug and play job. W10 downloaded all the drivers and installed them. My only real issue was that the new MB was PCI-e only which meant I couldnt put back in the M-audio 2496 soundcard. that said, ive plugged the headphone amp straight in to the line out and its been fine in terms of playback quality using the aiso4all drivers.

 

Zootini, here Windows 10 WASAPI is better than aiso4all.

 

Not the answer I wanted, but probably the answer I need! (Hope no one misses the Batman reference there!)
I'll probably give it a try just to see if I can save me a little time and effort. At least I'm going to be better mentally prepared in the event that it doesn't work.
My understanding is that when you install Windows, it creates a compressed driver file which contains all of the drivers loaded when the install was created, but that's the only time this file gets created. Supposed to decrease load time from what I've read. So I know there's that merit to a reinstall after the Mobo/CPU upgrade.

Yeah, I haven't dealt with hardware (as in a build) for awhile now and a lot has changed. But those of us in the tech industries have to learn to embrace change and the challenges that accompany it. I'm primarily a coder.
Thank you for extending the offer, and I may just need to take you up on it. And you hit the nail on the head as far as reinstallation of plugs. It'd be a bear as I've got some I-Lok stuff as well as Acustica Aqua's and Nebula 3 itself. I hope that the hardware change doesn't crap out the authorization of those (due to the hardware id changing), but I guess we'll see. Copy protection schemes really are truly a nightmare when it comes to upgrading your system!

This gives me some hope. I would think that if the base drivers were there, Windows should be able to locate and install them. Just have to take a wait and see approach on it for my particular situation.

 

For CPU upgrade, you don't have to reinstall anything. I did numerous Dual -> Quad transitions and everything was fine. Only if you already have lots of software installed, that might get deauthorized in the process.
Replacing mobo is the same thing, everything is likely going to work afterwards. Unlike WinXP, Win7 can handle multiple hardware profiles at the same time. But again, the Windows installation might get deactivated in the process, as the OEM key is usually tied to SLIC of that particular motherboard.

 

You are changing platforms and chipset, this will most likely make your PC unbootable. I have used acronis true image universal restore which has given me a couple of good successes in the past while changing mobo+CPU, but it is not guaranteed.

Even if we are a long way from w95/w98 era when this was a complete no-go, I would reinstall windows clean to be sure the operating system works 100% the way it is intended.

my 0.02

Nick

 

Last edited: Oct 28, 2017

By "platforms" do you mean chip architecture (AMD to Intel)?
If so, I agree, I see that as the stumbling block to the initial boot.

Thanks again everyone for weighing in on this. It will affect my timetable of when I do this as I don't want my current project delayed too much, but the improvement in processing and performance will speed up my work flow greatly. Many variables to ponder here.

 

Yup, intel and AMD chipsets tend to be different beasts altogether (PCIe lanes, memory management etc). If you add a CPU that is also quite different, it is a recipee for disaster.

I hope it helps

Nick