The i7 is Dead, Long Live the i7!

Posted by Mark Goninon on
Screenshot of my old and new PCs
On the left, my old PC back from 2011. On the right, my new PC I received a few days ago.

Well, okay the i7 isn't actually dead, but I have managed to get myself a new computer! And yes, my old computer happens to have an i7 and while it's not dead yet



it is a few years old. In fact, I'm surprised to discover that my old computer has been running for almost 6 years - which is a long time especially considering I'm still running the same hard disk! That's 2011 when I first got this computer - this is the same year of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that killed over 15,000 people and caused nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima, the same year that Osama Bin Laden was pronounced dead, the same year that South Sudan became an official country and the same year that Prince William married Kate Middleton. Seems so long ago doesn't it? I've obviously been upgrading other components during the past few years (such as RAM and video card) but some things haven't changed. Here are the specs of the computer that I have left behind:

Gen 9 (originally built 30 June 2011)

  • CPU: Intel Core i7 2600 (2nd generation i7!)
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3 B3 P67
  • RAM: 24GB G.Skill (3x8GB) DDR3 Ripjaws X C10 1600MHz (originally 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz Hynix RAM)
  • Hard Disk: 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64Mb Cache
  • Video Card: GeForce GTX 1060 3GB DDR5 (originally ATI AMD HD6850 1Gb and after that a HD7850)
  • DVD Drive: LG GH22-NS50 22x SATA Black DVD Drive
  • Case: Coolermaster CM Storm Scout
  • PSU: 650W Coolermaster eXtreme ATX
  • OS: Windows 10 (originally Windows 7 Ultimate)

So what have I learned from this?

  • Western Digital 1TB Black Caviar drives are pretty awesome and it seems like this one actually outlived its 5 year warranty period (which is actually a pretty long time with respect to hard disks)
  • That when your CPU starts becoming the bottleneck it's time to upgrade and just because you've got an i7, if it's an earlier generation, there can be quite a bit of difference in performance.
  • That I'll probably go through at least two or maybe even three video cards during the life of a computer
  • Don't underestimate good quality RAM
  • That I can somehow get by without buying a new computer almost 6 years (previously, I used to get a new computer every three to four years).

Okay now onto the new computer specs:

Gen 10 PC-417A (built 4 April 2017)

  • CPU: Intel Core i7 7700 (7th generation i7!)
  • Motherboard: ASUS PRIME B250M-A
  • RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance (2x8GB) DDR4 2400MHz (less RAM than previously but now DDR4)
  • Hard Disk 1: Transcend SSD220 240GB SATA3 SSD (yay, I finally got an SSD!)
  • Hard Disk 2: 1TB Seagate ST1000DM010 BarraCuda 3.5" 7200 RPM SATA3 64Mb Cache (I haven't heard good things about Seagate and apparently they only have 2 year warranties - will have to keep an eye on this)
  • Video Card: GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB (slightly worse performer than my current video card so I may do a switcheroo here)
  • DVD Drive: LG GH24NSD DVD Drive
  • Case: Thermaltake V3 Plus Black Mid Tower Case
  • PSU: 500W Thermaltake PSU incl. with case (seems a bit low - hopefully it'll be enough)
  • OS: Windows 10 Home 64-Bit

So how was the process of switching to the new computer?

  • Kind of painful, actually. It took me 6 hours to setup despite it already having Windows 10 installed and ready to go. A lot of time was spent trying to figure out how to hook my old hard disk so I could transfer files over to the new one. The new case doesn't have a spare power connector with the same shape so I had to temporarily disable the DVD drive's in order to do the transfer
  • Another good proportion of time was spent trying to get access to my old files which I apparently didn't have the permissions for. I ended up waiting a couple of hours for all 900GB of files to have their permissions reset - it would've taken only an hour if it weren't for Windows 10 deciding to update and restart the computer half-way - and during Active Hours. Seriously Microsoft, WTF?
  • To top it all off, 900GB is a bit too much to backup on my new secondary drive since the drive is the same size as my old one (1TB). This would mean no chance of installing anything new if I were to keep the backup on the hard disk. Consequently, I had to be pickier about what I was going to transfer and I managed to cut it down to 230 GB.

Now the question is, what to do with the old hard drive?

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