Noob here...

[Blaydrnnnr]

LOL.. fortune telling?? The forum has everything!! LOL Seriously, I said it awhile back when I first came to the forums.. I should have built it myself, but things at the time prevented me from that so.. thiss is the price of having it ordered...its locked and thats about that...I'll tweak what I can, abuse the hell out of it, then look for a good MB after awhile. I've got a card at newegg ready to roll, just gotta pick out a good CPU cooler, ( with fan? or without..) guess the OCZ i have in it are fine, Thanks again for the replies everyone.. learning alot everyday!

 

[Fumz]

We're a full service center.

Seriously though, avoid clock gen. The biggest problem is that you can't use it unless you're already running the OS; thus, any setting you may decide on, no matter how insignificant it may seem has the potential to corrupt the OS.

The thing with OC in the bios is that you're able to test it out before you get anywhere near loading the OS.

If you're hell bent on this path though, I would, for your own sake, ghost the OS drive.

 

[Blaydrnnnr]

Hey Fumz, thanks again for the heads up. I kinda figured that since it was locked if there was a way to get at the goodies, I'd rather get at them myself. LOL And I understand... its a good app for helping OCing when its able to beOC'd. But... heres where you may want to distance yourself....LOL Your comment on my MB kept me up and I've been thinking about this all day.....( I'm at work!! LOL )You already know my system is a custom ordered HP, so.... would a MB swap be out of the question here? I mean swapping my Q9550, 8 GB of OCZ, my three HDD's, 2 Opticals, TV card, card reader and Bluetooth/Lan card, and 9800GT onto a far more "fun" MB? I dont have a Vista disk, just a factory restore disk for the d5000t. Get a really good uptodate, expandable (Crossfire maybe?, OC'able )MB, set it up with its BIOS, then recover my machine so I still have media center and so on? ( remember it will have the original HD with the Factory image partition installed and the OS already installed.. or again.. is this just wishful thinking????....since I have a new videocard sitting at Newegg and a few coolers that I'm trying to decide on...a MB wouldnt be out of the question...especially since I'd luv to be able to go more RAM in the future for rendering...( 16GB capable??)
And.. if this needs to be bumped to another topic, I apologize!!!!

 

[Fumz]

"locked out" probably isn't the right phrase for what's going on? That implies the bios writers at HP took the time to write a feature rich bios, then decided you weren't allowed to access it, so they closed off a portion of it. What really happened is that the bios guys only wrote what they felt was needed, no more, no less.

The only issue you're going to have to get around is the Vista install DVD. I'm not exactly sure what would happen in case of a board upgrade, but you can either try to use the restore partition, make an ISO of the restore partition or call HP and order the Vista DVD? Anyway you go about it, all of your parts, except the board/bios, can be used on another motherboard.

 

[Blaydrnnnr]

Thanks for the reply Fumz, I stopped off at a few of my favorite system shops and found out as you said, the Vista install will be the problem, gonna need the disk. I'll have to check things out a bit more. One guy told me to see if theres a way of making a Vista disk from the restore disk, said to ask HP in case I needed to reinstall Vista. But thats what the factory image is for isnt it... I'll look into it...may be a good project to try....a brand new custom ordered system as a test subject.... Thanks again...
wonder if it'd be easier to just upgrade the CPU???

 

[Fumz]

I would imagine that making your own Vista disc would be relatively simple? Don't hold me to this, but I'm guessing all you'd have to do is make an ISO of the partition where it's located? You can use ImgBurn, recommended in the software forum; I use it, and have completely forgotten about Nero: The Official ImgBurn Website

As for getting a faster cpu... huh? The only thing "faster" than what you've got are the Extremes. If there's anything worse than paying $900.00 for 200 more MHz, it's paying $1,500.00 for 400 more MHz. A hundred dollar board will get you way past those speeds. Even if you included the price of a brand new Vista DVD, going the new board route would be cheaper.

 

[xguntherc]

no do not upgrade your CPU.. get a new board.

but if you do upgrade your CPU for some unknown reason. I'll take your current Q9550.

get a new board. and have some fun with that computer.

 

[Fumz]

lol, gunther is on a quest to collect every quad core ever made... and I think he just may accomplish his goal! :D

 

[Blaydrnnnr]

Well, been on newegg looking at boards, i'll have to do some more looking. I have image burn, have had it for along time..been along time since I've used it too..LOL I'm not too sure about making an ISO of the partition, but I might try. Thanks for the replies guys.