The product key didn't work. I had to call it in. Was there another one that you could PM me that went with this disk?

DoorTech: Yeah, PCI.

I have noticed that hard drive light blinks every other second when using Windows 7. This happened on my last build with Windows 7 some years ago. Is it normal? Will accessing the drive that much wear out the drive?

Yes.    No.

Unfortunately no.....that was the only one...sorry. It had been installed twice already so that might be the case. I think MS only allows two installs before you have to get a new key.

Well they didn't give me a new key. Just had me put in a bunch of numbers.

And if you did it correctly, they should have given you back a bunch of numbers, not a key.

Numbers that you would then enter into the page you still have open, the one you got the numbers from, (the ones you gave them).

Once that is done, it would activate your install.

Assuming that the key isn't being used on any other machine.

Yeah, that is what happened. All is well, Windows is activated.

On a side note I am thinking about disconnecting some of the case fans. Damn thing is noisy, and in the same room where we watch TV. Sometimes the machine makes it hard to hear the TV.

Machine took a full 5 minutes to wake from sleep this morning. The Pentium 4 only took a few seconds on XP. So I turned off hybrid sleep. Hope that was the right move.

I'm now tuning the EQ settings for music and reinstalling the rest of my programs.

Well, don't come crying when it starts frying. Real computers need cooling and it isn't even summer yet.

Well up here in Oregon in the Summer it rarely even gets into the 90s. Would not just the CPU fan and PSU fan suffice?

That's what I called a new product key. It gets Windows up and running.

No. Case ventilation is a must.

Why is it so loud? Are cables in the way of the fans?

They shouldn't be overpowering the TV even at 100%.

I have two huge blue fans in my case (one at front, one at rear), a third on the PSU, 4th on the CPU, a 5th and 6th on my dual GFX cards. Not loud at all. Do you have them pushing the air in the correct direction?

If you have one in front, and one in back, the front pulls air in, the back one out. Possibly, if you have them opposing each other they might get loud, dunno.

That is exactly how I have it set up. After looking around a bit it looks like the CPU and PSU fans are the two loudest. After I reboot I will make sure that AMD Cool And Quiet is turned on. That might help a bit. Not sure what to do about the PSU fan. It has a 120mm fan that pulls air in from the bottom, right about the top of the mobo.

Here are some pics:

No, you still need adequate ventilation and fans to circulate the air, otherwise stagnant air will heat, thus causing your components to heat, and you don't want that.  I would try to discover which fan/fans are the noisiest and see if you can't swap them with fans from your old case or the other one Doortech sent you.  I mean, if this is your main rig and the other cases are spare, I'd cannibalise those for quieter fans to get the best result for the primary beastie.  Oh, and be sure to enable Cool & Quiet to help reduce CPU heat.

I see that the CPU scores well in the WEI, which makes me happier that I decided upon the 920 quad core instead of the dual core I first thought to send.  In fact, Windows 8 would probably run fairly well on that setup, and I doubt the video card would have much bearing on its performance over all, so if you're not running higher end games it should serve you well for some time to come.

could just be the make of the fans also. Is the case you are using vented on both sides? If not and the thermal take is, switch, it would allow the board and cpu to cool from underneath also, big difference. I do not use my quiet cool, personal preference.Do you have specs on the cpu for wattage? we can get the board wattage to make sure its compatible. Very slim chance this is a heat issue though. Definitely check the direction, easily mixed up. Wet you finger, hold paper in front of it, or something similar, to verify direction. Pull air in from the side, out the back. Make sure its not wedged in a corner. If you could move it to the floor under a desk, would be quieter and cooler?Just a suggestion. Did you find a cpu alarm? I would just until you get cooling figured.I would suggest if you have extra slots in the front of the case for disk drives and such, take out a plug, or faceplate, to let air flow from the front.

our posts crossed paths, sorry to ask things you answered already. Does pinching up on the psu unit change the pitch of the noise at all? If so, could shim between case with some cushion.The psu could be rattling the case too. The fans in the psu might be cheap brand?I would try that other case , up to you though. I will do some research on that board wattage and cpu wattage . If by some chance its wrong, it could cause excessive heat.

I see vents on the bottom of that case also, could tou put something under the corners to raise it up and let air in.?

That is a typo. Could you put!