Windows 7 - Upgrade/Clean Install

DIGItonium

Success!
I've had my Lenovo U330 running for over a week with Win7 (from upgrade media) and Crucial SSD. Footprint is under 11GB with drivers and some applications installed. Performance is relatively snappy, and 3GB of memory actually feels like it. In fact, it's as fast as a typical desktop machine.

I sold my 2nd upgrade media to one of my friends. His machine is an X58 with Core i7 920, 6GB of DDR3, and dual GTX 285 graphics cards. He already had a clean install of Vista running on a new hard drive and completed a clean install with the upgrade media.

My 3rd copy is an OEM disc. My HTPC is nearly complete as it currently has 4GB of DDR3, and the other 4GB is currently RMA'd. The HD 5850 arrived last night. After some cutting (OrigenAE S14V hard drive cage had fitment issues), I managed to get everything fitting properly. After tweaking the system and installing some apps (just Firefox) and drivers on the X-25M, the footprint is around 7.93GB! This was down from 12GB and 10GB foot print!

Anyhow, I'm still waiting for updated/fixed Intel X-25M firmware in hopes to boost performance as well as get TRIM working.

HTPC Specs:
OrigenAE S14V
Corsair HX650
MSI P55M-GD45
Core i5 750 with Scythe Ninja Mini Rev B HSF
4x2GB G.Skill DDR3 1333MHz
WD RaptorX 150GB (Carryover from previous build)
Intel X-25M 80GB
Sapphire HD 5850
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude (Carryover from previous build)

My system was fairly quiet until I added in the graphics card. At idle, the fan is a bit louder than everything else. I'm still trying to optimize the system as well as improve airflow through the heatsink. The fan is currently pulling air through the heatsink due to size constraints. Plus, the Gelid PWM fan isn't all that great. It starts "buzzing" beyond 50% duty.

Well, this concludes Win7 upgrade media installation and impressions. Compared to Vista, this installation was quite successful. Now if only BioShock 2 and MW2 comes out...

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