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Upgrading motherboard, processor and SSD

I have a Vista 64 bit system with a Core I7 920 processor on a Intel DX58SO mother board.
My disk configuration is as follows:

disk 1      x2 500gb WD drives in a RAID 0 configuration
      C: 143gb
      E: 98gb
      F: 75gb
      G: 141gb

disk 2      1 tetrabyte WD
      D: 155gb (this is configured as a primary partition and I am not sure why I did so? Could it be logical?
       ASZ

disk 3      1 tetrabyte WD
      H: 100gb
      I: 441gb
      J: 390gb

I intending to upgrade to an Core I7 3770K processor on the MSI Z77A-G43 motherboard,
adding a 120gb SSD drive up front and install Windows 7.

Please advise me on how might proceed.
My tentative plan is to drop out one of the pair of RAID 0 drives and
wipe clean the C partition and erase the boot sector with Disk Director.
I realize my logical drives will completely rearranged but there isn't
anything that I can do about that.

Boot up with the new SSD drive!!

Please advise and or point me to any links that may warn of any problems upgrading to a SSD drive. There must have been at least 10 million users who have been confronted with this task.

After reviewing this and noting that disk 2 has a primary partition can I just make that a logical partition, swap disk 2 and disk 3, leaving the old D to become maybe K and therefore not
losing my logical drive identities? Covert the original disk 1 to a logical drive thus the original drive C partition becoming the needed D partition!

I have always used RAID 0 on the boot drive, is there a problem with using RAID 0 on the non boot drive disk 2?
Thanks,

Jim

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athomsfere

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rindi

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Gary Case

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Gary Case

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jdanielatstarstreamnet

ASKER

Sorry, disk 1 is a RAID 1 (mirrowed) pair of 500gb drives. Does this impact your suggestions?

When I break the RAID 1 and attach just one of the drives will I be able just reformat the original drive C partition and boot sector? Do I do this under Vista before installing the
motherboard or after installing SSD and Windows 7?

Thanks

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Gary Case

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jdanielatstarstreamnet

ASKER

This is looking reassuring!

If I leave the original drive C as a primary partition, will the system automatically assign that as drive D when I attach after installing to the C SSD drive? I note that it appears I can override most drive letters as I want them to correspond to my original system with multiple backups. But if that so if it is a primary partition?

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rindi

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jdanielatstarstreamnet

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I need to digest all of this, do a little research in preparation for the rebuild and would like
to leave this 'question' open til then - maybe Thursday.

graycase - I have already purchased my motherboard and cpu. How have I been misguided in thinking that increasing my cpu power doesn't improve my overall performance? Most of my real work on this computer is managing and editing fotos and videos with Adobe products. Was this $400 investment a complete waste?

Thanks,
Jim

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Gary Case

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jdanielatstarstreamnet

ASKER

graycase - thank you for that! I will sleep better with that post on my mind tonight!

See you guys maybe Thursday!

Thanks All

Jim

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athomsfere

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jdanielatstarstreamnet

ASKER

That's good! No, I am not a gamer although I apprecitate the fact that most of the technology improvements are primarily directed at gamers, at least they benefit the most from them.

Thank you for your encouraging comments!

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David Johnson, CD

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jdanielatstarstreamnet

ASKER

Sorry about my lack of response. I have endured some personal issues that forced me to abandon my time plan. Appreciate your comments and hopefully when I resume my upgrade it will suffice for the successful project.

Thanks All
Jim