Tech Corner

[jaylach]

You may have some work to do. Refering to disks by their drive letter is no longer the only way on MS OS's. This is used inconsistently within the registry (even by MS internal tools).
So what may be referred to as C:\ in one place may be Disk n, Partition m somewhere else or even simply VOLUME.
Also some third party software generates a system signature for licensing but don't say what that signature is based on.
That being said I'd still give it a go. Those issues (if they come up) are usually pretty starightforward to fix.

The main issues I would expect to involve the NIC and VIDEO. NIC should not be much of an issue as the base drivers are included on the motherboard I'm looking at. As to video the drivers would already be there as the card will be the same as is currently being used.

Chipset may be hindered but should still be functional to boot. Once booted there is an included utility to download and install all motherboard drivers. This is why the NIC drivers are part of the motherboard. A minor reason as to why I like ASRock motherboards. They are not only very functional but there is actual thought put into the layout design. For instance let's consider the ASRock board in my current main. First, the M.2 slots run parallel to the video card so they can be accessed without having to remove the video card. Then there are the SATA ports of which there are 10. On any other motherboard I've had the SATA ports are scattered all over the board. With my current ASRock board they are all together in 2 banks of 5 along one edge of the board as shown in the following partial board diagram. Not only convenient but also makes it easier to run cables.

 

[seangee]

My board is an MSI so YMMV, but check for SATA / M.2 config. On my board when I start using M.2 slots beyond the first 2 I start losing SATA ports. Not an issue for me because I have far more than I need and the board is also sensibly laid out, so I used the lowest numbered ports first.

 

[jaylach]

My board is an MSI so YMMV, but check for SATA / M.2 config. On my board when I start using M.2 slots beyond the first 2 I start losing SATA ports. Not an issue for me because I have far more than I need and the board is also sensibly laid out, so I used the lowest numbered ports first.

My current ASRock board is the same as to losing slots. For instance take my PCIe x16 gen 2 slot and my gen 2 M.2 slot. Either can be used but only one or the other.

 

[anewbie]

btw is there a good mb with 12 sata ports ?

 

[jaylach]

btw is there a good mb with 12 sata ports ?

On a quick search on New Egg I don't see a board with 12 SATA ports. My current board with 10 ports is the most I've seen. However I THINK there are cards that can add additional ports.

 

[jaylach]

Here are several PCIe to SATA cards.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=card+to+add+sata+drives