Changing Out HTPCs and Setting Up WMC Win7

[mmurley]

Since I started this WMC journey I've had a Dell Inspiron 3647 SFF as my Win7 WMC machine (it's also my Plex server) with Win7 Home - I took it from a Celeron with4 Gb of Ram to an i7 with 16 Gb and added a GPU, SSD, etc. It runs fine. But I need a project.

So I got a barebones Dell Optiplex 9020 and transplanted it into a different case, and so on*. It's running a fully updated Win7 Ultimate. Now I want to use it as my primary WMC machine.

Any advice? Updates to remove and so on?

*I'll describe it in Components after I'm done.

[Kimifelipe]

LOL I just bought a 3010, transferred it to a new case, and it wouldn't post. I transferred it back to the original case, and now it wont post first time I ever fubar'd a mobo install, sheesh. good on you transplanting that 9020

I suggest you do the usual - a fresh install of win7 on a small ssd system drive (so cheap these days , and have a second disk for recordings. install epg 123 after setting up your cable tv (iirc you are using epg123). ie, pair the cablecard first.

if you are using a video card you ought to get the system up and running with that before working on the tuner.

post up if you have any problems. I still need a third box because I am having trouble with one of them - not sure if its the pc (a refurb'd HP 6000 iirc with a core2duo) or if my card is failing. the card was working in a different system until I transplanted it, so I am hoping its the pc. that thing has to go anyway. looking at another refurb haha.

[mmurley]

I've got the transplanted 9020 running in the Corsair 100R case (i7-4790, 16 Gb RAM, Radeon HD 5850 GPU, Corsair 550 PSU, a 500 Gb Samsung EVO 860 M.2 SSD in a 2.5 enclosure, and right now a Seagate 2.5" 2 Tb second HHD - I'm going to add a SATA card and then I will have an additional 3 3.5" HHDs - 2 x 2Tb and 1x4Tb). It's a clean install of Win 7 Ultimate SP1.

The only issue I had was with the Corsair power switch.

I remember that there wer several Win7 updates that broke WMC and I'm curious if I should uninstall them or if they are benign if you set things up when they are already installed.

[Kimifelipe]

i have more or less always kept up to date with win7, so i dont see any problems if you allow it to update to the final status of win7. ymmv of course