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[Gremmie4]

Hey guys, was looking at upgrading my sound. One of the things I haven't payed attention in years. The OP lists the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z as an enthusiast card and a great value. Is that the best one for the money? Was looking at some more expensive solutions like the Xonar Essence STX, is the Creative lab still a better option... a lot newer in any case.

The Sound Blaster Z is a great card. I've had mine for a few months and it has been great. I had a Xonar Essence STX before I picked up the Z, and I'm happier with the Z and would highly recommend it.

The main reason I changed sound cards was to get 5.1 audio to my receiver with analog inputs. The only way the Xonar could get 5.1 was through digital outputs, which sometimes caused problems in games. The Z handles 5.1 much better, and the 5.1 audio sounds better as well.

For recording purposes, I've made some recordings from some vinyl records on both cards and the recordings sound great from both. I'm sure the Xonar probably has better recording quality in the lab, but I haven't noticed a difference in sound quality. Also, it looks like Creative just released a driver to add ASIO to the Z, which takes away an advantage the Xonar had over it.

 

[Pandemic]

This is what I've gathered from all the recommendations that people have provided for me, hopefully I've compiled them into the one build, (not sure if I needed the sound card (ASUS Xonar), unless it's included in the MOBO, or some crap...?)

I'll eventually get another monitor and have two set up, one for gaming and one for internet surfing/etc.

Any thoughts/feedback/suggestions/changes/other with the build above? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm a fan of Seagate. I have a few 2TB 7200s and they are great. I've had a couple WD fail on me, but it's just anecdotal, I'm sure there are those that swear buy WD and have had Seagate go tits up.

I have a standard build saved in my pccasegear for people looking for a solid build, a few people have bought this PC and love it. A mate is currently getting great Crysis 3 results from this exact build. PSU seems overkill but it will allow CF later down the track (I have a suspicion the 7970 will become even better value by the end of it's life)

Nice build, it's sick that he can play Crisis 3 with a $1850 build. Thanks for showing the build too, if this build fails, then I'll be sure to look into that one.

Cheers.

 

[Koroviev]

This is what I've gathered from all the recommendations that people have provided for me, hopefully I've compiled them into the one build, (not sure if I needed the sound card (ASUS Sonar), unless it's included in the MOBO, or some crap...?)

I'll eventually get another monitor and have two set up, one for gaming and one for internet surfing/etc.

Any thoughts/feedback/suggestions/changes/other with the build above? Any help would be greatly appreciated.



Nice build, it's sick that he can play Crisis 3 with a $1850 build. Thanks for showing the build too, if this build fails, then I'll be sure to look into that one.

Cheers.

I think it looks great!

 

[Hazaro]

Seasonic G-650 80Plus Gold 650W or X660 or X750 for PSU. At least something modular.
3770K doesn't do much for gaming now, but honestly I can't see someone spend 2 grand and not get the i7, especially buying a liquid cooler.
DG or DGX for sound card to save some $ unless you know you need something the D1 has.
ASUS GTX680 if it's in stock (MSI one isn't)

 

[Koroviev]

Seasonic G-650 80Plus Gold 650W or X660 or X750 for PSU. At least something modular.
3770K doesn't do much for gaming now, but honestly I can't see someone spend 2 grand and not get the i7, especially buying a liquid cooler.
DG or DGX for sound card to save some $ unless you know you need something the D1 has.
ASUS GTX680 if it's in stock (MSI one isn't)

Listen to this guy's refinements.

 

[AkIRA_22]

Nice build, it's sick that he can play Crisis 3 with a $1850 build. Thanks for showing the build too, if this build fails, then I'll be sure to look into that one.

LOL, I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but it is kind of fucked up you have to spend that much cash to get Crysis 3 running a full settings....

you have a tidy PC there anyway, wasn't sure if you were still having issues, but I noticed you're sorting out the finer details, I should have read a few posts back.

Seasonic is the way to go with PSU, they literally are the best.

I assume you're in Melbourne? If your not, there should be somewhere that has similar prices in your city, therefore reducing shipping costs. I'm interested to find out how PCCG assembly job is, particularly cable management etc.

 

[Hazaro]

Nice build, it's sick that he can play Crisis 3 with a $1850 build. Thanks for showing the build too, if this build fails, then I'll be sure to look into that one.

The Excellent build with a 7970 sub costs $1100 for the tower. Add $100 for Win 7 and whatever for the monitor and it's the same power as the $1800 one (Granted it is AUD).

 

[Anton668]

so im sitting here looking at the cost of ppls possible builds and.....

the good thing about spreading out your PC part purchases is not seeing the total build cost all at once. the bad part is when you go back and add it all up....

 

[AkIRA_22]

The Excellent build with a 7970 sub costs $1100 for the tower. Add $100 for Win 7 and whatever for the monitor and it's the same power as the $1800 one (Granted it is AUD).

Yeah mate, we get pineappled.

 

[GMM]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Get a Catleap/Crossover whatever 27" IPS. It's the same panel as the Apple Cinema Display. You're giving up a ton of power.

Are these display availible from UK or European vendors? All sellers seems like they are on EBay.

 

[kennah]

so im sitting here looking at the cost of ppls possible builds and.....

the good thing about spreading out your PC part purchases is not see the total build cost all at once. the bad part is when you go back and add it all up....

I'm looking forward to pricing it all out. But this build started in August and is still a month or two from completion

 

[Anton668]

I'm looking forward to pricing it all out. But this build started in August and is still a month or two from completion

I just didnt realize how much really went into this thing after all was said and done. Granted thats for everything, keyboard, mouse, monitor, OS etc.. etc...

it was... surprising, to say the least.

 

[Alacrity]

should the fans on an h100i cooler be intake or exhaust? I'm putting one in a shinobi xl. I'm curious if it should be exhaust, or intake? Do i need to add more fans? or will i be alright with the just the stock ones?

 

[kennah]

Heh. I knew. It's been years since I've been able to 'play'. My record year for computer expenditures was well over $25,000. But that was a long long time ago (and everything resold at a profit)

 

[DarkoMaledictus]

I'm about to do the same, and from what I understood looking it up, there shouldn't be any perceivable performance difference. I guess cards don't even use 2.0 to its full potential(?), so currently it doesn't matter. If I'm wrong though, somebody please correct me.

Nah totally correct, pcie 3 is just future proofing... still far away from needing it! Even in single sli setup like the 690!!

 

[Pandemic]

Listen to this guy's refinements.

I'll try, haha.

LOL, I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but it is kind of fucked up you have to spend that much cash to get Crysis 3 running a full settings....

you have a tidy PC there anyway, wasn't sure if you were still having issues, but I noticed you're sorting out the finer details, I should have read a few posts back.

Seasonic is the way to go with PSU, they literally are the best.

I assume you're in Melbourne? If your not, there should be somewhere that has similar prices in your city, therefore reducing shipping costs. I'm interested to find out how PCCG assembly job is, particularly cable management etc.

Nah, I wasn't being sarcastic. I always thought you had to pay 2.5+ for a good PC that can play the latest games on good settings, but for that it sounds alright, but then again i know nothing about computers. I will agree that it's crazy that you have to fork out $2000+ for a great PC, which will be out of date within 3-4 years..

 

[DarkoMaledictus]

The Sound Blaster Z is a great card. I've had mine for a few months and it has been great. I had a Xonar Essence STX before I picked up the Z, and I'm happier with the Z and would highly recommend it.

The main reason I changed sound cards was to get 5.1 audio to my receiver with analog inputs. The only way the Xonar could get 5.1 was through digital outputs, which sometimes caused problems in games. The Z handles 5.1 much better, and the 5.1 audio sounds better as well.

For recording purposes, I've made some recordings from some vinyl records on both cards and the recordings sound great from both. I'm sure the Xonar probably has better recording quality in the lab, but I haven't noticed a difference in sound quality. Also, it looks like Creative just released a driver to add ASIO to the Z, which takes away an advantage the Xonar had over it.

Thanks man, I just bought one from amazon with some Corsair SP2500 speakers! Should be sweet

 

[Witchfinder General]

Having a problem with my PC. When it loads into the desktop after I log in the welcome chime is all distorted. I've been overclocking recently and so at first I thought it had to do with that but after I reset my BIOS setting to factory I'm still getting the same problem.

Thoughts?

 

[civilstrife]

Anyone want to take a look at my build? Bolded items are already purchased. The rest is in my Memory Express Checkout (Dat price beating) waiting until I have a bit more cash.

Case: Carbide Series 200R Compact ATX Case, Black
GPU: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 OC 1000MHZ 3.0GB 5.5GHZ GDDR5 (I'm aware of the voltage lock. Not a big deal for me)
CPU: i5 3570k
Mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V Lk ATX
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Dual Channel K...
HDD: Seagate 2TB Barracuda SATA III w/ 64MB Cache
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5in SATA3 MDX Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD
CPU Cooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
PSU: Corsair CX Series CX600M 600W ATX 12V 80 Plus Bronze Modular Power Supply

Total with tax and shipping: $1203 Canadian

 

[Koroviev]

Having a problem with my PC. When it loads into the desktop after I log in the welcome chime is all distorted. I've been overclocking recently and so at first I thought it had to do with that but after I reset my BIOS setting to factory I'm still getting the same problem.

Thoughts?

Hmm, did you disable write caching on your disk drive prior to overclocking? Sounds like it could be some form of data corruption, but I'm honestly not sure.

Edit: Here's what I found on the MS support page:

Your startup sound may sound choppy, contain popping sounds, or pause while it is played. This issue occurs only with some hardware devices and drivers loaded. This issue does not affect the functionality of Windows XP or of Windows Vista or of Windows 7.

Full article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321735

 

[Pandemic]

Seasonic G-650 80Plus Gold 650W or X660 or X750 for PSU. At least something modular.
3770K doesn't do much for gaming now, but honestly I can't see someone spend 2 grand and not get the i7, especially buying a liquid cooler.
DG or DGX for sound card to save some $ unless you know you need something the D1 has.
ASUS GTX680 if it's in stock (MSI one isn't)

I tried looking for the parts, and I'm guessing you're referring to these?
PSU: Corsair TX-750 V2 Power Supply

As for the CPU, it's a $100 difference, and I was told theres no difference when it comes to gaming, and that it's mainly for multi-tasking (which I don't get when they say multitasking) and heavy 'rendering'' so I thought I'd get the i5 and put the $100 towards something else in the PC.

Unless there's something I'm missing?

------------
Sound card, this one?
------------
And the graphics card, I'll probably wait till the MSI one is in, should be in this week otherwise I'll change to the ASUS GTX680. But if I do change, which ASUS GTX680 graphics card are you referring to?
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=211

There's a few, hah.

 

[PedroPanache]

What program do I use to monitor GPU usage/temps in game? I need it to display in the same way as fraps does with the fps counter, with the info being displayed in the corner of the screen.

 

[iavi]

What program do I use to monitor GPU usage/temps in game? I need it to display in the same way as fraps does with the fps counter, with the info being displayed in the corner of the screen.

Radeon Pro will do that for you if you're AMD

 

[Hazaro]

Anyone want to take a look at my build? Bolded items are already purchased. The rest is in my Memory Express Checkout (Dat price beating) waiting until I have a bit more cash.

PSU: Corsair CX Series CX600M 600W ATX 12V 80 Plus Bronze Modular Power Supply

Different PSU. CX is meh.
BP550 ideally.

I tried looking for the parts, and I'm guessing you're referring to these?
PSU: Corsair TX-750 V2 Power Supply

As for the CPU, it's a $100 difference, and I was told theres no difference when it comes to gaming, and that it's mainly for multi-tasking (which I don't get when they say multitasking) and heavy 'rendering'' so I thought I'd get the i5 and put the $100 towards something else in the PC.

Unless there's something I'm missing?

------------
Sound card, this one?
------------
And the graphics card, I'll probably wait till the MSI one is in, should be in this week otherwise I'll change to the ASUS GTX680. But if I do change, which ASUS GTX680 graphics card are you referring to?
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=211

There's a few, hah.

PSU just search for them on PCCG, they are there.

There's a very small difference now between the CPUs yes. In the future that will probably change and it helps if you do any streaming or encoding.

Yes that sound card.

I checked your prices on GPUs and really unless you really want nVidia you should get a 7970. It's $150 less for a dual fan cooler and comparable to a 680. More vRAM too. http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1309&products_id=19269

This 680 if you want one: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1377&products_id=20456

What program do I use to monitor GPU usage/temps in game? I need it to display in the same way as fraps does with the fps counter, with the info being displayed in the corner of the screen.

MSI Afterburner

 

[Witchfinder General]

Hmm, did you disable write caching on your disk drive prior to overclocking? Sounds like it could be some form of data corruption, but I'm honestly not sure.

Edit: Here's what I found on the MS support page:



Full article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321735

Thanks. Maybe it'll sort itself out on its own accord.

 

[Luigiv]

So my old PC kicked the bucket late last year and I think now is the right time to build a new one.

So I was thinking of buying a:

• Core i7 3770k,
• Galaxy GTX 670,
• 2x 8GB Kingston DDR3,
• Gigabyte G1 Sniper M3 Z77 Motherboard,
• 850W Cooler Master silent pro II PSU,
• NZXT Switch 810 case,
• 1TB HDD & BD drive

And then reusing my peripherals and HDD from my old computer.

Looks good on paper but I have some reservations.

For one, this all comes out to around $1600 (LoL Aussie pricing "-_-), which is more than I'd really like to spend but at the same time, with next gen around the corner, I don't really want to compromise on performance either. Is there anywhere I'm unwisely spending money or should I stick to my guts?

Also, with Haswell and the GTX700 series on the horizon, I don't know if I should wait bit longer or not. I kind of need a new PC now for my studies (CAD course) but I can make due without one if need be. So will they really be worth the wait or am I well off enough with my current plan to not bother?

So what do you guys think? Some advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Pandemic]

Different PSU. CX is meh.
BP550 ideally.

PSU just search for them on PCCG, they are there.

There's a very small difference now between the CPUs yes. In the future that will probably change and it helps if you do any streaming or encoding.

Yes that sound card.

I checked your prices on GPUs and really unless you really want nVidia you should get a 7970. It's $150 less for a dual fan cooler and comparable to a 680. More vRAM too. http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1309&products_id=19269

This 680 if you want one: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1377&products_id=20456

MSI Afterburner

Wha? There's a chance the i7 will become of better use in the future with gaming..?

 

[Hazaro]

So my old PC kicked the bucket late last year and I think now is the right time to build a new one.

So I was thinking of buying a:

• Core i7 3770k,
• Galaxy GTX 670,
• 2x 8GB Kingston DDR3,
• Gigabyte G1 Sniper M3 Z77 Motherboard,
• 850W Cooler Master silent pro II PSU,
• NZXT Switch 810 case,
• 1TB HDD & BD drive

And then reusing my peripherals and HDD from my old computer.

Looks good on paper but I have some reservations.

For one, this all comes out to around $1600 (LoL Aussie pricing "-_-), which is more than I'd really like to spend but at the same time, with next gen around the corner, I don't really want to compromise on performance either. Is there anywhere I'm unwisely spending money or should I stick to my guts?

Also, with Haswell and the GTX700 series on the horizon, I don't know if I should wait bit longer or not. I kind of need a new PC now for my studies (CAD course) but I can make due without one if need be. So will they really be worth the wait or am I well off enough with my current plan to not bother?

So what do you guys think? Some advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Haswell will probably be even more power savings. New GPUs got shoved back to Q3/Q4 from both companies. Might as well build now.

The Sniper v3 has a bunch of "gamer" stuff on it, just get an ASRock or ASUS LK board.

Wha? There's a chance the i7 will become of better use in the future with gaming..?

I would hope so, new consoles will be running 8 core CPUs. I'd imagine a lot of middle wear and tech would make use of them. That said it's not concrete and if you want to save the $100 now and wait to upgrade when you need to that's a good bet (or just buy a used 2600K for $230).

 

[bomer]

Anyone have some guides / places to start looking in regards to water cooling. I have AMD 1055T + GTX 670, looking into grabbing something intel, possibly going SLI and adding water cooling. The GTX+AMD CPU Combo really make a bit of racket playing basically anything. I have a decent SSD, server for storage and Catleap monitor so no real other priorities, just cooling and sli to get the most out of 1440p, but that's just a maybe at this point. Currently running on a Coolmaster 700 Watt something or rather as well.

 

[iavi]

Wha? There's a chance the i7 will become of better use in the future with gaming..?

It's already happening

 

[EatChildren]

Spent the last two days doing a massive backup of all my crap. Stressful, time consuming, but also very therapeutic cleaning out ye ol file library. Went on a big hunt for all the latest revisions for chipset drivers and what not.

Discovered my MBO BIOS had a couple of very recent revisions. Quite surprised, as I thought the BIOS revisions for my model had hit a wall (as they did with my previous PC). The revisions seemed to have unlocked Ivy Bridge support. A pleasant surprise, as now if I ever wish to 22nm from my 32nm Sandy I can do so. Maybe when a high clocked and unlocked 22nm i7 becomes nicely affordable it would be a good incremental upgrade to accompany the new GPU.

As the BIOS update reset my BIOS settings I took the time to benchmark my CPU, both in its vanilla state and my OC settings. Was nice to reaffirm my settings are stable and result in a solid performance boost across the table.

I think I've got everything set now: latest drives, Steam files backed up, saves collected, essential tools and software, etc. My GTX 670 is in transit and should arrive tomorrow, pending disaster. When it does I'll pop it in and do a full, clean install of everything. Yay!

 

[Pandemic]

I would hope so, new consoles will be running 8 core CPUs. I'd imagine a lot of middle wear and tech would make use of them. That said it's not concrete and if you want to save the $100 now and wait to upgrade when you need to that's a good bet (or just buy a used 2600K for $230).

It's already happening

Ahhhh, so many choices.. Do I stick to the i5 or jump back to the i7. Anyone else got ideas on what I should do x.x

 

[Luigiv]

Haswell will probably be even more power savings. New GPUs got shoved back to Q3/Q4 from both companies. Might as well build now.

The Sniper v3 has a bunch of "gamer" stuff on it, just get an ASRock or ASUS LK board.

Thanks for the quick reply. I guess I'll just go through with it, then.

As for the motherboard,I'm not too sure. The Asrock Extreme 4 looks like it's got the most bang for bucks, but I've never heard of the brand before and the external "Clr CMOS" switch scares me (why would anyone possibly need such a thing? what would happen if I pressed it by accident?).

As for the Asus LK, it's only 20$ cheaper than the Gigabyte and whilst it does have more USB 3.0 ports it lacks an inbuilt eSata port and the inbuilt audio chip looks really lackluster. Since I don't have a dedicated Audio card an extra $20 for better Audio processing could be worth it.

I'll have to think about it a bit more.

 

[Pandemic]

I think I'll just stick with the i5, then if I need to upgrade I will. I changed two parts, the cooler and PSU.

I'm thinking of these instead,
Enermax Platimax 750W EPM750AWT
Enermax Liquid CPU Cooler ELC240

 

[musicjunkie]

What are the major differences (if any) between these gtx 680s?

Seeing a lot of recommendations/builds with ASUS GTX680-DC2T-2GD5 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121634 and some with GIGABYTE GV-N680OC-2GD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125422

I had picked out the EVGA SuperClocked+ 02G-P4-2684-KR http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130771 for my soon to be build due to great experiences with EVGA and great reviews. Anything I'm missing here? Not really an OCer.

 

[Whooter]

Crucial M4 256GB SSD is $159.99 as a Newegg "Shell Shocker" until 9:59am Pacific today.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443

 

[Ty4on]

Quite pleased with the H80i. It's the sole exhaust point in my Ft02 and it's giving me good temps even with 2 GPUs. Playing Crysis 3 for a while and temps were mid 50s, highest point being 60. This is on the Quiet setting too. The fans that came with it are great.

That's why I still hope blowers keep getting made and made more silent, dem case temps.
Don't know how much of a difference it makes, but SStone brags about positive pressure acting like an extra fan on any exaust (H80/Titan) helping push air through it so your setup is probably what the engineers dreamed about

 

[Alacrity]

should the fans on an h100i cooler be intake or exhaust? I'm putting one in a shinobi xl. I'm curious if it should be exhaust, or intake? Do i need to add more fans? or will i be alright with the just the stock ones?

Anyone? plan on mounting it on the top of the case.

 

[Kadey]

Is the 7950 the best mid-range GPU to get right now? AMD is really killing it with these free games. I'm usually pro Nvidia but with the free games, it's hard to pass up.

 

[kharma45]

Is the 7950 the best mid-range GPU to get right now? AMD is really killing it with these free games. I'm usually pro Nvidia but with the free games, it's hard to pass up.

Yeah it is, hard to go wrong with it.

 

[Xdrive05]

Is the 7950 the best mid-range GPU to get right now? AMD is really killing it with these free games. I'm usually pro Nvidia but with the free games, it's hard to pass up.

I just switched to AMD mostly because of the free games I was going to be buying anyway. in the long run the 7950 is the best mid-range GPU, mostly because of the high bandwidth 3GB. I have an MSI 7950 OC Twin Frozr in the mail right now.

From what I've read, you will want to stick to the latest beta drivers rather than the last full catalyst release.

 

[Mogwai]

I just switched to AMD mostly because of the free games I was going to be buying anyway. in the long run the 7950 is the best mid-range GPU, mostly because of the high bandwidth 3GB. I have an MSI 7950 OC Twin Frozr in the mail right now.

From what I've read, you will want to stick to the latest beta drivers rather than the last full catalyst release.

Yep, good advice on the drivers.

My 7970 was botched with the 13.1 drivers. I got some flicker/artifacts in DX9 games despite the card being cool and running great in all other games. I was ready to jump on the Nvidia wagon, but 13.2 beta luckily solved it.

 

[rossonero]

With the risk of this being a ridiculous question and maybe impossible to answer I still gotta ask. Right now I have a stock i5 760 with Hyper 212 Evo on it and a pre-boost 7950 running at 810MHz that I was thinking of OC'ing. But before I do that I need to do better cable management and get some more fans for my Fractal R3.

Now before I do that, does anybody have an idea what kind of a performance boost I would be looking at for games like Crysis 3 or Far Cry 3 if I manage to overclock the CPU to for an example 3.5GHz and the GPU to 1GHz?

 

[GMM]

Whats the verdict on the HP ZR2740w 27" IPS monitor? The premium on the screen isn't too bad compared to the similar no name IPS displays when you total up the price after importing it to Denmark.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/382087-382087-64283-72270-3884471-5163694.html?dnr=1

 

[Koroviev]

Ahhhh, so many choices.. Do I stick to the i5 or jump back to the i7. Anyone else got ideas on what I should do x.x

I would go i7 if possible.

 

[dionysus]

Starting to think about a cpu upgrade and some more RAM in the ol' PC. When I change out the CPU that is going to trigger the expiration of my windows license right?

Edit. Damnit, my LGA 1366 is obsolete!

 

[Kipp]

Starting to think about a cpu upgrade and some more RAM in the ol' PC. When I change out the CPU that is going to trigger the expiration of my windows license right?

The windows license is tied to the motherboard. You're fine changing the CPU.

 

[Koroviev]

Starting to think about a cpu upgrade and some more RAM in the ol' PC. When I change out the CPU that is going to trigger the expiration of my windows license right?

It won't expire, lol. You'll just have to call MS if you switch the mobo.

 

[dionysus]

The windows license is tied to the motherboard. You're fine changing the CPU.

Looks like I have to upgrade the mobo, old socket.

 

[Kipp]

Looks like I have to upgrade the mobo, old socket.

Ah. Well, if you're going to upgrade your mobo and CPU, probably best to wait until Haswell for the new socket. That way you can upgrade again in a few years if you want by just buying a new CPU rather than a mobo and a CPU.