Interlocutor

I've heard that the TIM takes some time to "cure" or break in.

Wow, yeah, a pain, but at least it's a solution, thought I'd have to live with this. Has anyone had luck with an aftermarket heatsink/cooler? Thanks for the tip.

Gee, and I wanted to buy 4!

Sounds like a gamer talking. But Sandybridge is a great new chip and if you're going to invest in one, why not wait a bit? The multimedia aspect sounds like a good development.

I'm probably mistaken but I went on the Diamond website, chatted with a rep and she said they don't make this card anymoe, which is why, I guess, can't find it for sale anywhere. This seems to be a recent post, so what is going on? I can really use a card like this in my HTPC, since the Hauppauge 2250 card is dodo-no HDCP. While neither of the links on the review page worked, I did find this link on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Multimedia-Video-Card-AIW5000/dp/B004FVE8W6/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t It is new, so there are no reviews there as of 3/12.

Buy an SSD for your OS.

That's what I've been saying, this is a difficult subject and there is a lot of misinformation out there. Also, as usual, what works for one user doesn't necessarily work for another. This is how I lean though, often it's painful. Update: I sat on my hands thinking about and researching how to secure erase; learning much in the process. Meanwhile, I managed to get my 64 bit OS up and running. I had to go back to ide in bios to get there. So I ran a HD tune on the drive and the performance is only a hair below the test I ran while I had the OS running in ahci. Personally, I think I want to enable ahci but, for the time being (maybe I'm just a bit gun shy) I think I'll stand pat. I am going to see if I need updated drivers from Asus, but I think Windows is the real culprit. When I try to update the ata drivers there it say all up to date but ding the registry switch and reboot trick doesn't work anymore (it did the first time, or so it seemed.) Off topic a bit but does anyone know how to tell if your drive is "trimming"?

All my reading tends to support this. Tomorrow I will try HDDerase (?) after cloning the drive(?) I don't want to inadvertantly reinstall stuff that might cause problems for the OS. I'll report back on the results. And thank you for the explaination.

You slipped your post in while I was responding to the earlier one. That's the type cleanup I'm looking for but I've read that it only works with Intel drives and Kingston went away from them on this new drive. Plus,regretably, support is dismal at Kingston. I will, however revisit that OCZ site and see if it will work on my drive.

Thanks for your reply. I've read that formating doesn't really clean an SSD, although that is the easy, obvious way to go, it doesn't restore optimal drive performance. I've also read plenty of erroneous (to my situation) solutions. that's why I'm here. I tried "secure erase" with Parted Magic and it doesn't seem to work on my mobo. I got the OS back, by the way, but I had to uninstall AHCI in bios settings. BefoIe setting it in bios I used this tutorial to post install ahci in Win 7: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html?ltr=A No luck on reboot. Didn't know about ahci on first install a year ago. More reason to blow it up and start over.

Hi , Long story but I've hosed my OS install on my Kingston Sv10052N SSD. I want to do what I probably should have done from the start--a fresh install of Win 7 Home 64bit. My rig has an Asus P6T mobo and an i7 920 D0 cpu. Also there are two other drives for data. This should be relatively easy but from my research, secure erase programs are iffy tempermental creatures. Tutorials are often outdated. I searched here and didn't find anything that matched. So, in short, I want to return the SSD to optimal condition, then install OS from scratch--has anyone here done this or know how, preferably from first hand experience?

I just installed a VGA Silencer yesterday and I had the same problem of sorts (no start-up). I had to take the system down to my local PC Guru. He got it running and told me (in broken english, so I'm not 100% sure of this) that I pluged the power in backwards. You would be lucky if this were the case with you and you'd save the $70 I paid to get up and running again. I hope this helps and good luck.

I finally got to the installation of the Artic-Cool CPU fan and heatsink and the Artic VGA silencer (revision 2 Sly). It was quite an adventure. The old fan and sink came out pretty easy with the recommended twisted screwdriver applied in the right place. As you guys said, much easier with the Mobo out. I couldn't get the new CPU cooler brackets installed and thought maybe I had the wrong model. I finally figured out that you had to press down on the posts to get the clips to lock in (I was pressing on the center of the fan thinking this thing is way too big!). The Artic VGA silencer was actually the easier job, although the provided brackets don't work with my All-In-Wonder, so I had to do a little surgery. I put everything back together and my computer wouldn't start! I rechecked all the connections carefully, but couldn't find anything amiss, so I ended up taking it down to the PC shop and they said I plugged the VGA power in backwards. So I did all this work and ended up paying $70! I checked the CPU temp. and it was the usual 44-45C range although the fan is running at 400 rpms less, so I turned the fan up. The fire department alarm began ringing and the Bios slapped me in the head and said YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!! It seems I vaguely remember someone writing about this... Is this just an adjustment I have to make in the Bios (I hope)??? I was just browsing the Video and sound topics and saw someone talking about ATItools. I'll try it. Is that Atitools.com?