Turns out that it was the motherboard. Of course I was required to buy a new one if I wanted a working PC. I figured that I might as well get a new case because the whole reason this began was because I wanted better cooling. Thankfully Fry’s didn’t have the case I was looking for because I’m realizing just how huge it would’ve been. After picking out a non-Intel i7 motherboard (because I didn’t want to spend money on a new processor), I ended up buying the Antec Nine Hundred. This was the hot seller at NewEgg with over 4000 positive reviews. The one I wanted, CoolerMaster Cosmos, had about 800 positive reviews, but it was also $80 more, so at least I saved money and space. Though the new case is quite large and I have no idea where to put it.

The motherboard install went great, thankfully. It proved that it wasn’t my CPU or PSU that had problems. Unfortunately, this is where I get a bit frustrated. My HP Vista is dead… Dead in that it won’t work correctly with the motherboard. No fix for it apparently. But I prepared myself for a situation like this. My 1TB drive actually helped me out because I use that as storage for documents and downloads. So I don’t have to worry about losing irreplaceable files. Still, I basically have to reinstall a shit ton of programs.

I decided to take the HDD from a computer that never is used and use it to install Windows 7 RC on it. But then my Western Digital Passport decides to finally die when I try to get it to be bootable. Luckily, I had a CD of the beta so now I’ve installed the beta and will be getting the RC on there soon enough. Then I can finally start the recovery process… Damn system… Of course, the issue comes up of what to do with Windows 7 when it finally releases. I can’t use the RC forever. I can’t get the upgrade unless I go back to Vista, but that can’t  be upgraded because I can’t boot it up… Well, I might be able to. Not all is lost yet. I’ll be ready when the time comes…