Two weeks ago, I upgraded my editing PC with the EVGA SuperNOVA GA 850-watt power supply. The Rosewill Glacier 500-watt power supply went into the junk box. This week I cleaned up my test PC by replacing the power supply and air cooler and installing Windows 11. Cleaning up the hardware was more impressive than installing Windows 11.
Removing Old Parts
My test PC was long overdue for a clean up after I set up the Electric Magic ATX open air case a year ago. I started off by removing all the old stuff that will go into the junk box.
- The first item was the Corsair CX500 500-watt bronze non-modular power supply. I pulled the Corsair out of my editing PC when I got the Rosewill as a $25 USD Black Friday special in 2018. The Corsair got bumped from a PC for the second time in seven years.
- The second item was the Adata 120GB 2.5″ SATA SSD. I replaced the SSD with the Team Group M.2 128GB NVME drive earlier this year.
- The third was the Deepcool Gammaxx 400S air cooler. This air cooler may end up in my FreeNAS file server when I upgrade the motherboard next year.
With those three items removed, I cleaned up the test PC.
Adding “New” Parts
The attachment plate on the horizontal frame held the Corsair power supply in place. That didn’t prevent the power supply from moving around when I moved the case. This time I used the large brackets for attaching a hard drive or radiator on the bottom frame to prevent the power supply from moving.
I ran the motherboard and CPU power cables up the front of the vertical frame. If I ran the cables in back, I wouldn’t be able to lay the case down flat on the felt strips.
Since the AMD Athlon 3000G processor has built-in graphics, I needed only those two power cables to operate the test PC. If I have a video card that requires PCIe power, I can plug in the PCIe cable. For working with SATA drives, I could plug in the power and data cables.
Since I’m a be quiet! fanboy (pun intended), the Pure Rock Slim 2 air cooler went back on the Althon 3000G. With the quick release clips on either side, I can remove the air cooler to swap in another air cooler and/or processor.
I did a clean install of the Windows 11 official release that came out this week.
Installing Windows 11 Official Release
Before installing Windows 11, make sure you have the CPU TPM support turned on in the BIOS. Without this setting turn on, the installer won’t install Windows 11.
- For AMD systems, the setting is fTPM
- For Intel systems, the setting is PTT
Check your motherboard manual for how to access the setting.
I downloaded the media creation tool to put the Windows 11 installer on to a USB stick. Since I did this on the same day that everyone and their grandmother downloaded Windows 11, it took forever. That shouldn’t be a problem today.
Since this is a test PC, I made three slight changes that an average user wouldn’t do.
- Didn’t enter a product activation code
- Selected Windows 11 Pro to install
- Created an offline user account
An inactivated Windows install will have limited features and won’t receive security updates. None of that interferes with the testing of hardware or software. If this Windows install gets stale, I can reinstall Windows 11.
I’m not impressed with Windows 11. The performance improvements between Windows 10 and Windows 11 on current hardware are minimal at best. Windows 11 might be better suited for the next generation of PC hardware from AMD and Intel next year.
With Microsoft ending Windows 10 support on October 14, 2025, I’m in no rush to upgrade to Windows 11 on any of my other systems..