Question Questions about installing Windows 11 Pro OEM

Mar 30, 2023
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Hi Everyone.
It's been a while since I built a new computer. This is what I'm looking at.

ASUS AMD AM4 ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero
Noctua NH-U12S, Premium CPU Cooler with NF-F12 120mm Fan (Brown)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X - Ryzen 7 5000 Series Vermeer (Zen 3)
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16D-32GVK
SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express Gen 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.3c Samsung V-NAND 3-bit MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-V8P1T0B/AM
Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit, DVD - OEM

This is what I have money for at this time although I have not purchased anything yet.

I will be using my Geforce GTX 770 graphics card in the beginning. From what I have read it will work.
I have an Antec dark fleet case with 1000 watt power supply that has the necessary power connections.
DVD drive

I don't do gaming. It's mostly used for web, YouTube, Corel Photoshop and Family Tree Maker, but I'm aiming at a fast computer. I work on genealogy. The Corel Photoshop 2019 and Family Tree Maker run pretty slow on my current computer. It's about eleven years old.

These are the questions I have tried to search for, but can't find a straight answer.

Can I install Windows 11 Pro OEM on my new personal computer?
Will the install portion of Windows 11 take care of the required offset and trim for the M.2 SSD? I don't have a way to connect this SSD to an existing computer via USB to set the offset, make sure trim is enabled and format.
Any other advice would be appreciated.

Ken
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Can I install Windows 11 Pro OEM on my new personal computer?
Yes

Will the install portion of Windows 11 take care of the required offset and trim for the M.2 SSD? I don't have a way to connect this SSD to an existing computer via USB to set the offset, make sure trim is enabled and format.
Yes
'offset'?


Where are you getting this "OEM" from?
 
Will the install portion of Windows 11 take care of the required offset and trim for the M.2 SSD? I don't have a way to connect this SSD to an existing computer via USB to set the offset, make sure trim is enabled and format.

Windows should properly set up alignment and trim, but you can easily check after the installation and adjust if necessary.
 
Will the install portion of Windows 11 take care of the required offset and trim for the M.2 SSD?
Sector/Partition alignment is only a problem if you're cloning from a 512B sector to a 4K sector storage drive, where the cloning process doesn't care about the sector alignment.

TRIM is automatically turned on the moment Windows knows it's using an SSD.
 
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Sector/Partition alignment is only a problem if you're cloning from a 512B sector to a 4K sector storage drive, where the cloning process doesn't care about the sector alignment.

TRIM is automatically turned on the moment Windows knows it's using an SSD.

Does that mean the windows 11 install will take care of alignment? All I know is what I have been reading. The 4K alignment has to be there or the SSD will not work properly.
 

Rokinamerica

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Nov 30, 2021
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Agree with those before me here. Windows fresh install will take care of alignment. You can check after to verify for your satisfaction.

I use my pc's for work and a background of either music or vid streaming while I work. Home or Pro will work. I have Pro on this pc because at the time I was buying an OS for this pc, it was cheaper than the Home version was. Pro has some cool features, but with me wfh, I don't need most of those.
 
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If you want peace of mind that the partition is aligned to the sector, open a command prompt as an administrator and type in the following: fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo C:

You should get something like this:
Code:
C:\Windows\System32>fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo C:
LogicalBytesPerSector :                                 512
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity :                    4096
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance :                  4096
FileSystemEffectivePhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 4096
Device Alignment :                                      Aligned (0x000)
Partition alignment on device :                         Aligned (0x000)
No Seek Penalty
Trim Supported
Not DAX capable
Not Thinly-Provisioned

EDIT: I did learn through https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Advanced_Format that NVMe SSDs will report to the OS as having 512B sectors, because the physical sector size may not be 512B or 4K. So to prevent headaches in trying to optimize for any conceivable sector size, the SSD controller will just take whatever the OS gives them and performs magic from there since flash memory management is a different beast from hard drives.

Also as far as I could find (i.e., a 5 minute Google search), trying to force the SSD To report itself as a 4K sector storage drive doesn't really do much.
 

passionfly1

Honorable
Jun 1, 2017
5
1
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Hi Everyone.
It's been a while since I built a new computer. This is what I'm looking at.

ASUS AMD AM4 ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero
Noctua NH-U12S, Premium CPU Cooler with NF-F12 120mm Fan (Brown)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X - Ryzen 7 5000 Series Vermeer (Zen 3)
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16D-32GVK
SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express Gen 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.3c Samsung V-NAND 3-bit MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-V8P1T0B/AM
Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit, DVD - OEM

This is what I have money for at this time although I have not purchased anything yet.

I will be using my Geforce GTX 770 graphics card in the beginning. From what I have read it will work.
I have an Antec dark fleet case with 1000 watt power supply that has the necessary power connections.
DVD drive

I don't do gaming. It's mostly used for web, YouTube, Corel Photoshop and Family Tree Maker, but I'm aiming at a fast computer. I work on genealogy. The Corel Photoshop 2019 and Family Tree Maker run pretty slow on my current computer. It's about eleven years old.

These are the questions I have tried to search for, but can't find a straight answer.

Can I install Windows 11 Pro OEM on my new personal computer?
Will the install portion of Windows 11 take care of the required offset and trim for the M.2 SSD? I don't have a way to connect this SSD to an existing computer via USB to set the offset, make sure trim is enabled and format.
Any other advice would be appreciated.

Ken
You systems only drawback is the video card. Windows 11 eats video ram intensely. You have a pretty decent system that is not 11 years old. You are basing your system age by the video card which is ancient. The age of the computer is based on the Motherboard, CPU and RAM quality. All these of these are pretty new. However Windows 11 is a beast when it comes to VISUAL splendor and you need a snappy video card to take advantage of that. Stick with windows 10 until you buy a new 8GB or 12 GB video card around Black Friday. Current prices for 12GB vram cards is around $340 as of early 2023. These should be similar toward the end of the year closer to Black Friday. Since Windows 11 (NON-OEM) is free I have no idea why you are even bothering with the OEM specific version at all. Go to Microsofts site and download the Windows 11 Pro version and start there after you have upgraded your video card. You will be surprised how snappy your OS is after the video card is upgraded, oddly enough.

Here is the true "age" of your PC that you need to factor in:
CPU: Ryzen 5800X - released November 5, 2020 (3 years ago)
Memory: G. Skill Ripsaws F4-3200C16D-32GVK - released around 2018 (5 years ago)
Mobo: Asus Crosshair 8 Hero X570 - released around Sept 2019 (4 years old)

Your core system is around 5 years old not 11 years old. Your video card was released on May 30th of 2013!!! For the love of God you should upgrade this as the SECOND purchase you ever make! You buy the Mobo, memory and CPU FIRST then the video card SECOND always. The Mobo can use the built-in video card TEMPORARILY until you can buy a video card. You have been waiting TEN YEARS to upgrade this video card (more like a dead pig of a card tbh, lol)?? What is the matter with you? There are cards that cost $50 that will be 4x faster then that pig of a tech gadget you own! Get on it! LOL

The MSI 3060 comes in a wonderful 12GB flavor that costs UNDER $340 dollars! This card over 1 year ago would have cost over $1,000

Forget about Windows 11 upgrade that video card ASAP! Then worry about Windows 11. This is like you are already carrying 1,000 pounds of weight then you want to add a small rock to your load as your legs are buckling already and you are worried about what color the rock is! PRIORITIES good sir, PRIORITIES! lol
 
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Rokinamerica

Estimable
Nov 30, 2021
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You systems only drawback is the video card. Windows 11 eats video ram intensely. You have a pretty decent system that is not 11 years old. You are basing your system age by the video card which is ancient. The age of the computer is based on the Motherboard, CPU and RAM quality. All these of these are pretty new. However Windows 11 is a beast when it comes to VISUAL splendor and you need a snappy video card to take advantage of that. Stick with windows 10 until you buy a new 8GB or 12 GB video card around Black Friday. Current prices for 12GB vram cards is around $340 as of early 2023. These should be similar toward the end of the year closer to Black Friday. Since Windows 11 (NON-OEM) is free I have no idea why you are even bothering with the OEM specific version at all. Go to Microsofts site and download the Windows 11 Pro version and start there after you have upgraded your video card. You will be surprised how snappy your OS is after the video card is upgraded, oddly enough.

Here is the true "age" of your PC that you need to factor in:
CPU: Ryzen 5800X - released November 5, 2020 (3 years ago)
Memory: G. Skill Ripsaws F4-3200C16D-32GVK - released around 2018 (5 years ago)
Mobo: Asus Crosshair 8 Hero X570 - released around Sept 2019 (4 years old)

Your core system is around 5 years old not 11 years old. Your video card was released on May 30th of 2013!!! For the love of God you should upgrade this as the SECOND purchase you ever make! You buy the Mobo, memory and CPU FIRST then the video card SECOND always. The Mobo can use the built-in video card TEMPORARILY until you can buy a video card. You have been waiting TEN YEARS to upgrade this video card (more like a dead pig of a card tbh, lol)?? What is the matter with you? There are cards that cost $50 that will be 4x faster then that pig of a tech gadget you own! Get on it! LOL

The MSI 3060 comes in a wonderful 12GB flavor that costs UNDER $340 dollars! This card over 1 year ago would have cost over $1,000

Forget about Windows 11 upgrade that video card ASAP! Then worry about Windows 11. This is like you are already carrying 1,000 pounds of weight then you want to add a small rock to your load as your legs are buckling already and you are worried about what color the rock is! PRIORITIES good sir, PRIORITIES! lol
Unless I missed something (and no guarantee I didn't) OP has DVD, GPU, case and PSU. He has no system, he is wanting to build around those parts. He wants advice on whether Win 11 Pro or Home will work on his proposed build. If there are better options for him let him know (I don't do AMD).
Other than that, I have no idea what you are talking about.
 
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Mar 30, 2023
11
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15
You systems only drawback is the video card. Windows 11 eats video ram intensely. You have a pretty decent system that is not 11 years old. You are basing your system age by the video card which is ancient. The age of the computer is based on the Motherboard, CPU and RAM quality. All these of these are pretty new. However Windows 11 is a beast when it comes to VISUAL splendor and you need a snappy video card to take advantage of that. Stick with windows 10 until you buy a new 8GB or 12 GB video card around Black Friday. Current prices for 12GB vram cards is around $340 as of early 2023. These should be similar toward the end of the year closer to Black Friday. Since Windows 11 (NON-OEM) is free I have no idea why you are even bothering with the OEM specific version at all. Go to Microsofts site and download the Windows 11 Pro version and start there after you have upgraded your video card. You will be surprised how snappy your OS is after the video card is upgraded, oddly enough.

Here is the true "age" of your PC that you need to factor in:
CPU: Ryzen 5800X - released November 5, 2020 (3 years ago)
Memory: G. Skill Ripsaws F4-3200C16D-32GVK - released around 2018 (5 years ago)
Mobo: Asus Crosshair 8 Hero X570 - released around Sept 2019 (4 years old)

Your core system is around 5 years old not 11 years old. Your video card was released on May 30th of 2013!!! For the love of God you should upgrade this as the SECOND purchase you ever make! You buy the Mobo, memory and CPU FIRST then the video card SECOND always. The Mobo can use the built-in video card TEMPORARILY until you can buy a video card. You have been waiting TEN YEARS to upgrade this video card (more like a dead pig of a card tbh, lol)?? What is the matter with you? There are cards that cost $50 that will be 4x faster then that pig of a tech gadget you own! Get on it! LOL

The MSI 3060 comes in a wonderful 12GB flavor that costs UNDER $340 dollars! This card over 1 year ago would have cost over $1,000

Forget about Windows 11 upgrade that video card ASAP! Then worry about Windows 11. This is like you are already carrying 1,000 pounds of weight then you want to add a small rock to your load as your legs are buckling already and you are worried about what color the rock is! PRIORITIES good sir, PRIORITIES! lol

Oh... I'm sorry. The system I'm replacing is a Crosshair V formula Z with an AMD FX-8150. The BIOS date is 2012. All the parts you are describing have not been purchased yet. Money is an issue so the video card will have to work until I am able to buy a new one.
 
Mar 30, 2023
11
1
15
If you want peace of mind that the partition is aligned to the sector, open a command prompt as an administrator and type in the following: fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo C:

You should get something like this:
Code:
C:\Windows\System32>fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo C:
LogicalBytesPerSector :                                 512
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity :                    4096
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance :                  4096
FileSystemEffectivePhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 4096
Device Alignment :                                      Aligned (0x000)
Partition alignment on device :                         Aligned (0x000)
No Seek Penalty
Trim Supported
Not DAX capable
Not Thinly-Provisioned

EDIT: I did learn through https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Advanced_Format that NVMe SSDs will report to the OS as having 512B sectors, because the physical sector size may not be 512B or 4K. So to prevent headaches in trying to optimize for any conceivable sector size, the SSD controller will just take whatever the OS gives them and performs magic from there since flash memory management is a different beast from hard drives.

Also as far as I could find (i.e., a 5 minute Google search), trying to force the SSD To report itself as a 4K sector storage drive doesn't really do much.

Thanks. This is information I can get back to.
 
Mar 30, 2023
11
1
15
Unless I missed something (and no guarantee I didn't) OP has DVD, GPU, case and PSU. He has no system, he is wanting to build around those parts. He wants advice on whether Win 11 Pro or Home will work on his proposed build. If there are better options for him let him know (I don't do AMD).
Other than that, I have no idea what you are talking about.

I guess I should have made that clearer. I have not purchased anything yet. All of the computer parts in the beginning of my post are in a wish list on Newegg. The case, DVD, GPU and PSU are currently being used with a Crosshair V Formula Z MB with an AMD FX-8150. The BIOS date is 2012. It's time to build a new computer because it's showing it's age. The M.2 SSD had me going. I've always been able to set up SSDs before OS installation. My intention is to get Windows 11 installed, set it up and install all of my software. Then a new video card, PSU and more new disk storage; about 4TB or more.

My first computer was a 386, then a 486 and began building my own computers after that. The first hard drive I bought was a massive 300MB that cost $300. I started using CAD software in 1987.
 
Last edited:

Rokinamerica

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So, nothing can go wrong if i make a fresh install. The hardware drivers and keys will be there again and work.
Right?
And i could do the fresh install from the desktop of the mini pc or would that defeat the purpose? (Maybe i remember the procedure wrong). So i dont need to plug something external in.
I guess I should have made that clearer. I have not purchased anything yet. All of the computer parts in the beginning of my post are in a wish list on Newegg. The case, DVD, GPU and PSU are currently being used with a Crosshair v Formula Z MB with an AMD FX-8150. The BIOS date is 2012. It's time to build a new computer because it's showing it's age. The M.2 SSD had me going. I've always been able to set up SSDs before OS installation. My intention is to get Windows 11 installed, set it up and install all of my software. Then a new video card, PSU and more new disk storage; about 4TB or more.

My first computer was a 386, then a 486 and began building my own computers after that. The first hard drive I bought was a massive 300MB that cost $300. I started using CAD software in 1987.
I thought you were clear in your description in the OP, the person I responded to seem to think you have a system and went completely off rail to me.
 
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Yeah it has been a while for you. Your question is about an issue as old as the GPU. It has been near a decade since we have had to worry about alignment.

That GPU is currently being used with a Crosshair V formula Z MB with an AMD FX-8150. This computer has a SSD for the operating system. I was able to connect it to the computer via a USB port to set it up. It has been a while since I have built a computer so I have to almost relearn it again.
 

Rokinamerica

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I get that, that is why I said it was an old question. I started using SSD's back when you did and there was a plethora of steps to take to make sure alignment, trim, garbage collection, etc was going to work. But I have been using 3 pc's for work for years, each time I build a new one, I use some old parts to upgrade my old one...and so on so I have been using some of my SSD's for many years. Windows 10 and above has never given me an issue with any SSD or NVMe and I use many.
 
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I get that, that is why I said it was an old question. I started using SSD's back when you did and there was a plethora of steps to take to make sure alignment, trim, garbage collection, etc was going to work. But I have been using 3 pc's for work for years, each time I build a new one, I use some old parts to upgrade my old one...and so on so I have been using some of my SSD's for many years. Windows 10 and above has never given me an issue with any SSD or NVMe and I use many.

Thanks. I like your way of thinking.
 
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Rokinamerica

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I think you will be ok and do as others suggested, check for your self just to have peace of mind. I do believe you will be ok. If not, there are a lot of bored old people out here like me willing to try to figure this crap out. Keeps my mind sharp.
 
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