I'm replacing my hard drive with a 1T gig drive and doing a fresh install on everything. Having the boxed set of X3 really paid off as it was easy to re-install with no downloading.
 
My 500 gig drive was filling up fast, so I had to upgrade.

Time for a backup ! :)

I'm saving my 500Gig drive for a back up as everything is still good and there is still 100 gigs of free space on it, so I could easily re-install it if necessary.

I replaced mine with a 2T hard drive and a clean OS install as well, a couple months back. Started from scratch on everything. I used the downloaded X3 files for the install. This machine has never run so well; it made a dramatic improvement.

The new hard drive is running great...really fast, really quiet too.., and all my programs are loading right up nicely. The 1000gig drive should last me a very long time.

My CPU fan used to sound like a helicopter about to take off. Not sure if it was the new and faster hard drive or W8, but I never even hear it kick in any more.

I use the download and am able to do the same thing. when the download install finishes unzipping the files into the temp folder it stops to prompt you to continue making the install choices.
 
at this point I open windows explorer, find the temp folder and copy it to another location.
 
Then I proceed with the install. 
 
after its all finished I move the extracted files to a directory where I store all my setup files and then make a backup onto an external drive.
 
If I have to reload this is much faster than using the dvd's.
 
Just food for thought.
 

MakeShift
My CPU fan used to sound like a helicopter about to take off. Not sure if it was the new and faster hard drive or W8, but I never even hear it kick in any more.

hmm... that's weird. Maybe Win8 is just better at using resources so the CPU isn't heating up as much or the drive is taking some of the strain off it but I'd be concerned if my fan stopped kicking in as much. Might want to keep an eye on your temperatures.
 
It could also be when you were in fiddling around with the guts of the system it knocked the fan around a bit so it was seated better and not hitting the fan housing.
 
If you are looking for a nice, quiet, powerful fan I'm pretty happy with my Noctua.
 
http://www.newegg.ca/Prod...08016&Tpk=nh%20u9b

MakeShift
My CPU fan used to sound like a helicopter about to take off. Not sure if it was the new and faster hard drive or W8, but I never even hear it kick in any more.

Generally the chipset drivers handle this... It could actually be running more efficiently.
Check:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Driver-Boost-m2928792.aspx
 
Yup good idea about observing temperatures. 

It still kicks in, from what I have observed, but seems to run more quietly. It's been several months since I end talked it, but I will pay more attention on my next session.