Need advice for setting up my PC for X1.

Hi everyone,

I'm going to be putting a second HDD in my PC and I want to format and reload everything when i do this. Basically a fresh start. I've been having quite frequent crashes with X1 and some with 8.5, but extremely rare. I'm open to the idea that it could be something wrong with my system or the way I have it set up.

Is there any advice anyone could give in what I should do when I do the fresh install? For example, I assumed the C++ files would have been updated automatically by Windows Update, but I recently found out I have to do it manually. When I install Windows, is there anything else I'll have to update or adjust like C++ that isn't done automatically with Windows Update? I have already downloaded the latest drivers for my mobo, mobo bios, video card, and audio unit.

I checked, and my HDD's support NCQ so I was planning on enabling AHCI mode and activating NCQ.

Here are my system specs:

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2
CPU: i5 750 2.66Ghz Quad Core
RAM: 4Gb 1333 Kingston
VIDEO: Sapphire HD5450
HDD: WD Caviar Blue 7200RPM SATA 320Gb 3.0/Gb Trans. Rate 16Mb Cache
M-Audio Fast Track Ultra USB
Windows 7 Professional 64bit
Cakewalk Sonar X1 Producer 64bit
Cakewalk Sonar 8.5 Producer 64bit
Nothing overclocked.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Bub