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Thread: Need help with choose pc upgrade

  1. #17
    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    I'd go with CAT's spec - better CPU than the A10-5800k, cheaper than the i5-2500k - it's the best of all worlds really.

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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    brilliant! thanks scaryjim.

    Now just need to choose a hard drive. I have found a "750gb Hybrid SSD" and reviews seem to be good too, but just thinking if it's worth buying this or a proper SSD, but smaller in size of course:-

    http://www.ebuyer.com/321969-seagate...ssd-st750lx003

    Or my other choice is to go for a proper SSD, sacrificing the size and cost, such as:-

    http://www.ebuyer.com/409850-samsung...sd-mz-7td250bw

    Any help guys?
    Last edited by nasorpc; 07-02-2013 at 02:35 PM.

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    Moosing about! CAT-THE-FIFTH's Avatar
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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    The Merc Alpha should be cheaper delivered from Amazon:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=new

  4. #20
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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    How happy are you with keeping data and programs separate and managing your installations accordingly? The Seagate momentus was well reviewed when it came out, but frankly it's a lot of money for a 750GB drive with a smallish sold state cache. The performance however, AFAIK, doesn't really approach that of a dedicated SSD, but it's a lot easier to manage - stick it in the machine and you don't have to think about it anymore.

    The Sammy 840 is great value at that price, and will give you better performance as long as you put the right files on it and manage the storage carefully. That's really the difference. If you're confident in managing the storage yourself go for the separate SSD and storage. If you'd rather have everything done for you, go for the hybrid.

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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post
    The Merc Alpha should be cheaper delivered from Amazon:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=new
    That links to a XFX PSU - did you mean this?

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/BitFenix-Mer...0246326&sr=1-1

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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    Quote Originally Posted by kmac View Post
    That links to a XFX PSU - did you mean this?

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/BitFenix-Mer...0246326&sr=1-1
    Yes!

    Amazon have it for £32.90 delivered:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-lis...&condition=new

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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    All I want is a fast boot time and some apps such as ms office, adobe suite to load much faster. The 240gb ssd seem to be very expensive and I don't know if its even worth getting an ssd, considering that I have to manage data and the risk of data corruption. Also how huge is the difference in windows loading?

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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    Are you planning to shut down and boot up every day? I only shut down when there's a Windows update that requires a re-boot.
    Thus I don't really need an SSD. Also in terms of boot speed etc, its not really going to change your life having an SSD.

    You can get a 2TB HDD for about £65

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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    Here's some data from a the interweb: (okay with Mac OS not Windows but its the relative difference we are looking at)

    Regarding the boot times – the time from turning the device on up until the Mac OS X desktop appears the SSDs clearly pull clear of the HDDs. You can easily see the 3 classes in the diagram

    SSDs with a boot length of 23-25 seconds
    320 GB Toshiba MK3254GS at 7200 rpm at around 31-35 seconds and the slow
    500 GB Samsung at 5400 rpm at 39-47 seconds.

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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    Quote Originally Posted by kmac View Post
    Are you planning to shut down and boot up every day? I only shut down when there's a Windows update that requires a re-boot.
    Thus I don't really need an SSD. Also in terms of boot speed etc, its not really going to change your life having an SSD.

    You can get a 2TB HDD for about £65

    Quote Originally Posted by kmac View Post
    Here's some data from a the interweb: (okay with Mac OS not Windows but its the relative difference we are looking at)

    Regarding the boot times – the time from turning the device on up until the Mac OS X desktop appears the SSDs clearly pull clear of the HDDs. You can easily see the 3 classes in the diagram

    SSDs with a boot length of 23-25 seconds
    320 GB Toshiba MK3254GS at 7200 rpm at around 31-35 seconds and the slow
    500 GB Samsung at 5400 rpm at 39-47 seconds.
    Your right kmac, it's not a huge amount of difference by the looks of it...i thought with ssd, windows would load in like 2-3 seconds, lol! FYI, I tend to regularly boot, rather than but the pc to sleep. I believe if i did put the pc to sleep it takes like 3 watts...is that a lot, considering when my pc boots up and loads each time it takes almost 200watts, then drops to about 95watts.

    So what do you suggest?

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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    I would say that only you can make the decision on the trade off on price and capacity with an SSD vs low performance of an HDD.
    I would keep the PC in Sleep mode - 3 watts is very little.

    I have an SSD in my Macbook Air - I had a Macbook Pro before that which had a regular HDD. To be honest the difference to me is not that big a deal. (Both were running Windows 7 in Bootcamp)

    Have a read of the this - http://www.macworld.com/article/2009...the-money.html

    Not a real scientific study but note the section on opening Word Docs using an SSD vs HDD. He concludes its worth getting an SSD but based on his tests it doesn't seem so clear cut to me.

    If you can afford one, then go for it.

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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    Founds some Windows 7 boot stats for you:

    Measurement
    SSD
    Main-path boot time (sec) 9.1
    Total boot time (sec) 30.3

    HDD
    Main-path boot time (sec)24.1
    Total boot time (sec) 65.7

    That’s a 62% improvement in the time it takes for the system to get to the Windows desktop and a 54% improvement in the total boot time, which includes drivers and processes that are loaded with low-priority I/O. (The latter value includes third-party programs that are configured to run at startup.)

  14. #29
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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    I'm a bit late to the party but in terms of SSD performance, I can, subjectively, 'feel' the difference between one and a mechanical HDD when multitasking for instance. Although TBH, it does seem to make HDD systems feel less responsive once SSD speed becomes the norm for you. As has already been said, you'd probably have a hard time trying to figure out which of two half-decent SSDs was faster if you didn't look closely at synthetic benchmarks, look for things like reliability where Samsung do score high, and offer fairly good value for money.

    A friend of mine recently built a system with a HDD boot drive, then not long after built one for his room-mate with an SSD but cheaper CPU, and said he could also tell the difference, and wants an SSD himself now.

    Of course, it's up to you and dependant on budget, but IMO people often spend far more for far less on incremental CPU/GPU upgrades which often make very little difference to perceptible performance.

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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    Quote Originally Posted by kmac View Post
    I would say that only you can make the decision on the trade off on price and capacity with an SSD vs low performance of an HDD.
    I would keep the PC in Sleep mode - 3 watts is very little.

    I have an SSD in my Macbook Air - I had a Macbook Pro before that which had a regular HDD. To be honest the difference to me is not that big a deal. (Both were running Windows 7 in Bootcamp)

    Have a read of the this - http://www.macworld.com/article/2009...the-money.html

    Not a real scientific study but note the section on opening Word Docs using an SSD vs HDD. He concludes its worth getting an SSD but based on his tests it doesn't seem so clear cut to me.

    If you can afford one, then go for it.
    Quote Originally Posted by kmac View Post
    Founds some Windows 7 boot stats for you:

    Measurement
    SSD
    Main-path boot time (sec) 9.1
    Total boot time (sec) 30.3

    HDD
    Main-path boot time (sec)24.1
    Total boot time (sec) 65.7

    That’s a 62% improvement in the time it takes for the system to get to the Windows desktop and a 54% improvement in the total boot time, which includes drivers and processes that are loaded with low-priority I/O. (The latter value includes third-party programs that are configured to run at startup.)
    Thanks for the info. That is a big improvement. However, is it worth the price? Not too sure, unless i went for a smaller SSD and a large 7200rpm hard disk for majority apps storage.


    Quote Originally Posted by watercooled View Post
    I'm a bit late to the party but in terms of SSD performance, I can, subjectively, 'feel' the difference between one and a mechanical HDD when multitasking for instance. Although TBH, it does seem to make HDD systems feel less responsive once SSD speed becomes the norm for you. As has already been said, you'd probably have a hard time trying to figure out which of two half-decent SSDs was faster if you didn't look closely at synthetic benchmarks, look for things like reliability where Samsung do score high, and offer fairly good value for money.

    A friend of mine recently built a system with a HDD boot drive, then not long after built one for his room-mate with an SSD but cheaper CPU, and said he could also tell the difference, and wants an SSD himself now.

    Of course, it's up to you and dependant on budget, but IMO people often spend far more for far less on incremental CPU/GPU upgrades which often make very little difference to perceptible performance.

    I agree, but there are a few problem, that i've either read about:-

    1. SSD are less reliable
    2. If you buy a small SSD, then you need to learn to seperate apps onto a different hard drive to fit them in...surely thats a pain in the neck???

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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    Many people buy SSDs nowadays and when they do they feel it's probably the only upgrade that makes them go "wow" due to the increase in performance over a HDD. Therefore I think you should definitely opt for one something such as the Crucial M4 would be an ideal choice

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    Re: Need help with choose pc upgrade

    Your right dacads, but the problem is the amount of space you get for SSD, is very small...i mean 120gb for £70-£100 is a bit of a joke mate, considering you can pick up a 2-3tb hdd for a similar price. I'm torn between getting a small 120gb, or simply go for a 2tb hard drive. Just to clarify, which one of you guys has got an SSD? How much is it's size and how do you get around to setting it up? Do you install only windows on the SSD and the rest of a normal HDD or do you install as much software you can on the SSD?

    I have a quick question regarding the graphics card too guys. I know the gfx card CAT mentioned is really good and has games with it, but assuming i was not interested in the free games, what do you think of the Nvidia 460 gfx card? According to anandtech, it's faster and cheaper

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