discussion $1500-$2000 upgrade

[Higgy10]

As usual the 4870x2 is the loudest part still! I can take pics if anyone is curious to see what the build is like. Oh ya have a few bucks left over to spend on upgrading the hdd's. Are ssds they only way to go or are decent drives in raid0 still viable?

 

[MarkOne]

. Are ssds they only way to go or are decent drives in raid0 still viable?

if 80 gb is enough for you , Intel
if you need 120 gb ... Vertex

I use 40 % of my 80 gb Intel, for my OS, my Office , and my Photoshop

 

[Raserei408]

Drives in RAID 0 are still certainly viable. If you do decide to go for an SSD (which is much faster, but you probably won't be keeping all your games on it) I'd vote for the 120GB Vertex, or depending on how Sandforce does that could be an option.

 

[Higgy10]

$250 versus $400, 80gb is kinda small for os and games, tough choice actually

 

[MarkOne]

$250 versus $400, 80gb is kinda small for os and games, tough choice actually

you don't need to put your game on an SSD, you just put your OS, my Intel 80 gn is just load at 40 % . I have 250 gb of game in my steam folder, and I'm not a gamer. actually after talk with some member here, I'm copying right now my files, to use 2 black in raid 0 for my game, to reduce the loading time of the game. SSD is not at best for sequentiel reading, ( was supose to use 2 raptor, but it's too small capacity ) I can achieve the same if not better results with regular HD, and for a fraction of the price, but to be honest with you I keep the option for a vertex 120 for my game, because I play mainly stalker, and when I aproche a group of persons , it take a time to load something, so I guess a ssd can be usefull here, but in no way I will buy 2 * 120 vertex only for amy little gaming, so most of them will be on HD

 

[Higgy10]

80gb would be enough for just the os and apps then. I could always use my 2 existing seagate 7200.11 500gb drives and raid0 them for a gaming/work drive. Oh ya got this up to 4ghz relatively easy, temps are quite high under prime95 @ 100% load ( in the 90's) but for gaming temps are in the low to mid 70's max, i think gta4 uses the most cpu of any game atm.

 

[MarkOne]

funny we will have the same aragement, so it's already tested :thumb: notice the space available on my Intel SSD, 52 GB,

ok I include a pics of my drives arangment,

c: OS , Intell SSD
e: games , it's 2 * 500 GB black, in dual channel using the Asus HD Speeding ( probably a raid 0 ) I short stoke then to 300 gb , My stalker load now in half time with this aragment
G : regular 640 Black,

Kepp in mind that I use the software Good Sync to duplicate my drive everynight in my shop server , so I have good back up

The asus software is in French, because it pick up my regional setting when it install it, my 7 pro is in english,

 

[Higgy10]

Hey its a nice setup for sure! Only thing left will be a 5970 when i can afford one and a couple more monitors. Kinda wondering if i should maybe spring for a better cooling system or just be happy i hit 4ghz on air and deal with it?

 

[MarkOne]

Hey its a nice setup for sure! Only thing left will be a 5970 when i can afford one and a couple more monitors. Kinda wondering if i should maybe spring for a better cooling system or just be happy i hit 4ghz on air and deal with it?

a 920 ( 930) will be hot on air at 4 ghz, you may use a lower clock for now and update to WC later. If it's what you want to do I will change the 1200 for an other case. But if you want stay on air the 1200 is may be the best case for air, since it have very good cooling, will check later from your spulier web site what good WC case they have

 

[Higgy10]

nah i cant be bothered going wc, i can live with things the way there are now and drop down a few mhz and lower the vcore