My main HDD in my pre-built Acer is about to die, since when I started it up, it made a loud scratching noise. So now I have to backup everything, so should I just build a whole new computer all together or just buy a new HDD or SSD?
Please give me some links from BestBuy or FutureShop because I am in desperate need of one.
A hybrid drive offers benefits of both capacity and speed. It will be far cheaper and easier than replacing your whole machine. Your speck wont break any world records but I bet it has run anything you have ever asked it to.
In my book, hybrid drives are so, so. I would never buy one. I suggest you get a SSD. This one is the best on the market right now.
Newegg.com - ocz vector
But there are many other good models. Depends how much you want to spend.
Newegg as WHS listed above is a good place to shop. I have bought a lot of stuff from them. It beats Best Buy by a mile. They have one day sales that popup and the price will be really good. Go to Newegg and signup and they notify you. Good Luck.
Your only problem going SSD is that your internal is currently a 1 TB HDD. 512GB SSDs still seem pretty pricey to me. If you have an extra sata port and space then I'd be looking at a 128GB SSD plus a 1TB HDD. I have an old Acer (first & last) which I ended up recasing and fitting a PCIEx1 to sata card since the Acer only came with 2 sata ports. I then fitted an SSD & HDD.
The other thing is that if your Acer motherboard is Sata 2 and not sata 3 the SSD will have restricted sequential speeds. However, 512k, 4k speeds will blitz the HDD and you will notice a big improvement in performance.
I couldn't link to the old thread so copied it.
Recase an Acer Aspire X1700 X1800 desktop PC Once upon a time I bought and Acer Aspire X1800 (basically the same as X1700). It seemed a good idea at the time. Now it would be a low end+ capable PC.
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300
- 4 GB Ram, 1 TB HDD, DVD drive.
- Nvidia 9500GT graphics card
- lots of USB 2 ports, firewire, eSata, serial, Realtek audio.
- PCIe x1 expansion slot
Good 2nd PC but:
- VERY cramped. No room for extra fan cooling.
- HDD and Graphics card have very little ventilation and get very hot! The graphics card is shoved up against the top of the case.
- Vertical mounted DVD unit sounds like a jet engine
- Difficult to get at the HDD
- low power (220W) PSU starting to make noises. Didn't meet eXtreme PSU calculator minimal rating.
- only 2 sata 2 ports
One partial solution to the heat - take the side off and use a fan
With moderate effort I took it apart and moved it across to a Thermaltake V4 with 450W PSU. Cost me $73. Added a PCie x1 sata 2 card (<$30), 128GB SSD with the 1TB HDD.
Side by side comparison
Mines too is pretty cramped, it is a mid-sized tower, lots of USB 2 ports, there is 3 slots for HDDs but I don't where I am going to put any SSD, my PSU is non modular so the wires messy. I am planning to build a new computer this summer, so I could move my GTX 650 Ti, my Psu and all my HDDs over.
If you are planning a new build then I would just stick a $60 1TB HDD to replace the failing one and use the Acer as a spare.
If you are suggesting using your Acer PSU in your new build then I think that would be a very bad idea. A quality PSU is very important & I'd go for quality like say an Antec PSU. Rating would depend on your purpose but I wouldn't go under 500W.
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