A 3G PC Build: The AfterMath

Luckystar · 20 May 2010

Lollies said:

pparks1 said:

SSD drives are faster and have almost instantaneous access to files which means that programs launch almost instantly. They also have no moving parts, give off no heat and generate no vibrations.

A velociraptor typically reads data at approx 120MB/s and has about 7.0ms access time. My Intel X25-M G2 drive reads data at approx 260MB/s and has 0.09ms access time.

Here is a quick video showing a side by side difference.
YouTube - SSD Video 2 - Intel X-25M VS WD Velociraptor Boot

Yeah that video pretty much speaks for itself, now I wish I hadn't bought those Velociraptor's and used the two Raptors i had originally put in it which would have saved me the 300$ for two SSD drives a year later... How much do you guys think two used Velocirators would go for?

So overall, an upgrade of the graphics card to the 400 series and two SSD drives would make it overall just as capable as newer builds? Granite it would be running off DDR2 etc but I don't necessarily mind that fact so much as it's still a good build and those two upgrades would do a significant amount of improvement (i think, someone correct me if I'm wrong). That would still cost a pretty penny but it would add some improvement while keeping my build until I upgrade to DDR3 or something.

Well if anything, i would say you would be better off upgrading that ram to DDR3, DDR3 LGA 775 boards are'nt too bad on price. But as far as the rest, well i wish i had two velociraptors. Get rid of the caviar black thats used for games.

Lucky

desktop · 20 May 2010

You spent over 3G's for this rig so why would you want to upgrade it? Heck, I built my first computer about four years ago and it's still going strong. The only upgrade I made was to buy and install Windows 7 Home Premium (I had XP 32-bit). All of my components were 64-bit capable so the new OS just boosted what I already had.

pparks1 · 20 May 2010

desktop said:

You spent over 3G's for this rig so why would you want to upgrade it?

Simple really...some people are addicted to having the best...or at least the best that they can afford. So, if when you buy something and spend a ton on it...you feel bad a year later when others have faster stuff...therefore you feel inclined to increase yours as well so that can retain top-notch performance and bragging rights.

I tend to buy something decent...but not state of the art....and then I use it for 2-3 years and then usually buy another machine. So, on my last build, even though the core i7 was out, I went with a Core 2 Quad Q9550 and have been very pleased with my purchase and it's just now a year old and I don't have any considerations of upgrading anything on it.