A 3G PC Build: The AfterMath

Sorry guys, I could/should have put that all in one post.

pparks1 said:

Lollies said:

It was awesome having a top of the line build but I'm just not gunna have the money to keep up with top of the line.

Trying to keep up is a fool's errand. You will just end up spending tons of cash and your upgrades simply won't be that terribly significant I'm afraid.

Lollies said:

I know I could and should settle for less but I have OCD so its like an itch that can't get scratched otherwise.

Do you really have OCD...or just think that you do? I've actually been diagnosed with it clinically...so I know quite a bit about it.

I figured that and logically I would recognize that and settle with what I have, with maybe the occasional upgrade here and there. I'm doing my best to train myself to think like that, its part of the reason I post. If someone else tells me its fine then its easier to jog my brain into thinking so.

Yeah I really do unfortunately, I'm 19 now and was diagnosed like at the age of 8 or somewhere near there. It started out as germaphobia, being afraid of germs and such, like not being able to open doors without a napkin to use on it etc... basically like the show "Monk" and its been changing over the years. Grade school it was all about appearance and other stuff that hard to describe, then after that, which is essentially now, would be compulsions and social anxiety. And that's just kinda the tip of the ice berg, the mind is to complex to just point one thing out and be like, "yep that's the one".

zzz2496 said:

Good grief... My Q6600 still performs handsomely for my current workload, I can't imagine Lollies's rig...
If I were to upgrade, I'd just dump the whole thing, and go with EVGA W555 (if it ever going to be released), put 1 octo core/16 thread monster in it, max out the memory, put 2 intel SSD 160GB, ONE Radeon HD5970 Eyefinity (12 DP ports) and a custom case to complete the build (maybe I can salvage my TT Level 10...). Oh, and an FC adapter to connect to SAN... It's a Death box...

zzz2496

Ps. If I were to go crazy with the build, I guess fill both proc slots with another 8 core/16 thread monster and show off Windows Task Manager showing 32 thread which mostly idling away the whole time... Expand SAN to 24TB... That would be nice...

And this would be on top of those monitors.

baarod said:

Lollies said:

Sbrideau said:

Your build outperforms my 1 month old build. If anything, you could sell it and build something that would be smaller, but still much better than your laptop.

That's probably the most frequent idea that keeps reoccurring in my head. It was awesome having a top of the line build but I'm just not gunna have the money to keep up with top of the line. I know I could and should settle for less but I have OCD so its like an itch that can't get scratched otherwise.

I've been incrementally upgrading my box for literally YEARS. I cannot remember the oldest component -- probably the Hauppauge tuner since it's not Windows 7 compatible. Advantage there is that you've only got to get used to and troubleshoot a component or two at a time. The last giant leaps in performance I did were an OCZ Vertex 30GB SSD which has continued to get faster with regular firmware bumps and a low profile ATI 4670 that replaced the onboard Intel video.

In your case (get it?) it's time to get a Vertex 2 Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTX50G 2.5" 50GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

I've been trying to figure out how muhc I bought my two WD Velociraptors for but I can't seem to find the receipt for them. How are SSD drives better? I've done some reading about them but when did they first hit the market? Foresee any reason they would drop in price sometime in the near future?

-Lollies

pparks1 said:

Lollies said:

I've been trying to figure out how muhc I bought my two WD Velociraptors for but I can't seem to find the receipt for them. How are SSD drives better?

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.

Lollies said:

pparks1 said:

Lollies said:

I've been trying to figure out how muhc I bought my two WD Velociraptors for but I can't seem to find the receipt for them. How are SSD drives better?

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.