Show Us Your WEI [4]

[A Guy]

Then it will be all 7's

Good numbers Dude

A Guy

 

[kbrady1979]

Alright, my water cooler is on the way in the mail as I stated in my intro thread. I expect it between Wed and Fri this upcoming week. Once I have that installed I will take pics and show you guys. And thanks for the kind words. I am actually saving up for two SSD drives so I can set up a simple RAID. I was thinking two small sized SSD drives to save money, after all...I just plan to use them for the OS and a few programs. All my data is on external SATA drives.

Another vote for 1 SSD vs 2 in a RAID0 configuration. RAID 0 will give you good numbers in the Sequential Read/Write column, but for the Random 4K Read/Writes(OS/Program Files), it doesn't do anything at all.

 

[essenbe]

I agree 100% with Kbrady, take that from someone who's tried it. You will get fantastic benchmark numbers, but actual performance in Windows will not be affected. And trust me, with the problems Raid can cause, it's not worth it. It didn't take me long to change back to a single SSD.

 

[kbrady1979]

I understand why people used to RAID a sackfull of mechanical hard drives, but SSD's are exponentially faster in every category and it isn't necessary. Back when SSD's were extremely expensive, I knew a few people who ended up with two smaller drives in RAID 0 to make a larger pool of usable space......but that isn't the case now. 128GB drives can be found for $100 or less, and it is the BEST bang for the buck upgrade you can get. I honestly wish manufacturers would stop advertising Sequential Read/Write speeds because for most people, you'll never see those speeds in anything you do. If you have an SSD and a hard drive, and you move files from one to the other, your MAX read/write speed will be that of the slower hard drive.......no way around it. For 99.9% of users, the Random 4K Read/Write speeds, and the lightning fast access times are what you want......that is what you feel when you sit down at the keyboard and click an icon to open a program, or when you reboot your system. RAID 0 just introduces an extra piece of hardware that can fail and screw you out of whatever is striped across those drives.

 

[Chalky Emultion]

after my HD 4870 X2 burned, I replaced it with an "old" GTS 450. WEI droped form 7.5 to 7.2, but the graphics performance in games seems to be better! COD Black Ops 2 runs well (70fps) at highest settings, 2xMSAA and low shadows quality @1440x900...

CPU is overclocked to 3 GHz and RAM to 860 MHz.

I'm thinking about getting an SSD for this pc... Now games load very slowly, Windows boot is non so fast, etc...
Will an SSD boost performance on this pc?

 

[kbrady1979]

after my HD 4870 X2 burned, I replaced it with an "old" GTS 450. WEI droped form 7.5 to 7.2, but the graphics performance in games seems to be better! COD Black Ops 2 runs well (70fps) at highest settings, 2xMSAA and low shadows quality @1440x900...

CPU is overclocked to 3 GHz and RAM to 860 MHz.

I'm thinking about getting an SSD for this pc... Now games load very slowly, Windows boot is non so fast, etc...
Will an SSD boost performance on this pc?

Yes! An SSD will make that machine scream

 

[Chalky Emultion]

after my HD 4870 X2 burned, I replaced it with an "old" GTS 450. WEI droped form 7.5 to 7.2, but the graphics performance in games seems to be better! COD Black Ops 2 runs well (70fps) at highest settings, 2xMSAA and low shadows quality @1440x900...

CPU is overclocked to 3 GHz and RAM to 860 MHz.

I'm thinking about getting an SSD for this pc... Now games load very slowly, Windows boot is non so fast, etc...
Will an SSD boost performance on this pc?

Yes! An SSD will make that machine scream

OK, thank you

 

[Britton30]

I'm thinking about getting an SSD for this pc... Now games load very slowly, Windows boot is non so fast, etc... Will an SSD boost performance on this pc?

The best (big) bang for the buck. Some Pcs disappear because they go faster than light after an SSD is added.

 

[essenbe]

Dorado, an SSD is probably the most noticeable upgrade you can do to a computer. You can get a faster CPU, add more and faster ram, but both of those put together will not equal what you notice about performance of your computer with an SSD. A better graphics card will give you better graphics, but only while gaming, an SSD will give you better performance all the time.

 

[Chalky Emultion]

I'm thinking about getting an SSD for this pc... Now games load very slowly, Windows boot is non so fast, etc... Will an SSD boost performance on this pc?

The best (big) bang for the buck. Some Pcs disappear because they go faster than light after an SSD is added.

Dorado, an SSD is probably the most noticeable upgrade you can do to a computer. You can get a faster CPU, add more and faster ram, but both of those put together will not equal what you notice about performance of your computer with an SSD. A better graphics card will give you better graphics, but only while gaming, an SSD will give you better performance all the time.

I'm going to search for a cheap SSD I don't want to spend a lot of money for an old machine...

 

[kbrady1979]

I would just try to find a good SSD on sale. If you spend the money on the old machine......it might not seem so old anymore! Plus, the SSD can go with you if/when you upgrade. I would look at the Samsung 840 Pro, OCZ Vector, Plextor M5 Pro, or Corsair Neutron GTX in 128GB. Best combination of price/performance/capacity in my opinion.

 

[Chalky Emultion]

I'll check for them, thank you

 

[crankypenguin]

Crankypenguin, looks like a cool rig. Remember to post the pics when you are done.

Cheers,

J

As promised I am posting some pics of my rig. My cooler came in today I wish my case was bigger. And I started saving up for a modular PSU + Case. I am still waiting on my RAM cooler..boy how am I going to squeeze that in there *holds head* In case anyone is wondering, the cooler installation wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. This was my first liquid install so I had some anxiety, but the instructions are really idiotproof. It took me about 2 hours total as I like to take my time and do everything slow and always double check. I used arctic 5 themal paste kit ( it comes with two bottles to remove old thermal compound and prepare the cpu chip for new cooler. Basically you prepare the latches, take out motherboard, put on new back bracket, stick back mobo into place, screw on cooler and you're done. PS : The noise level has stayed about the same. Nothing too loud, quite bearable...I don't have a decibel meter but the PC is about a 1.5 meter away from my ears and It does not bother me any.

I know that this is not a *high end* cpu by any means, but I also consider this the best bang for the buck you can find while being careful with you spending habits. If I added another say 1 tousand Euros, I would probably have a 8core AMD, with a better motherboard and Mushkin ram...but when I think to myself..would I really notice the difference on the day to day basis doing common tasks..I think not. Now that Ive stated what I wanted to state, any suggestions would be welcome from you guys. Thanks for looking in my thread.

http://i.imgur.com/8r9uTMk.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/b8FGJHf.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/RysG04B.jpg

 

[linnemeyerhere]

crankpenguin,
Congrats on the cooler install and it looks great. I have the big bother to yours and I'm very pleased. Take your time and keep us posted on future upgrades but in the meantime some zip ties and careful bundling could help with the looks some if you even care about that. Of course a new case will give you all the room you need for growth and added cooling power.

 

[crankypenguin]

I had a question guys, do any of you know of a program that could help control / monitor my liquid cooler..if such a thing is possible? Would appreciate any input. And yes, i've been googling it for over and hour and no real hits.

 

[indianacarnie]

Nice machine there crankypenguin, good job!

 

[paulpicks21]

Check out me laptop

I asked around at work to see if anyone had any dead laptops.

I got one from the boss, it would not power on at all, got another one from a work mate, it had no HDD or Ram.

I used the power adapter from the 2nd one on the first one and it fired up straight away
It had XP on it so yesterday I put Windows 7 on it. It runs surprisingly ok for an old girl! (I would not like to try it for any form of gaming, but for web surfing its fine).

Not bad for free.

 

[Gary]

It would be higher if I had an SSD

 

[indianacarnie]

Nice lappy for free there paulpicks21

Yes indeed Gary an SSd would smoke on your system. Mine went from 5.9 to 7.9 with my M4.

 

[crankypenguin]

Well I went ahead and ordered a Crucial 256gb M4 SSD from Amazon along with a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter. I hope this will compliment my computer nicely