Export thread

Best SSD for about $100ish

#1

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Preferably sized 50gb or higher.

Need quality and I'm curious what's the major difference between an internal and an external SSD? Is it also as easy to install as just plugging it in like a HDD?

I'll be buying this within a week or so. Advice my friends?

Side note: Would prefer to buy this from NewEgg as I have some discounts available for them at the moment.


#2

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-Solid+State+Disk-_-OCZ+Technology-_-20227550

Thoughts? This seems perfect.


#3

Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

I'd read the Feedback section... the 1-3 star reviews report failures around the 1 year mark.
Added at: 19:20
Yikes, some as early as 6 months! Yeah, I'm gonna say don't do that one. (I'll do a little research and see if I can't contribute an alternative for you, but I suspect the more tech savvy 'round here will beat me to it)


#4

strawman

strawman

http://deals.woot.com/deals/details...ility-3-2-5-120gb-sata-iii-mlc-internal-ssd#6

Many SSDs fail - even good ones - after a year or so. They're getting better, but for now treat them as speed boosters and backup religiously.

The one I linked above is an exceptional price (and is newegg, although you missed the $80 deal it's still only $104 for 120GB) and it's reasonably reliable, but very, very fast.


#5

PatrThom

PatrThom

Anything in that price size range (60-ish or less) is not going to be as fast. The small (capacity) ones are usually handicapped by having fewer data channels (since they have fewer chips on board to spread the load).

Assuming this is going to be a single (non-RAID) drive, TomsHardware has started a chart of SSDs (like they do with GPUs). They recommend the Crucial M4, which is based on the Marvell controller. This is a good thing if you plan to get another one later and do a RAID, as Marvell-based drives are better than average at surviving without being TRIM'd. They aren't perfect, but they're way better than any Sandforce-based drive in a RAID.

That said, I'd recommend the OCZ Agility 4 128GB, which is currently selling on NewEgg for about $110. They use the second generation Indilinx controller, which is pretty speedy.

As for the difference between internal and external, the drives themselves will probably perform exactly the same, but the external drive will be limited by the interface speed (usually USB 2.0 at about 50MB/sec), while the internal drive will sit right on the SATA bus and therefore enjoy speeds of 300-600MB/sec.

--Patrick


#6

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Ahhh PatrThom !

I do try my best to keep up with your tech talk so here goes.

This is basically going to be a gaming drive for 2-3 programs at any given time. I'm under the assumption that I can install it fairly easily? I do really like the suggestion on the $110 SSD. As for "RAID" I'm guessing that means shared drive between multiple HDs? I basically want to use this as a third drive. (Main drive is a Raptor, houses my OS and the bulk of my programs. Second is a 7200RPM basic "storage" HD and the third will be a SSD for specific gaming programs I use daily).


#7

DarkAudit

DarkAudit

I haven't kept up with OCZ since I bailed on them after last summer's support disaster. Did they ever find out what was making their drives disappear from people's systems?


#8

Necronic

Necronic

PatrThom said:
Anything in that price size range (60-ish or less) is not going to be as fast. The small (capacity) ones are usually handicapped by having fewer data channels (since they have fewer chips on board to spread the load).

Assuming this is going to be a single (non-RAID) drive, TomsHardware has started a chart of SSDs (like they do with GPUs). They recommend the Crucial M4, which is based on the Marvell controller. This is a good thing if you plan to get another one later and do a RAID, as Marvell-based drives are better than average at surviving without being TRIM'd. They aren't perfect, but they're way better than any Sandforce-based drive in a RAID.

That said, I'd recommend the OCZ Agility 4 128GB, which is currently selling on NewEgg for about $110. They use the second generation Indilinx controller, which is pretty speedy.

As for the difference between internal and external, the drives themselves will probably perform exactly the same, but the external drive will be limited by the interface speed (usually USB 2.0 at about 50MB/sec), while the internal drive will sit right on the SATA bus and therefore enjoy speeds of 300-600MB/sec.

--Patrick
Click to expand...
One point on those Agility 4s, if they are the ones I think they are. To get the benefits of that Indilinx controller you need to have a newer motherboard (as in not a 2008 one.) I don't know the exact details, maybe it requires SATA 3 (?) I can't remember. I just remember that I went and bought one of those (or maybe it was the Vertex3, can't remember) and I had to return it because I was paying like an additional 100$ for that indilinx controller and my computer couldn't actually benefit from it.

Maybe you could clarify the gobblety gook I just said?


#9

Covar

Covar

Shegokigo said:
Ahhh PatrThom !

I do try my best to keep up with your tech talk so here goes.

This is basically going to be a gaming drive for 2-3 programs at any given time. I'm under the assumption that I can install it fairly easily? I do really like the suggestion on the $110 SSD. As for "RAID" I'm guessing that means shared drive between multiple HDs? I basically want to use this as a third drive. (Main drive is a Raptor, houses my OS and the bulk of my programs. Second is a 7200RPM basic "storage" HD and the third will be a SSD for specific gaming programs I use daily).
Click to expand...
A couple "no brainers" when it comes to setting up your SSD:
  • If you install the OS on it you're going to want to use folders on a HDD for your default library folders. This will reduce the number of writes to the drive and should help it's lifespan (however small and improvement)
  • In the same vein you'll want "D:\Program Files" and "D:\Program Files (x86)" just for space reasons on the drive. Make it a lot easier when you just have to change a 'C' to a 'D'


#10

PatrThom

PatrThom

They are SATA3, yes. You still get the benefit of the amazing fast search/read, but your max speed is limited to only 300MB/s if you're still using a SATA2 motherboard.
DarkAudit said:
I haven't kept up with OCZ since I bailed on them after last summer's support disaster. Did they ever find out what was making their drives disappear from people's systems?
Click to expand...
Yes, I believe they finally issued a firmware update to fix that. I think it was only confined to their Sandforce2281-based drives. The Intel 5xx drives based on SF2281 do not have this problem (Intel's custom firmware practically eliminates the error), and I hope everyone else got a similar fix later.
Shegokigo said:
I do try my best to keep up with your tech talk so here goes.
Click to expand...
RAID is the method of ganging together multiple (usually identical) drives in order to increase either the effective speed or the effective reliability (or both) compared to a single drive. Most people only care about RAID 0 (stripe for speed) or RAID 1 (mirror for reliability).

SSDs get slower and slower over time as they get full and "dirty" (once they get over about 3/4 full). In order to return back to their amazingly fast performance, they need to be cleaned up ("garbage collection") due to what can be thought of as the SSD equivalent of fragmentation. Some drives are better at doing this on their own than others, but there is a reset ("defragment") command called TRIM which is available in Win7/OSX10.7 and up that lets the OS tell the drive to clean itself (at the cost of increased drive activity and write amplification*).

TL;DR: The big advantage you're going to get with SSDs in gaming is the significantly reduced random seek time. The increased read speed is also nice, but it's not as important as the seek time thing.

--Patrick
*Write amplification is "bad" because you can only write so many times to SSDs, so anything which increases the amount of writing will shorten the life of the drive.


#11

Necronic

Necronic

How much of an issue is the limited writes these days though? I vaguely remember someone mentioning recently that the amount of writes you can handle on an SSD is so large nowadays that it isn't really a big issue and is about as significant as a platter/hardware failure on an HDD.


#12

strawman

strawman

Most flash memory lasts about 100,000 write cycles, but that's a statistical average. Some will fail sooner, some will last longer.

The drives include additional storage that is set aside as backup flash. When one block of flash goes bad, the controller assigns that block to a new area, and stops using the bad block.

Strictly speaking flash failure rates are very low. However there ar still a number of weak links in the SSD that could cause premature failure, such as the controller chip, the flash controller in each individual flash chip, and a few other parts.

Further, critical information about the drive that the controller needs to work is contained in one of the flash chips. That leaves another opening for a fairly minor issue to completely disable the drive.

SSDs have different failure modes than hard drives, and theres still a very large variation in quality and robustness between different SSDs, so one can't easily generalize. A good SSD should have better reliability than a good hard drive under the same conditions. Comparing cheap SSDs with cheap hard drives, though, is an exercise in futility.


#13

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

So the "length of survivability" for this SSD if I used it only for 2-3 gaming programs at any given time would be pretty decent?

Also, should I just go ahead and pick that SSD up PatrThom ? Also would it be as easy as I think? Plug, read and use or is there more details to consider?


#14

Necronic

Necronic

Its pretty darned easy to use/install. I run my OS off of one SSD and my programs/games on another. Just plugged them in, started my OS install and away I went. I never even mounted the things (one of them is dangling.....I should fix that.) Granted I haven't upgraded the firmware on either of them (it's basically impossible to do it on the OS SSD) but other than that it works fine.


#15

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Does my mother board or anything technical matter with that particular brand of SSD?

I have a MSI MS-7520 Eclipse SLI x58


#16

Necronic

Necronic

That's a Nehalim board so I think it should handle any of the most recent stuff. Although I may be wrong.


#17

PatrThom

PatrThom

Most current SSDs are managed well enough with wear leveling and other reliability tricks that a consumer probably shouldn't have any more concern than you would for a mechanical drive. Many current SSDs are expected to last something like 5000 rewrite cycles*, which is about a 600TB lifetime on a 128GB drive. If you are using the drive in an enterprise setting as a cache drive, you might hit that limit in about 5 years. However, even hardcore power users max out at about 20GB/day (according to 2010 Intel testing**), so you should have some breathing room, Shegokigo .

That drive should be at least as reliable as any other SSD, which is to say that you should treat it like it is as reliable as any other hard drive (mechanical or otherwise). Using one is as easy as sticking it into a system and formatting it, just like any other drive. You don't have to do anything special, your system will just see another drive. For full speed, the connector you attach it to should be in AHCI mode rather than ATA/IDE mode (if you need to manually set that choice in the BIOS). So long as you have a SATA2 or SATA3 port, you're pretty much guaranteed compatibility.

--Patrick
*Older drives could survive thousands more cycles because they were made of physically bigger circuits. As the circuits shrink, they get faster, but they can't survive as many write/erase/write cycles. 5000 cycles is what Intel claims for the current 20 nanometer circuit size, I believe.
**Sorry, can't link from iPod. EDIT: Here's the link to the Intel presentation (if it's still up) and their PDF.


#18

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Just to confirm
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227807

will work on my

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Eclipse-SLI.html

?

If so I'll be picking it up.

Edit: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Eclipse-SLI.html#/?div=Basic

Showing Sata3 n/a but Sata 2 is available....


#19

Bowielee

Bowielee

I know the read/write speed is faster, but man, I just can't bring myself to spend 100.00 for what equates to about 1/16th of my current hard drive space, even for gaming.


#20

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Most people also wouldn't spend another $100 for a few more fps from a bit extra RAM. $50 on a mousepad. $100+ on a mouse. $100+ on a keyboard. $100 per month on a faster internet connection. $150 on a console joystick made from japanese arcade parts and all the other silly things I do with my income in the pure sense of "just a bit better gaming".

Then again, I don't have school loans, high rent/bills, kids, spouse, or any other kind of income expenses. I spend my income on gaming and alcohol/going out.

Now if I had other responsibilities? Yeah I'd see your point.


#21

Bowielee

Bowielee

Yeah, all my stuff cost a fraction of that, except for the important performance innards, like CPU, GPU, RAM and Motherboard.


#22

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

The way I see it, is a 1% upgrade is a 1% upgrade. 5-10 small 1% upgrades? Yeah, I'll take it.

I do as you do though, and upgrade the innards before everything else.

I'm coming up on a CPU/MB upgrade around Winter.


#23

Bowielee

Bowielee

Yeah, the inside of my computer is pretty much a beast (as much as it can be on a budget). I haven't run across a current gen game that makes it chug yet.


#24

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Sad that even though my system is pretty much crushing the Diablo 3 specs, I get annoying Micro Stutter.

I've learned to accept it in a few games due to the software limitation, but knowing that it might be my HDD speed is driving me bananas.


#25

Bowielee

Bowielee

I haven't really played D3 on my main PC as my mobo went out right after Diablo came out (just got the new one today!) and I am running it on max settings on the laptop. I haven't had any problems at all with it.

There is another person in the Diablo 3 thread that is having the same issue, and I think Vrii is getting that now after the most recent update. So, it may not be your hardware at all.


#26

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Very true, but I've been meaning to get a SSD for a good while now (Yes I really am so vain that cutting seconds off a game's loading time really does matter to me). Prices are definitely better than just a year ago, used to barely get 20gb for the same price as now.


#27

PatrThom

PatrThom

Shegokigo said:
Just to confirm
Click to expand...
-Yes, that is the drive I mentioned. (FWIW, I'd happily buy one for myself, if I had a machine good enough to use it)
-Yes, it should work with your motherboard.
-Yes, you will be limited to SATA2 speeds (300MB/sec max) since you have no SATA3 ports. Sorry. No way around that* until you get a board with SATA3.

--Patrick
*Without giving up a PCIe slot.


#28

Bowielee

Bowielee

My new MB handles SATA3 :p


#29

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Bowielee said:
My new MB handles SATA3 :p
Click to expand...
As will my new one ;)

I am slightly out dated, I think I put this system together (help me remember PatrThom ) about a year and a half ago? New video card this past year though.


#30

PatrThom

PatrThom

When you come into real serious money, you get a couple of these in a RAID 0 for 120GB of pretty much untouchable performance. Sure, the transfer speed is still limited to SATA2, but the access time is half that of the Agility 4*. Shame about the price, though.

--Patrick
*Yes, that translates to twice as fast.


#31

Bowielee

Bowielee

In the past year, I've replaced everything except the case, keyboard, monitor and mouse.

I'm hoping this build will keep me in gaming goodness for a while.

I'll fully admit that the main reason I updated my GPU wasn't really for performance, but to use it with my 3D TV. Arkham City looks gorgeous in 3D, as does Skyrim.


#32

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

PatrThom said:
When you come into real serious money, you get a couple of these in a RAID 0 for 120GB of pretty much untouchable performance. Sure, the transfer speed is still limited to SATA2, but the access time is half that of the Agility 4*. Shame about the price, though.

--Patrick
*Yes, that translates to twice as fast.
Click to expand...
Yeeeeah, even I have my lines.... unless I hit the lotto. Then yeah, 10k comp system for me every year :cool:

Bowielee , Just can't get into 3D (I remember the thread there was and I won't repeat it) so the best non-3D I can get is my preference.


#33

Bowielee

Bowielee

I realize some people hate 3D, but besides being able to do 3D, the card was a big performance bump for me as well.


#34

PatrThom

PatrThom

Shegokigo said:
I think I put this system together (help me remember PatrThom ) about a year and a half ago?
Click to expand...
Google says 2009, around October-ish.

So three years, which is probably about 1 year beyond expectations.

--Patrick


#35

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Wow, crimney. Almost 3 years? Yeesh, that made my skin crawl. Seriously. Thankfully I did overclock my CPU to 3.5 and the MB/RAM has been fantastic.

Definitely upgrading in Winter though...

Thanks Pat.


#36

PatrThom

PatrThom

Shegokigo said:
Wow, crimney. Almost 3 years?
Click to expand...
Google says:
August 24, 2009 - "I'm thinking about getting a new computer."
September 22, 2009 - "My new computer will probably come 95% from NewEgg."
November 16/17, 2009 - "I'm having BSOD/Win7 issues with my new computer."

...so I assume it was built around October-ish, Shegokigo .

--Patrick


#37

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Yep, definitely sounds about right.

Probably around the same time of year I'm going to update the CPU/MB this year, to which I'll of course, defer to your advice.

I think at least 90% of my last 2-3 systems have been Pat built ;)


#38

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

I remember the 3D thread. I started it, because I needed to get a new monitor.

My fascination with 3D ended pretty soon after acquiring it. It was nifty, but the dimness was annoying, and wearing the 3D glasses over my glasses sucked hard.

I still don't regret getting a 3D capable monitor though. 120hz refresh rate is awesome.


#39

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Wait. 120hz Refresh Rate? What?


#40

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

The only thing that makes a 3D monitor 3D capable is 120hz refresh rate. This basically means it can draw 120 frames per second, allowing it to display two images simultaneously at 60fps by interlapping the two.

Not being pat, I have no idea what the technical terms for any of this is.


#41

Bowielee

Bowielee

120khz is required for 3D gaming on a monitor(I assume that's what he meant).

My TV is default 3D compatible, so I don't have to worry about refresh rate.


#42

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Bowielee said:
120khz is required for 3D gaming on a monitor(I assume that's what he meant).

My TV is default 3D compatible, so I don't have to worry about refresh rate.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure it's 120hz, not khz. That would be 120,000 frames per second


#43

Bowielee

Bowielee

I always thought monitors were in kHz, not Hz, either way, shit be fast, yo.


#44

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Bowielee said:
I always thought monitors were in kHz, not Hz, either way, shit be fast, yo.
Click to expand...

Hz means cycles per second, so in monitors it refers to image refreshes (or frames) per second.

But yes, shit be fast. They say you can't see a difference after 60fps, but I swear I can.

Though I can't see any difference between 110 and 120.


#45

PatrThom

PatrThom

Shegokigo said:
I'll of course, defer to your advice.
Click to expand...
You ain't gonna like it, because right now my advice is to wait until May/June 2013 (another year!) to get the biggest bang for your buck.

Haswell CPU - less complex new socket 1150 means less wasted power, huge (4x) potential increase in Quick Sync transcoding compared to Ivy Bridge. Also, socket 1150 means it will be incompatible with everything before Haswell.
Lynx Point - built-in USB 3.0 and SATA3 on all ports, as well as probable PCIe 3.0 support (twice as fast as PCIe 2.x). Oh, and it will require socket 1150, meaning you'll need a whole new motherboard and all.

If you absolutely can't wait, I'll understand, and will of course attempt to give the best advice possible. :)

EDIT: Yes, 120Hz is the usual refresh rate for 3D monitors (so they can do both halves of 3D at 60Hz each). I bought my CRT just because of that (at the time, LCDs couldn't do 120Hz).

--Patrick


#46

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Hrrrm, I do love those draw points Pat, very well may wait until then to do it. We'll see how happy I am with the current set-up I have come Winter game releases. Still, definitely nice specs on that those CPU/MBs....

On the original topic, I placed an order for that SSD you recommended and can't wait to toss my Steam, Warcraft and couple other game folders onto it.

On the new topic, the 120hz works on 3D but does it give 120hz refresh on 2D gaming as well? I'd love to play ALOT of my games with the Vsync turned off, but tearing drives me crazy.


#47

DarkAudit

DarkAudit

How big an SSD did you get? When I bought my Intel 510 last summer, there was no chance I could fit my Steam and WoW folders on it if I wanted to use it as the boot drive as well.

But man, those boot speeds. *swoon* :D


#48

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

The one Pat recommended is 128gb. Also my STEAM folder is kept to 2-3 games installed on it at any given time so it's kept pretty compact.


#49

Bowielee

Bowielee

If you hate Vsync but also hate tearing, then a 120hz monitor would work well for you. I'm assuming by 2D gaming you mean 3D rendered, rather than 3D like things popping out at you. Yes, the increased refresh rate would mean more frames per second on games, which means less tearing.


#50

PatrThom

PatrThom

Right. It will still tear, but it will only tear when your fps goes over 120. If you're looking to practically eliminate tearing, then you'll want to look at something like Lucid Virtu's Virtual Vsync.



--Patrick


#51

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Shegokigo said:
Sad that even though my system is pretty much crushing the Diablo 3 specs, I get annoying Micro Stutter.

I've learned to accept it in a few games due to the software limitation, but knowing that it might be my HDD speed is driving me bananas.
Click to expand...
I've had the same annoying intermittent micro stutter since the D3 launch and my computer kills the recommended requirements.


#52

PatrThom

PatrThom

In the beta, the only stutter I had was entering new areas, coming up to Unique fights, boss battles, that sort of thing. No stuttering elsewhere. I was just using the integrated graphics and a mechanical HDD, but that meant I could never really get over 20-30fps. I doubt that's the happy sort of trade-off, though. Also, I have no idea if the stuttering is just part of the 1.0.3 patch and so everyone has to deal with it right now.

--Patrick


#53

Bowielee

Bowielee

The only stuttering I've had is all server related, when my ping would suddenly spike for some reason. Got me killed twice last night in elite mobs.

BTW, Killed the Butcher on Nightmare last night :)


#54

Necronic

Necronic

Honestly I can't for the life of me understand why people don't flock full steam to SSDs. Ok, yeah their capacity may seem a bit low, but I can slap my OS on a 70 gig one for like 60$, and all my games/programs fit on a larger one (120-240 gigs) for like 200$.

As for everything else? Store it on a NAS drive/external hard drive. Internal platter drives make very little sense to me anymore for gaming PCs, or...really any PCs. The computer itself is streamlined for gaming, and when it comes to media I need to access it with other computers at a moments notice. It's better to keep media on a seperate system and just have the gaming system for gaming.

Also I don't get why people think that they need to upgrade so often. My build has lasted since 2008 (maybe longer). I've replaced a couple parts here and there as they have broken (HDDs->SSDs, GPU broke, technically I downgraded it), but that's about it. Any game I want to play I can play on high res.


#55

PatrThom

PatrThom

Necronic said:
Honestly I can't for the life of me understand why people don't flock full steam to SSDs.
Click to expand...
-Price
-Size
-Lots of people still use IDE drives
-Lots of people still use WinXP
-Mainly it's the price

Also, the Internet is full of people who jeer and haughtily proclaim that PCs are upgradeable and Macs aren't, but then the majority of "upgraders" just go and replace their entire PC rather than upgrading it, and "mainstream" machines don't come with SSDs yet. "Normal" people want space, not speed! They want terabytes on top of terabytes to store their collection of cat videos and illegal downloads, plus all the stuff they rip from YouTube. Gamers are just a tiny market segment that nobody cares about except Nerds.

--Patrick


#56

Necronic

Necronic

Normal people are weird.

Edit: I shouldn't be surprised by this. My parents wanted to buy a new desktop computer because there's was getting old. I asked them what they used it for (since they both had laptops). Their response?

"Something has to be plugged into the router right?"

They had absolutely no use for it, or another desktop, and only wanted to buy one because they thought the router (which was wireless) wouldn't work unless the desktop was plugged into it. I wish I was more dishonest. I could make a killing off of people like them.


#57

Bowielee

Bowielee

I prefer size over speed for two reasons:

1) My load times are in no way excessive now.

2) I don't want to have to re-download my steam library every time I want to play something.

For the SSD drives, I think they're way overly cost prohibitive right now. When they drop in price, and maybe increase capacity, I'll consider moving to one.


#58

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Bowielee said:
2) I don't want to have to re-download my steam library every time I want to play something.
Click to expand...
Wait what?


#59

Bowielee

Bowielee

I have 155 games on steam. A large percentage of those games are anywhere from 7 to 30 GB in size.

I simply do not want to have to download a game if I want to play it, I want it to already be on my hard drive.


#60

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Yeah I have 40+ games and only have 1-2 installed at a time. However, that's due to personal preference, if I have too many games installed at a time, I'll never focus and finish the ones I want to.


#61

Bowielee

Bowielee

For me, It's:
"Hey, I feel like playing Skyrim today"
...
"Shit, it's not installed."
"Whelp, better start the download"
In the 8 or so hours it takes to download, I don't want or don't have the time to play it anymore.


#62

Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Spontaneous gaming? Nope. I get 1-2 games in my focus and won't stop playing them until they're finished. After that I download the next 1-2 games I'm going to play (usually start the download before heading to work) and everything's set when I get home.


#63

strawman

strawman

Bowielee said:
I prefer size over speed
Click to expand...
/insert meme of choice here


#64

Necronic

Necronic

Hence the NAS drive. Download all the steam games. Move them to the NAS drive. Move them back to my computer when I want to play them.

Easy.
Peasy.
Japanesee.


#65

PatrThom

PatrThom

Necronic said:
Hence the NAS drive. Download all the steam games. Move them to the NAS drive. Move them back to my computer when I want to play them.

Easy.
Peasy.
Japanesee.
Taiwanesee.
Click to expand...
FTFY

--Patrick


#66

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Really torn on what to do re: build new system now vs wait until Haswell.

On the one hand: My current desktop is 7 years old (32-bit XP, Pentium D, 9600 GTS). It's definitely showing its age as the average game only runs moderately well at best (to say nothing of games intended for serious power like Skyrim), startup is slow as hell. This isn't unbearable or anything exactly, but I miss being able to play games the way they were meant to be played as opposed to the mid-to-lower end of the scale. Also, parts for the current generation of tech are pretty darn cheap. The fact that you can buy a fantastic rig for around $5-600 is freakin' awesome.

On the other hand: The changes coming with Haswell are significant enough (and backwards-incompatible enough) to make me want to hold off. It will probably cost a bit more as newish tech will (plus Windows 8 probably won't have a from-XP upgrade edition), but it will have a lot more longevity, especially if I want another 7-year-system. Waiting until next year could also let me focus on upgrading the rest of my setup (like getting a NAS/Wi-fi home setup). I would just need to deal with my irritatingly slow desktop system for another year.


#67

PatrThom

PatrThom

Relevant article from last year: Investigation: Is Your SSD More Reliable Than A Hard Drive?

--Patrick


#68

Bubble181

Bubble181

Man, my "new pc" thread didn't even get a second Patrick look :'( It's clear I'll have to behave more like Shego....Now where's my machete....
(I've decided to hold off 'till I get a free upgrade to Win8 thrown in anyway, so I'll more than likely change my system anyway and post a new thread. I'm joking, not whining, for the record. Before peopel think wrong things of me :p)


#69

Necronic

Necronic

Wow Bubbles, way to kill the thread. Now Shego is going to have to start a new thread for us to help her and also not help you.


#70

PatrThom

PatrThom

Bubble181 said:
Man, my "new pc" thread didn't even get a second Patrick look :'(
Click to expand...
I'm one guy with a family and 2 jobs, and this forum ain't one of 'em :p , plus I've had some...interesting times of late. A lot of threads therefore get buried or slide off the new threads list due to inactivity (both mine and theirs). That said, for attention-getting, there's always my Inbox.

--Patrick


#71

Bubble181

Bubble181

PatrThom said:
I'm one guy with a family and 2 jobs, and this forum ain't one of 'em :p , plus I've had some...interesting times of late. A lot of threads therefore get buried or slide off the new threads list due to inactivity (both mine and theirs). That said, for attention-getting, there's always my Inbox.

--Patrick
Click to expand...
What, you're apologizing for not being ever-ready at beck and call of every random stranger on the internet? You crazy. :waves:


Top