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Gaming Build Help (Am I Overpaying?)

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darckhart said:
(i'm only writing these long posts since it seems you actually read them. heh.)
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Oh yes, I read them! I think thats not a bad suggestion however I'm thinking I might stick with the 580 considering I know my upgrading style and I tend to upgrade every 3-4 years and always want to max settings when I do. That being said, I'll look into some less expensive cases because you are right, I don't swap hardware frequently. What do you think of the HAF922 that mfenn suggested earlier? It seems really good for the price just wanted an extra opinion.

Now addressing the SSD situation, I'll definetely look into those alternatives that you suggested greenhawk, however the one question I have is, is there significant difference in speed from SATA II to SATA III? I ask because price difference is significant in many situations. Thanks again everyone, you are all being an incredible help!
 
There is a significant difference on paper between SATA 3Gb/s SSDs and SATA 6Gb/s ones in terms of sequential reads (~280MB/s vs. ~500MB/s). Can you actually tell a difference between those two given a desktop workload? Probably not.

Also, one of the most important features of an SSD is is random read/write performance, which isn't bottlenecked by the SATA link speed much. However, newer controllers are better than the older ones and the newer controllers happen to be SATA 6Gb/s. Again though, will you be able to tell a seat of the pants difference between 20K IOPS and 40K IOPS? Probably not. Either one is so much faster than a mechanical HDD that it's not even funny.
 
Ok so after doing some research, I need an opinion on these 3 SSD drives in comparison.

Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW120G3K5 2.5" MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX120G 2.5" MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

By going with the 320, I'll be saving about $40 in comparison to the 510, however if I go with the OCZ I'll be saving almost $100! My biggest concern though is obviously reliability and performance. If I went with the OCZ over the 510, would the gaming and everyday computer use be significantly impacted?
 
Hey, did you know about AnandTech's new Bench pages? Did you know they're not just for CPUs? (I didn't until today.) Take a look at this. I'd say the Intel 320 is right out; both drives are faster than it. The OCZ looks like the best value to me (of those three).
 
Oh english.

"more better" isnt english sadly.

Intel is better quality and more reliable OCZ Vertex 3/Agility 3 is cheaper (or if comparing to the 320 they are faster)
 
well I know it would be cheaper going with OCZ, but how much of a difference would it make given what I plan to do?
 
I would not pay $175 for an original Vertex. That drive is several years old at this point and not great bang for the buck. You can get a Patriot Pyro (current generation Sandforce) for $180 AR.
 
its not a considerable portion since the total price is over 1600 but you could save about 30 bucks on ram ^^ gskill 8gb kits have been bobbing around 50$ for months now
 
have you looked at crucial ssds? the 128g m4 is or was on sale for $178 and their great drives i had the 64g for a little bit. ive been seeing all this stuff about intels and other ones having a bug and randomly turn into 8mb drives. read there was a fix for some but didnt read to much else about it
 
imported_SylEm said:
So in short should I be looking for a high rated sata III? Anything else is way outdated?
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Nah, you should be looking for good bang for buck SSDs. Right now it just happens that you can get a fairly recent model for pretty cheap.

Will you notice a "seat of the pants" difference between a $180 SATA 6Gb/s SSD and a $175 SATA 3Gb/s SSD? Probably not. Is the extra performance worth $5? IMHO yes!
 
Quick question, how would I know if the SSD drive is 6gbps or 3gbps? When looking at the "details" tab on some of the drives, I'll see things like "Up to 450 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s)". Does that mean if the SSD is at least 450 mb/s+ that I'll have a 6GBps speed? Just trying to figure this out...
 
imported_SylEm said:
Quick question, how would I know if the SSD drive is 6gbps or 3gbps? When looking at the "details" tab on some of the drives, I'll see things like "Up to 450 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s)". Does that mean if the SSD is at least 450 mb/s+ that I'll have a 6GBps speed? Just trying to figure this out...
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It usually says in the product title or description. Also, if the quoted read/write speeds are greater than 300MB/s, then it must support SATA 6Gb/s.

You should run the drives that you're considering by us though. There are not that many good drives and an awful lot of trashy ones.
 
Good call mfenn. Ok so I have a few new ones now I'd like to compare....

OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $220

Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $277

Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR120GB 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $200

What do you think of these 3? I still have the elm crest listed because I'm using it as my control group to compare the other drives to.
 
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