Is my rig worth upgrading and investing $ in?

[FearoftheNight]

^ Good catch. Didn't notice that he started asking about the R9 280. It's a good pick as well. But I have the same concerns about length, so he should measure the space in his case.

Also, the 280 is only about 15% faster than a 270X, probably not worth the $30-50 price increase.

The reason I suggest the 270X over the 270 is that they are within $10 of each other right now.

And his Corsair 450W unit is fine for the 270X, or the 280 for that matter. His system with a 270X won't draw more than 200W. It's just a hassle to have the extra wires requires by a PCIe/molex adapter.

i think the psu is modular ie removable no?

 

[Termie]

Modular means the cables can be removed. You'll need to use the 6-pin molex peripheral cables and then attach a PCIe power adapter to them if you install a video card with two PCIe power connectors. That means the 270X and up.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Your i5 2300 is definitely worthy of upgrade. An inexpensive alternative might be a used 7950 off ebay. They are selling around $100.-. Almost identical to R9 280. Grab a molex to 6 pin adapter too.

 

[FearoftheNight]

Your i5 2300 is definitely worthy of upgrade. An inexpensive alternative might be a used 7950 off ebay. They are selling around $100.-. Almost identical to R9 280. Grab a molex to 6 pin adapter too.

is there any reason to buy one over the other? 7950 vs rx 270/280?

 

[mfenn]

is there any reason to buy one over the other? 7950 vs rx 270/280?

A 7950 is almost the exact same thing as an R9 280. So if you don't mind buying used and you can find one significantly cheaper than the R9 280, then it's a good alternative.

 

[FearoftheNight]

A 7950 is almost the exact same thing as an R9 280. So if you don't mind buying used and you can find one significantly cheaper than the R9 280, then it's a good alternative.

what about power usage/reliability?

 

[mfenn]

what about power usage/reliability?

Well used always has a higher risk than new because you won't get the full (and possibly even no) warranty. The actual chips are identical between the two cards.

 

[FearoftheNight]

Well used always has a higher risk than new because you won't get the full (and possibly even no) warranty. The actual chips are identical between the two cards.

cool. got it

 

[FearoftheNight]

guys. I just ordered a ssd. any tips on what else I need for it as i'm going to be putting it in a desktop?

 

[Termie]

Have you ordered a video card yet?

 

[mfenn]

guys. I just ordered a ssd. any tips on what else I need for it as i'm going to be putting it in a desktop?

You don't technically need anything other than a way to secure it. There are cheap 3.5" to 2.5" adapters so that you can mount it in a 3.5" bay, or you can just use some velcro to secure it to the bottom of the case.

 

[Termie]

Sorry, didn't realize you were asking about the SSD itself. The MX100 actually comes with some good cloning software. Not sure if you're doing a clean OS install, but it's worth at least trying to clone from your hard drive.

 

[FearoftheNight]

oh ok yea i see the software...so i'm can use that to make an image of my drive...question is...do i need a separate cable of some sort to connect both drives to my comp at the same time in order to flash the image onto the new ssd?

 

[Defenestration]

If you have both drives connected, you might be able to just do a copy/clone using TrueImage from one drive to the other (assuming the new SSD has enough free space to sore the old data), instead of creating an image.

For graphics cards, have you taken a look at the new nVidia 9xx cards as they are much lower power than current/older generations. Recent AMD cards have higher power requirements compared to nVidia.

 

[mfenn]

oh ok yea i see the software...so i'm can use that to make an image of my drive...question is...do i need a separate cable of some sort to connect both drives to my comp at the same time in order to flash the image onto the new ssd?

Both drives are normal SATA drives, so you can just hook the new drive up to a spare SATA port on your motherboard with a normal SATA data cable.

 

[FearoftheNight]

Both drives are normal SATA drives, so you can just hook the new drive up to a spare SATA port on your motherboard with a normal SATA data cable.

and this is a great time to realize that I don't have a spare sata data cable ugh

 

[mfenn]

and this is a great time to realize that I don't have a spare sata data cable ugh

Luckily you should be able to get one of those locally like at Best Buy or something. Or if you have Amazon Prime, you can get a few backups for real cheap.

 

[FearoftheNight]

If you have both drives connected, you might be able to just do a copy/clone using TrueImage from one drive to the other (assuming the new SSD has enough free space to sore the old data), instead of creating an image.

For graphics cards, have you taken a look at the new nVidia 9xx cards as they are much lower power than current/older generations. Recent AMD cards have higher power requirements compared to nVidia.

thanks. this worked fantastically. i just borrowed the sata from the optical drive