New Processor or HDD to improve performance?

[prism]

According to my Win7 Experience score, my CPU and HDD are my two weakest points (6.7 and 5.3 subscores, respectively). I don't know whether to put much credence into these numbers, but I AM looking for a good, cheap upgrade for my PC. I currently have an AMD Phenom II X3 720 CPU in a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H mobo and a Samsung HD160JJ 7200 RPM Hard Drive. Would I be able to get a new CPU or HDD on the cheap that would boost my performance? If so, which one would be more cost-effective? Thanks for any and all info!

 

[happy medium]

overclock your cpu and grab a HDD.

 

[prism]

overclock your cpu and grab a HDD.

Is there a guide on AT somewhere for overclocking? I've sadly never OC'd a CPU before and I don't want to muck it up, if that's possible...

Also, since storage space is a non-issue for me, would I be better off with a SSD for speed?

 

[manimal]

Well first read up on the wealth of information the interwebs have about overclocking a Phemon 2. The x3 is a very capable chip capable of some very nice performance. List all the parts in your system in this thread and we can steer you in the right direction when you get started. Even with the stock cooler you can get moderate gains. With a decent cooler like a hyper 212 you can get even better.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If all you are concerned about is your WEI scores, then an SSD is a must. 7200RPM mechanical HDs all max out at a score of 5.9. SSDs score in the 7s.

But really, who cares about the WEI scores. They are fairly meaningless.

 

[jvroig]

Even with the stock cooler you can get moderate gains. With a decent cooler like a hyper 212 you can get even better.

If the stock cooler for the Phenom II X3 is like the standard heat-pipe AVC cooler as those in the Phenom and Phenom II X4 CPUs, then that does offer good performance, except that it is very loud at max fan, which you would need for it to perform great - a little better than the original Hyper 212, but a little worse than the Hyper 212 Plus. But the loudness of the fan will no doubt make you consider getting an aftermarket cooler if you need it to spin its fan beyond 5000 rpm.

But if the stock cooler is similar to the ones in Athlon II X4 and below (Semprons, Athlon and Athlon II X2, etc), which looks like a simple block of aluminum with a fan, then not good at all, but very silent even at max fan. In my testing, even at max fan it is ~5C worse than the heat-pipe stock cooler at only 60% fan speed.

 

[yh125d]

Don't do -anything- just cause the WEI says whatever crap it says. If you think it's running too slow, then you can do something. But don't waste time worrying about some program telling you your computer isn't fast enough

 

[Absolution75]

3 year old hard drive. Was that before perpendicular recording?

If its a single platter drive @ 160GB, then it will be quite slow compared to a new Samsung F3 or WD Black/Blue

Your CPU looks fine. When I upgraded my hard drives, I noticed a rather large improvement in things that deal with sequential reads/writes such as loading levels in games, moving files, and even windows startup.

 

[taltamir]

Don't do -anything- just cause the WEI says whatever crap it says. If you think it's running too slow, then you can do something. But don't waste time worrying about some program telling you your computer isn't fast enough

agreed... ignore WEI, it is useless.

If you feel a specific aspect of your computer is too slow, name what you want to be faster (specific programs, games, etc) and we will give advice. with estimated performance increase at different price points... then make your decision.

 

[MagickMan]

It's been hammered to death around here, but a decent SSD can really change your computing experience. The Intel 80GB SSD that's regularly ~$200 can make your PC feel 10x more responsive. IMO, it's a solid investment.

 

[taltamir]

It's been hammered to death around here, but a decent SSD can really change your computing experience. The Intel 80GB SSD that's regularly ~$200 can make your PC feel 10x more responsive. IMO, it's a solid investment.

it will be last gen within mere months though. and depending on his usage he might not need one. (aka, a web browsing machine)

 

[mv2devnull]

It's been hammered to death around here, but a decent SSD can really change your computing experience. The Intel 80GB SSD that's regularly ~$200 can make your PC feel 10x more responsive. IMO, it's a solid investment.

From 200 GB Seagate HDD and XP Pro 32 to 80 GB Intel G2 and W7 HP. No, I don't feel any significant change, except the silence. But that must be me.

@OP: Between CPU and SSD ... SSD without a question.

 

[MagickMan]

it will be last gen within mere months though. and depending on his usage he might not need one. (aka, a web browsing machine)

Doesn't really matter, there will always be something better on the horizon. The current Intel SSDs are fast, reliable, and durable. I doubt there will be very much real-world performance difference with the new generation drives, they'll just be a little cheaper.

From 200 GB Seagate HDD and XP Pro 32 to 80 GB Intel G2 and W7 HP. No, I don't feel any significant change, except the silence. But that must be me.

@OP: Between CPU and SSD ... SSD without a question.

I can tell vast differences, in startup, app loading, and in certain games (especially MMOs). Going from 80 sec to <15 sec on startup was a real eye-opener. It's tough for me to even work with non-SSD machines now, I always feel like something is wrong with them. It makes me want to slap the side of the case, like maybe it's choking and I can dislodge whatever is stuck. :twisted:

 

[taltamir]

Certain games is the biggest place I feel the difference... some slow loading games I have tested to show a drop of 2 seconds out of 2 minute loading times. example, distand worlds on largest universe (literally tens of thousands of ships, planets, etc) went from 89 to 87 seconds when I moved the saves and the game itself from my spindle drive to my SSD.

other games went from "unplayable due to load time" to "wow that was fast"... most significant to me was NWN2... and MMOs... and IIRC sword of the stars (I don't remember too well what the tests I did on that one showed).

Anyways, a lot of people don't actually play games. for all we know the OP is like my mother... uses the computer to do emails, watch the occasional you tube video, etc.

If we would be told what this computer is used for we could furnish better advice.

 

[jimhsu]

Before going out and wasting money, please describe what you need to do. Better yet, identify points where "what you need to do" is slow and attach CPU (task manager), HDD (resource monitor), and GPU (frame rates) usage stats and post here as images.

 

[GlacierFreeze]

Doesn't really matter, there will always be something better on the horizon. The current Intel SSDs are fast, reliable, and durable. I doubt there will be very much real-world performance difference with the new generation drives, they'll just be a little cheaper.
....

x100000.

Same with CPUs, video cards, RAM. No need to buy every generation just because of a 10&#37; performance increase, storage space, etc increase. I always skip 2 generations when building my PCs. Waste of money for so little gain, IMO. OP, HD is most out of date. Go with SSD.

 

[taltamir]

Doesn't really matter, there will always be something better on the horizon. The current Intel SSDs are fast, reliable, and durable. I doubt there will be very much real-world performance difference with the new generation drives, they'll just be a little cheaper.

There always will be, yes.
But the G2 came out in 2009-07-23 (year-month-day). That is when I bought it... for MSRP.
It costs the same amount of money now in 2010-05-05... and we were mere months from when the next gen comes in, with supposedly much better performance and much cheaper price.

There will always be a next gen... but buying a product after 80% of its life-cycle is passed and on the cusp of newer and better products is not as wise.
Heck, even if you don't want to wait for intel G3, the new indilinx controller should come out sooner then it.

 

[Cogman]

I know everyone here is in love with the SSD drive, but seriously, OP, you need to tell us what you want a speed increase in (And please don't say that stupd windows performance thing).

For example, If you care about your computer feeling "snappier" and more responsive, then a SSD is the way to go. It will definitally load things faster then any HD out there.

However, if you care about how fast things get done (IE, encoding a movie, FPS for a game, or Photoshopping a large collection of images), then my recommendation would go to updating ram, gpu, or CPU, depending on the situation.

For me, a HD is responsive enough, I haven't felt the need to get an SSD. But if I ever get fed up with loading speeds, then I might go for it. Other then that, more ram will do wonders.

 

[guskline]

Overclock the 720BE (I built rig 2 below and it is fast!) Install a small ssd for your OS and use the present HDD for data. It will be a big improvement.