Hi all, I am looking to upgrade my 3 yr old Chillblast machine with a new graphics card and possibly a SSD. The graphics card should be easy (upgrading from a GTX280) as I am confident in replacing that with a 560 or something like that, but I am more confused about the SSD. My motherboard only has SATA 3GB/s connectors - will that be a problem? Will I see much performance increase without 6GB/s? I currently have a Spinpoint HDD that is my boot and storage drive with Win7 on it. How hard is it to stick in a SSD (and install Win7 on it without paying for a new install disc - legally!) and use my existing HDD as a storage drive. I may need an idiot's guide... Thanks in advance people, Jimmy
This was posted by pocketdemon the other day. Useful Threads/Websites http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=209260 http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=209454 http://lifehacker.com/5467758/move-the-users-directory-in-windows-7
SATA 3GB/s connectors will be fine, just get a Crucial M4 64GB and install your operating system on that making sure it's in AHCI mode within the BIOS. If you're unsure just pull your current Spinpoint HDD from the system before you make any changes, so at least you know that disks operating system is safe and intact should you decide to revert back to it! At least that's what I'd do! Also did you buy a full retail copy of Windows 7? If yes then doing a fresh install on the SSD should not be a problem and if it does hiccup then a call to Microsoft (India) should sort it out. Just make sure everything works fine for the month you're allowed before reactivating your Windows 7 installation. Also an upgrade to a GTX 570 would be better, twice the cores of the GTX 280 in any case! Also the price for an MSI on SCAN hovers around the £230 price point which is excellent value over the GTX 560Ti in my opinion.
I use 2 Intel X25-M SSD's (non RAID) on my P5Q-E and they're still massively faster that my RAID 5 F1's!!! Get a boot SSD, you wont regret it!!!
Always good to be quoted... Yeah, if you've got loads of money then a decent (read expensive) 6Gb/s controller will be great, but the cheap ones are more than a little hit'n'miss. As there's no info given as to the size of SSD you're after or your budget then it's difficult to recommend one - though either you increase the size of a single one to get better low QD speeds (& writes - esp with non-SF SSDs) or add more (in raid 0) to gain overall d.t. the increased sequential & higher QD speeds. Though 'if' you wanted a non-SF/particularly wanted a Crucial one, the C300 tests better on almost everything than the M4; the only big gain is the larger sequentials - which would have little, if any, r.l. gain if you use your 3Gb/s controller. Then, something interesting that i found out yesterday was that the shonky highpoint thing that bittech recommends is apparently even shonkier than i first thought - according to someone checking with both Scan & High Point, it doesn't pass trim commands on to any SSD... Now, for something like the Sandforce SSDs this isn't a major issue as they have decent GC, but for something like the Crucial drives which rely far more heavily on trim then this is a major downside - & so yet another reason why bittech should stop recommending the foolish thing. [NB i've not been able to establish if the Asus card also has this issue... - but it adds yet another issue for SSDs that aren't as robust in non-trim environments.] As to your Win7 install issue, as Bloggins kind of said, you 'should' have received some kind of install disk... ...re postponing activation, i've not had any issues with Win7 Ultimate & this - & with Vista Ultimate then, after x reinstallations, i just had to ring a free phone number & enter a long string of numbers to get a manual activation code. &, whilst it can be done with lots of arsing around, a fresh install is much better than trying to transfer the OS across from a HDD.
Thanks for all the replies. Blogins - you've convinced me on the 570, seems like a great step up from my current card. Unfortunately, the version of Win7 I bought was the (download only) upgrade from Vista. Does this mean I have to buy a new Win 7 disk? I hope not, as I only made the upgrade a few months back! Pocketdemon - I am looking at spending about £200-ish on the SSD, although I could be tempted a little higher if I got a definite jump in performance for not much more cash. Strangely enough, I had looked at the Highpoint card but you have convinced me otherwise! Are you suggesting I should just get a legacy drive and go with 3Gb/s? If so, which one? Cheers all.
There *has* to be some way, using a download upgrade version of Win7, that you can reinstall - admittedly it's not a version i know of (the cheapest way for me to upgrade was to get a technet subscription for the year), but your version sensibly can't be so limited that 'if', for example, the HDD failed, you couldn't reinstall & had wasted your money. As to whether you could use one of the 'tricks' to install the upgrade version directly onto a SSD then, whilst i know you could do this with it on a DVD, your version isn't one i'm familiar with - google is probably your friend. Onto the SSD, & the 1st major question is what your upgrade path is likely to be? Well, you can use either 3 or 6Gb/s SSDs on a 3Gb/s SATA controller (your ichr one from preference), so 'if' you're looking at replacing the mobo/etc with something like a SandyBridge build in the next months then buying a 6Gb/s one now 'could' be a better long term investment. & the 2nd question is whether you're happy with (3Gb/s) SSDs in R0 - you lose trim (& some SSDs are more robust than others in non-trim environments), but you get more overall for your money than going for a single (larger) 3Gb/s SSD. @ the £200-ish mark, if you had a decent 6Gb/s controller (or there was a cheap one that could actually give the full speeds or you were upgrading soon), then the fastest SSD out there is the 120GB V3 max iops - but this means increasing your budget by just under 25%. This would be a no-brainer imho (it is significantly better than both the standard V3 & the other 120/128GB SSDs) &, if i had money to spend on SSDs, i would buy them. [again these do not rely on trim, so you could add more & R0 them] Below that, with 6Gb/s SSDs, you've got the standard V3 & intel 510 @ ~£200 (which both have advantages - i'd go for the V3, but i'd be looking at running SSDs in R0/non-trim), & behind them you have the A3 & C300 (the C300 is better than the M4 unless you have some specific need for high sequential r/ws - & as you've not got a 6Gb/s controller this is a little immaterial). The other option is to look at a pair of 60GB SSDs in R0 - in particular the Corsair F60s (effectively the V2, but you get 3Xnm nand which is advantageous). For the total price, these would still be a very good option compared to the ~£200 120/128GB 6Gb/s SSDs on a (proper) 6Gb/s controller - being up there & often exceeding (esp vs the A3 & C300) with the sequentials & higher QD r/ws, but losing out on the very low QD small r/ws. The only real disadvantage to going this way is that the V3s are vastly more robust when it comes to maintanance of speeds in heavier r-e-w environments. 'if' i were buying SSDs today (without having my lsi card or SB setup - & with no mobo upgrade plans), it would be a difficult call but, as there are no great budget 6Gb/s controller cards, i'd go with a pair of F60s - the loses on the low QD small r/ws are made up for overall. if there was a decent budget card then it'd be the max iops V3 all the way. Anyway, that's about all i can think of to type about it all... As with any differentiate marketplace then you've got a range of products at different price points that have advantages & disadvantages - but i obviously don't know what your upgrade plans are beyond a SSD & gfx card so... Oh, & whilst i suspect that the Asus U3S6 is likely to have the same limitation re trim (though i do not know this for sure & there appears to be some talk of it working with the MS ahci driver - which again i can't confirm) - this would be a much better card as a stop-gap measure than the foolish highpoint thing 'if' you wanted a 6Gb/s SSD & increased sequential speeds (though at the cost of low QD small r/w & latency, &, 'if' it also doesn't support trim, making the V3s the better option - limiting choice). Well, it's cheaper &, forgetting the added bonus of USB 3, you wouldn't want to be spending too much money on something that's only going to have a temporary life... ...'proper' budget 6Gb/s cards should be out this year - though they said that last year & nothing happened.
I use 2 Vertex Sata II's in RAID 0 on my P5Q Deluxe and it makes a big difference. I have read speeds well over 400 Mb/s and write speeds are over 300 Mb/s. I'll be transferring to my new i7 Build later this week with a P67 mobo until I can afford new ones these are more that quick enough for me
Thanks again everyone. I am currently toying with getting the ASUS U3s6 and a decent SATA 3 SSD like the max iops v3 in case I upgrade my motherboard soon. In the meantime I have a question about the P5q-D. I am using one of the PCI-E 2.0x16 slots for my GPU, the other is empty. I understand that plugging the u3s6 into the spare PCI-E 2.0 slot will throttle the other to x8 speed. Will I have the same problem if I use the empty PCI-Ex16 slot, or will that run the ASUS card and my GPU at full speed? "If" the above plan has flaws, then I will probably just look at putting in a fairly cheap and cheerful SATA 2 SSD (non RAID) and properly upgrade next year. All I am after at present is a quick Windows and Steam experience that allows me to play the latest games at a decent speed. In that case, will a single F60 do the job? Thanks in advance...
