£92 - should I spend it?

M

MaltonSeadog

Silver Level Poster
Option 1 - 'free':

1TB Caviar Black

Option 2 - £92

80GB Intel 320 Series SSD (for Windows 7 and a few other bits and bobs)
1TB Caviar Black

----

One click of a button. Will it make a huge difference to me?
 
baron75mk2

baron75mk2

Banned
MaltonSeadog said:
Option 1 - 'free':

1TB Caviar Black

Option 2 - £92

80GB Intel 320 Series SSD (for Windows 7 and a few other bits and bobs)
1TB Caviar Black

----

One click of a button. Will it make a huge difference to me?
Click to expand...

Most folks on here do say that having an SSD is good for system performance , so if you can run to it then get the SSD as well

I didn't go for it as having more storage was more important to me than better boot up times & faster read write speeds

I`m sure somebody with better experience with the Pros & Cons of SSD can advise you better than me as i really don't know to much about them to be honest (enough to know i personally didn't need one). :eek:
 
M

MaltonSeadog

Silver Level Poster
Thanks. I've had some good advice via PM.

I'm fully aware that there are third-party retailers that can sell me an 80GB one for far less than PCS are charging, but I'm also aware that I'd have to send it to PCS and ask them to fit it, probably delaying my order (I'm on Working Day 7 already - should be entering production soon).

I'd rather have PCS do it all.

At the same time, the same money could double my storage to 2TB Caviar Black and get a set of Homeplugs.

Really don't know where the best investment would lie.

For the record, here's my spec as it stands:

COOLERMASTER CM STORM ENFORCER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
ASUS® P8Z77-M: MICRO-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
16GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (4 X 4GB)
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD7850 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 SoundCard & Headphone AMP (Award Winner)
 
baron75mk2

baron75mk2

Banned
MaltonSeadog said:
Thanks. I've had some good advice via PM.

I'm fully aware that there are third-party retailers that can sell me an 80GB one for far less than PCS are charging, but I'm also aware that I'd have to send it to PCS and ask them to fit it, probably delaying my order (I'm on Working Day 7 already - should be entering production soon).

I'd rather have PCS do it all.

At the same time, the same money could double my storage to 2TB Caviar Black and get a set of Homeplugs.

Really don't know where the best investment would lie.

For the record, here's my spec as it stands:

COOLERMASTER CM STORM ENFORCER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
ASUS® P8Z77-M: MICRO-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
16GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (4 X 4GB)
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD7850 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 SoundCard & Headphone AMP (Award Winner)
Click to expand...

Looks like your in the same place i was when ordering , it comes down to which is more important - storage or extra performance
( weather or not this is by a massive amount i don't know myself)

You could always get the 2tb caviar black & then later add an SSD if you want to - this way you will have it all - i don't feel i can accurately advise on how much performance an SSD will give - from what i have read there are a lot of opinions on the Pros & Cons Of them.

At leased this way you will have the extra Gig & later on you can ad an SSD if it suits you
( i suppose its the same the other way around though)

Put that together with the set of home plugs & my choice would be the 2tb caviar black , but its all up to you :eek:

Saying that is this rig primarily for gaming ? , if so drop that i7 to the 15 , this will save extra money - you don't need an i7 for gaming , only for video editing etc , for the games the hyper threading will be of little to no use at all .

This way you might be able to get the 2tb caviar black , the home plugs & the SSD in one drop

(or drop the SSD & get the better GPU -Radeon HD-7950 you have mentioned - its slightly better than a GTX 580 - as well as the 2tb caviar black?)

This would be my choice as long as the saving from the i7 to the i5 would permit it that is.

( even if i had to throw a few quid more at it i probably would chose this route) - if its for gaming the GPU will be more important for high fps than the SSD would be , i`ve got barracudas & my load times are very fast in games & caviar blacks are better HDDs than barracudas :eek:
 
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tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
MaltonSeadog said:
Or I could spend £80 and upgrade to a RADEON 7950...

Decisions, decisions.
Click to expand...

this mate :)

because an ssd is such an easy addition in the future, whereas a new gpu means you have to buy another one, losing value on the first gpu. So if you are into gaming get the 7950 and add a ssd in the future if you feel the need.
 
M

MaltonSeadog

Silver Level Poster
I'm not a massive gamer, but my viewpoint is - if I'm spending £1000 on a computer, I should jolly well be able to play top games on it at top settings!

The main use will be general office use, internet browsing (don't laugh - I know it's overkill so far) and music production/composition, which uses RAM/CPU instensive virtual instruments. I've read reports that a symphony orchestra can use up to 12GB RAM if playing together. The i7 is for this reason.

£82 for 7850->7950
£92 for an 80GB SSD.

That's my two options.
 
J

johnckeen

Active member
if your going to be doing music production etc you going to need more space and i think you'll be better off sticking with the 1tb drive and possibly getting another.
As other people have said, to add an SSD later on if you wish is an absolute doddle.

Go with storage, you will need it!
 
M

MaltonSeadog

Silver Level Poster
There is of course another option.

I could go without an OS, and buy that (cheaper - sorry PCS) when I get paid on Friday. This is one thing I can naturally install at home, so I would avoid the admin fee from PCS for changing once it's into production.

For £13 I can:

1) Remove Windows 7
2) Add 80GB SSD
3) Keep 1TB Caviar Black

Then for around £65 on payday, buy Windows and install it. Is it easy to install Windows 7 on a new build? Just pop it in and choose SSD?
 
baron75mk2

baron75mk2

Banned
MaltonSeadog said:
I'm not a massive gamer, but my viewpoint is - if I'm spending £1000 on a computer, I should jolly well be able to play top games on it at top settings!

The main use will be general office use, internet browsing (don't laugh - I know it's overkill so far) and music production/composition, which uses RAM/CPU instensive virtual instruments. I've read reports that a symphony orchestra can use up to 12GB RAM if playing together. The i7 is for this reason.

£82 for 7850->7950
£92 for an 80GB SSD.

That's my two options.
Click to expand...

Option one m8 HD 7850 - 7950 & add the SSD later on - this way you will have the ram & processor for your music productions & a very good GPU for good FPS in most games :eek:
 
tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
Like Rubensolo said it will more than fine.

Nice choice of gpu, there's something about AMD/ATI gpu's that I really like, I think it's the value for money and bang for buck that you get.

You will enjoy it :)
 
M

MaltonSeadog

Silver Level Poster
I may have come to a compromise, costing me around £100 overall, but split between now and payday! ;)

Firstly - remove Windows 7.

Then add 120GB Intel 330 Series SSD, and my second HDD as 1TB Caviar Black.

Total cost - £20.

Then on payday, hopefully just before my PC arrives, buy Windows 7 from a well-known online retailer for around two-thirds of a hundred pounds. (Was that subtle enough?) This is an OEM edition, but I'll be able to install that straight onto my SSD right?
 
mishra

mishra

Rising Star
Well no.
If you want to be as legal as possible then OEM can only be installed (and used) on the machine it was shipped with. If you want to install O/S on a different hardware you need to use "Retail" version, not OEM.
But the practice say, you just ring MS on the phone, you select that you never installed the software on any other machine and it should (and most likely, will) validate! But this is not recommended option, it is also illegal so you should not be doing that! Just so we are all clear and so that the unicorns will not get slaughtered in the unicorns heaven!

On a serious note, if you are spending like a grand already just get it all legal, you will save yourself so much hassle with reinstal, activation, etc... Your time is also money! Buy cheap, buy twice as they say. Well it's up to you :)

ps. You will be fine without SSD. Yes it is quicker! Yes it is massively quicker in fact!
But on a daily basis there is no "real" need for that. My O/S boots in 30s with normal drive and that is fine! It doesn't have to boot in 10s. I would pick better gfx anytime when faced with such choice. SSD are nice, but they will be so much better if they double in size, and get their price slashed by half! Please note: I am not saying SSD are crap, cause they aren't .. they just not ready for consumer market yet (at this rate) maybe 2 more years... hmm will see.
 
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M

MaltonSeadog

Silver Level Poster
Apologies - I didn't mean to suggest I was going to do something illegal. Please excuse my ignorance on such matters! Thanks for pointing it out.

Maybe I should just forget about the SSD for now. I'm using an 9 year old Dell Dimension PC at the moment.

With my new PC having an i7 processor, 16GB RAM and a 1TB Caviar Black HDD, will I really miss an SSD if I've never had one?
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
MaltonSeadog said:
Apologies - I didn't mean to suggest I was going to do something illegal. Please excuse my ignorance on such matters! Thanks for pointing it out.

Maybe I should just forget about the SSD for now. I'm using an 9 year old Dell Dimension PC , with an i7 processor, 16GB RAM and a 1TB Caviar Black HDD, will I really miss an SSD if I've never had one?
Click to expand...

The difference between the OS you wanted to purchase and the one from PCS is around £10 (if I understood you correctly), you can get a decent SSD 120gb for around £80 that you can either send to PCS or install it yourself.
 
M

MaltonSeadog

Silver Level Poster
I think, after much deliberation (and help from you guys), that I should stick exactly as I am andstop spending money!.

If an SSD is so easy to install (and migrate Windows to - anyone?), then I can upgrade at some point in the future.

I'm just being greedy.

Edit: HD7950 upgrade is £82. If I'm not a hardcore gamer, and I'm only running 1920 x 1200 tops, is a HD7850 not adequate on highest settings? HD7950 may be overkill?
 
mishra

mishra

Rising Star
It is not easy to migrate :(
To do so you would have to use third party software (like StorageCraft ro similar). Simply if you get an SSD in the future You will have to install everything from scratch. Operating system, games, software, basically the whole lot.

I do not want to point you in the wrong direction. I never had SSD in my rig (only saw mates PC's and laptops with SSD) ... you know it is quicker. But normal drive is seriously good enough for any PC, be it gaming, music production, office tasks. I think your new PC will be so much quicker than your old. You will not even notice any difference.

If you dont really feel very techy atm, I would just pay PCs to build, configure and check your rig. SO that you can enjoy it from the very first day it will arrive on your doorstep. Last thing you want is fuss and frustration, especially after spending like a grand.
 
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