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How much faster?

U

USMCGrunt

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 19, 2010
Messages
3,103
I dont have much experience in the realm of mid-range machines so im hoping some of you guys can shed some light on this for me. My girlfriends system currently looks like this:

ASUS M3N-HT
Phenom II X3 720
4GB DD2 1066
GeForce GTX 260
7200 RPM 160GB HDD

Windows 7 boot time from BIOS handoff: 1:47
Internet Explorer load time to homepage: :27
Firefox load time to homepage: :10

I don't know about you guys but those times are horrible...so much so that she prefers to use my computer instead of hers and well...thats not acceptable lol. So I ordered up a new petite form factored computer that hopefully will cure her speed needs while not sucking the green backs out of my wallet, let me know what you guys think. Oh and she's not a gamer.....in any single way, so the iGPU should work just fine for accelerating Win7 effects right?

ASRock H61M/U3S3
Intel i5 IB 3330 3.0GHz
OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SSD
8GB DDR3 1333 RAM (Fastest non-OCed ram supported by mobo)

So....how'd I do? That's a $500 dollar system (including odds and ends..case, PSU, etc..)...figure it should provide her with a pretty decent boost in performance....did I match things up well?
 
What does she use it for? If it's not real intense, I might opt for the i3 3225 since it has the HD 4000 integrated instead of the 2500, and would probably be a bit better on power if she can get by with a 2 core 4 thread processor. The i5 is a nicer processor though.
 
Mostly productivity stuff...word processor, the web...so I assumed raw CPU performance over GPU performance would be preferable. I know the web can need some GPU power but the intergrated GPUs of today are strong enough to handle that right?

Like I said, she is not a gamer...not The Sims, not Farmville, nothing.
 
Why not pop a 128/256 M4/830 SSD in there with a fresh install. For what she uses it for the x3 should be overkill really.
Then you can always use the SSD in a new machine if it doesnt do the trick.
 
You should have just gotten a 60-64 GB ssd.Less than $100.eh h61 + i3 should be pretty snappy :D notsomuch on cpu-intensive stuff.
I think you did pretty good :D
 
You should have probably just reformatted her computer, there is no reason that computer should be that slow, certainly not a hardware issue unless her HDD is crapping out.
 
What case and PSU are you planning on using?
Which RAM did you buy?

Anyway, like some have said, there was no probably need for that new system. That old 160GB HDD and probably an old install of Windows 7 contributed heavily to the system's slow performance. You could have just added a SSD to that AMD setup and that would have solved the performance issues. Combined with a fresh reinstall on that SSD, that would have improved the performance immensely.
 
Danny Bui said:
What case and PSU are you planning on using?
Which RAM did you buy?

Anyway, like some have said, there was no probably need for that new system. That old 160GB HDD and probably an old install of Windows 7 contributed heavily to the system's slow performance. You could have just added a SSD to that AMD setup and that would have solved the performance issues. Combined with a fresh reinstall on that SSD, that would have improved the performance immensely.
Click to expand...

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139984

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108418

I was kind of thinking that an SSD would solve the entire issue but I was itching for a new build as well and I also wanted to reduce the form factor for her as well....you know how girls are....they like small cutesy things.
 
USMCGrunt said:
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108418

I was kind of thinking that an SSD would solve the entire issue but I was itching for a new build as well and I also wanted to reduce the form factor for her as well....you know how girls are....they like small cutesy things.
Click to expand...

That wasn't a good case choice due to the really crappy PSU. If you can cancel the order, I recommend these other options:
Option 1:
$60 - COOLER MASTER Elite 120 mITX Case
$50 - Antec Earthwatts Green EA380D 380W PSU
---
Total: $110 shipped

Option 2:
$55 - Rosewill RS-MI-01 BK mITX Case
$44 - Seasonic SS-350SFE 350W SFX PSU
---
Total: $99 shipped

Option 3:
$55 - IN WIN BP655.200BL mITX Case
$56 - SeaSonic SS-300TFX Bronze 300W TFX PSU
--
Total: $111 shipped
 
Danny Bui said:
That wasn't a good case choice due to the really crappy PSU. If you can cancel the order, I recommend these other options:
Option 1:
$60 - COOLER MASTER Elite 120 mITX Case
$50 - Antec Earthwatts Green EA380D 380W PSU
---
Total: $110 shipped

Option 2:
$55 - Rosewill RS-MI-01 BK mITX Case
$44 - Seasonic SS-350SFE 350W SFX PSU
---
Total: $99 shipped

Option 3:
$55 - IN WIN BP655.200BL mITX Case
$56 - SeaSonic SS-300TFX Bronze 300W TFX PSU
--
Total: $111 shipped
Click to expand...

Damn....stuff is already on its way here....I really like Option 3 too...

Thanks for the effort though.
 
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