How to Upgrade?

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mis3

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Jul 4, 2000
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My current system is 4 years old, below are the major components:
Antec P182
Asus P5E WS Pro (6 xSATA-2, 3 Gb/s ports)
Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 (small OC to 2.8 MHz)
OCZ 2P8004GK 4GK 2x2GB PC256
8800GTS 512
WD7500AAKS
Corsair 620HX power supply
AC Zalman CNPS9700NT

The PC is working fine now with WinXP but I am looking for upgrades. Any suggestions?
Will a SATA-2 SSD help with the performance?
 
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Will a SATA2 SSD help with the performance?
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I would get an SATA3 SSD. Crucial M4 is a good choice and it can be had for on sale for less than $200 for the 256GB version.
 
My MB, Asus P5E-WS Pro, is only SATA-2 capable. This is why I asked if SATA-2 SSD will improve performance.
 
Anyone? Maybe my system is too old?

If I upgrade to an i5 CPU and MB, what components can I retain from my current system?
 
mis3 said:
Anyone? Maybe my system is too old?

If I upgrade to an i5 CPU and MB, what components can I retain from my current system?
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Only the PSU. You cannot carry over the RAM because i5 systems require DDR3 RAM - but your current system uses DDR2 RAM. And your other components are either too old or too slow, so performance would have been bottlenecked even with an SSD.

As for your original question, a SATA 6.0 Gbps SSD would be an improvement although the sequential read and write performance will be restricted by the SATA 3.0 Gbps controller in your current system. Any SATA 2 (SATA 3.0 Gbps) SSDs still on the market are now overpriced for their relatively slow performance compared to newer SATA 3 SSDs; in fact, most of the remaining SATA 2 SSDs have write performance that's slower than most hard drives.
 
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I must be away for too long. Even the internal hard drives are now SATA-3 now!

You are right. If I have to build a new computer, the only part I can retian is the Corsair PSU. Probably the P182 case as well, I like this case a lot. How about the video card, 8800GTS-512?

I am looking for upgrade because I want the PC to work faster. This is why I am looking at the SSD. I use this PC for general use; ie: MS Office applications, browsing, MKV conversion and watching movies.
 
mis3 said:
How about the video card, 8800GTS-512?
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Depending on the monitor resolution that you'd be planning to use with the new system, the GPU will likely limit the performance of a new build. After all, it is now more than four years old (and five GPU generations have been introduced since the 8800 GTX 512 or 8800 GT 512 came out). Nowadays, the 8800 GTX 512 is now slower than even a GTX 550 Ti, let alone a GTX 670.
 
You need it to be faster for what purposes exactly?

In my opinion, pick up a SATA 3 SSD and Windows 7. You'll be amazed at the speed that an SSD can breath into most any system. If you're still not happy with it, you can move both to an entirely new system.

Do you play games? If not, the 8800 is more then enough for your needs. You should also look into overclocking the CPU higher. I have 3 6600 quads and they all run at 3.6 ghz folding 24/7. Coolermaster 212+ evo is a very nice cooler for the price, and it will also carry into any new system you may wish to build in the future.
 
Thanks for the advices.

I see this Adata SSD on sales in Canada Computer for $80.
Adata S510 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid Sate Drive (SSD), Read: 550MB/s Write: 510MB/s (AS510S3-120GM-C)

I read that the read and write speeds of this Adata SSD is not too good but it should be OK to be used in a SATA-2 box.

I do have a few full backups (backup image) of my C drive. Can I just restore one of these images to this new SSD drive? To install Windows and my apps will take many hours.
 
mis3 said:
Thanks for the advices.

I see this Adata SSD on sales in Canada Computer for $80.
Adata S510 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid Sate Drive (SSD), Read: 550MB/s Write: 510MB/s (AS510S3-120GM-C)

I read that the read and write speeds of this Adata SSD is not too good but it should be OK to be used in a SATA-2 box.
Click to expand...

Also, please note that it's Sandforce SF2281-based, and most SF2281-based drives have had a history of causing random BSOD issues. In addition, that SSD is one of the slower-performing SF2281-based models due to it using slow, cheap asynchronous NAND flash chips. Faster-performing SSDs use synchronous NAND chips or (even faster) toggle NAND flash chips. As such, the maximum sequential speeds of the cheaper asynchronous SF2281 SSDs are somewhat overinflated, especially since some SSD brands merely copied the specs of their faster, more expensive SF2281 SSDs and pasted them onto the spec sheet of the cheaper asynchronous SSDs.
 
Prelude514 said:
In my opinion, pick up a SATA 3 SSD and Windows 7. You'll be amazed at the speed that an SSD can breath into most any system. If you're still not happy with it, you can move both to an entirely new system.
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This. Get the Crucial m4 or Samsung 830 and a fresh install of Windows 7. Judging by your usage I don't think upgrading the CPU/mobo/RAM will have much of a noticeable impact.
 
This Crucial M4 must be a good SSD.

Do I still have to reinstall everything? I was hoping that I can just take a full image backup of C: and restore it to the new SSD.
 
mis3 said:
This Crucial M4 must be a good SSD.

Do I still have to reinstall everything? I was hoping that I can just take a full image backup of C: and restore it to the new SSD.
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Directly copying the C: drive from one HDD to another is never a good idea, the optimal thing would be to install a fresh copy of windows and just transfering your most important files with a flash drive or something of the sort
 
ludise said:
Directly copying the C: drive from one HDD to another is never a good idea, the optimal thing would be to install a fresh copy of windows and just transfering your most important files with a flash drive or something of the sort
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I am surprised. I am pretty sure if I change my HDD to another "regular" HDD, I can use the backup image.

Too bad. Last time right after I installed Window XP and MS Office, I made an image of C:.
 
A fresh install of Windows is an opportunity to clean up your system. If you buy an SSD (I chose the Samsung 830) and a large USB stick for the Windows installer it doesn`t take long at all. The days of installing from CD/DVD are over.
 
You can use something like Acronis True Image home to transfer your backup and it will align the drive for you in the process.

You can install it on another drive (coming from a HDD) but you'll have to make sure certain stuff is in order, like AHCI mode :)

I stand by ATIH, been using it for years, well worth the money, especially for general backups.

I sound like a sales person lol, but its just that good.
 
I use Drive Image, an old utility I bought long time ago which works in WinXP.
 
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