Lost on CPU Upgrade path from I7-930

D

dpoverlord

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 18, 2004
Messages
2,074
Hey guys,

I have been waiting for Haswell to upgrade my I7-930 but everyone is telling me that it is not much of an upgrade compared to if I went to Ivy Bridge, 1155 or a 3770 or 3930K. I am really confused and know you are more of an expert than I am. I'd love to get your advice, as I am not even sure if I really NEED the upgrade since I have felt my bottleneck was the lack of an SSD then GPU(before GTX 690=overkill); not the cpu.

Currently, I have a GTX690 and am trading / selling as I wait for the next gen. I was not thinking of upgrading my proc since for what I need it for it seems to run fine. However, is it worth upgrading to a 3770K / 3930K... Or should I just look for a CPU that fits into my current Motherboard(seems max I could do would be a 990X or 980 which makes no sense since I do not think I could upgrade it past what I have already O/C'd.

I know these questions have been asked in the past and after looking for 2 hrs I figured I'd ask your expets.

Now to me, I used to play games like Skyrim a lot. Recently I have not been playing many games at all. I use google docs more and a lot of multitasking. I do not do film/photo editing/benching. Last few months I have been doing more google docs/spreadsheets, but I was thinking of getting a third center monitor (23" or a 30" or 120hz) to complete my geekness. I would like to play games when I have the time. But more recently I have been more into surfing, games here and there and movies. I feel an SSD would be very beneficial but I do not have space in my hard drive rack for one at the moment so I would not to take one out.

With that being said here are my specs:
http://darig.shutterfly.com/pictures/16#12
MOBO: Gigabyte X58-UD5
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3450#
CPU: Intel i7-930 O/C 3.99ghz
Heatsink: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme
RAM: G Skill PC3 10700 6-6-6-23 (667MHZ)
GPU: GTX 690 & PHYSX GTX460 Monitor: 2333T x2
PSU: Corsair HX750
HD: Seagate 5 x 1.5TB
Case/Cooling: Lian Li Custom modded 10+fans 10 years old

Thanks a ton any suggestions for my long winded post would be great!
 
Last edited:
#1, for what you describe you do, you don't need an upgrade to your processor

#2, the mobo in the link is not the same thing you listed in your specs.

#3, if that is the case you still have, you have tons of room, look to your floppy/external area. a lot of ssds will come with a 2.5 -> 3.5 adapter

bottome line, get the SSD... next get a new case

and clean up those wires... maybe some faster ram, but all that other stuff first
 
Having gone from an i7 950 to my 1155 sig rig... I'll say that 1155 to 1366 is a side grade and is a marginal performance upgrade, and only worthwhile if you're getting the 1155 parts at El Cheapo pricing (which I did).

For the cost of a 1366 proc that is a worthy upgrade, you are well into the cost of moving to 2011. And if you're moving to 2011 you're right to go hexen. If you have the coin for 3930k I'd do it. SSD is also great in general snapiness.
 
bigted said:
#1, for what you describe you do, you don't need an upgrade to your processor

#2, the mobo in the link is not the same thing you listed in your specs.
Click to expand...
Here is the mobo, I just posted photos of my case
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3450#

bigted said:
#3, if that is the case you still have, you have tons of room, look to your floppy/external area. a lot of ssds will come with a 2.5 -> 3.5 adapter
Click to expand...

There are lots of ports left, I should junk my 2 old DVD burners. and get a blu-ray or keep one I have, also I do not have enough IDE slots to add more
bigted said:
bottome line, get the SSD... next get a new case
Click to expand...
SSD wise, is it worth the price I saw the new 440+GB drives but they are 5x more expensive it seems than a 3TB SATA drive, thats the one factor that is driving me away

bigted said:
and clean up those wires... maybe some faster ram, but all that other stuff first
Click to expand...
I am considering faster ram too or getting another 6GB or 3 dimms of 4GB each, but I was not sure if I would see a huge performance upgrade compared to:

SSD, Proc, GPU. which SSD do you think would make sense?
 
dpoverlord said:
Here is the mobo, I just posted photos of my case
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3450#



There are lots of ports left, I should junk my 2 old DVD burners. and get a blu-ray or keep one I have, also I do not have enough IDE slots to add more

SSD wise, is it worth the price I saw the new 440+GB drives but they are 5x more expensive it seems than a 3TB SATA drive, thats the one factor that is driving me away


I am considering faster ram too or getting another 6GB or 3 dimms of 4GB each, but I was not sure if I would see a huge performance upgrade compared to:

SSD, Proc, GPU. which SSD do you think would make sense?
Click to expand...

I would move away from the IDE optical drives to a single SATA DVD/Blu-ray drive if needed. Otherwise just dump the drive all together.

You really don't need a big SSD, get yourself a 128GB Samsung 840 pro and use a larger hard drive to store music, movies, steam folder if needed. I rock a 60GB intel SSD and with all my data and steam on a hard drive I still have about 17GB free. I still install all my usual apps on the SSD(Chrome, office, iTunes, dropbox, etc)

3x 4GB of DDR3 1600 is probably the sweet spot for you, I run 12GB of 1600 and I never have any troubles at all. infact 8GB is probably more than enough.
 
Do you think the price ratio of SSD to to Sata drive makes sense? Is there a way to get an SATA extension if I do not have enough ports?
 
Most everyone uses SSD as boot drive, spinny as data, I am using a 64gb SSD for win7 for example. Get a 128gb Samsung or crucial m4, install/clone your os to new SSD and you'll be set, this will make the biggest impact on the speed of your system.

your memory is good though
 
dpoverlord said:
Do you think the price ratio of SSD to to Sata drive makes sense? Is there a way to get an SATA extension if I do not have enough ports?
Click to expand...

Price to performance on an SSD makes perfect sense, an SSD is so much quicker that at $150 USD for 128GBs isn't a bad deal at all.

No that is not possible, you would need a SATA controller card to do that.

How many SATA drives are you running in the system currently? That board has 8 SATA 3Gb/s and 2 SATA 6Gb/s. You have 5 SATA drives, even with those you should still have ports if that is the board you have.
 
Currently I only have 4 drives connected as the 5th failed.

3 1.5TB drives and 1 TB drive.

Also seems they are only plugged into the 3GB port, I am going to fix that now.
 
plugging spinning drives into the 6g sata3 ports isn't going to gain you anything, leave them plugged into the 3gb sata2's. the only drives that can benefit from the 6gb sata3 ports are SSDs
 
walwalka said:
Sounds like you're in the clear, you can pick up an SSD hook it up to the sata 6gb/s and rock out. Haha

Personally I would go with the Samsung 840 pro ssd in your size of choice, 128gb is a popular size.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147192
Click to expand...

I think I am going to go that route, is it better to do a fresh windows install or does a clone install work fine?

The other thing is, what do most people do with there programs? Store them on a seperate IDE drive and only install the important programs on the SSD? I am asking since currently my C: windows drive is 189GB
 
I keep my big apps ie. Steam and games, adobe master collection on my storage drive. Along with my music, documents, movies, files. Everything else is loaded on my SSD.

Or you could pickup a little larger SSD.

Clone is fine, but fresh is always the best.
 
I would just stick with the 930.

The 1155 is a dead socket and the LGA2011s would set you back a bit to buy the X79's

Just wait for Haswell.
 
"Lian Li Custom modded 10+fans" doesn't say much to me; would help if you said the actual model of that case. But nice screenshot though :).

dpoverlord said:
Looking at the Samsung 840 series now the TLC is $347 but the Pro is $499
Click to expand...

No, only the biggest 512GB size of the 840 Pro is that $500. Same thing with any other biggest-in-a-line SSD. The 256GB version is around $250. The 128GB around $140.

If you want to spend even less per MB, the somewhat slower Samsung 840 (non-Pro) is around $100 for the 120GB size ($180 for the 250GB). Still infinitely faster than any spinning disk drive.

You have to stop thinking of SSDs in terms of spinning disk drives. You certainly don't need to pay the price premium for a gigantic SSD. As others have said here, a 128GB SSD is usually more than enough for a system drive. A 256GB most certainly is. As others have said, even if your traditional hard drive bays are full, there should be plenty of room in that case to have a SSD in another location. Again, if you could pass along what model of case it is, it would help with advising.

Moving to a good, modern SSD from a spinning disk of rust is almost certainly the biggest overall speed boost for the money you can make for your system. And can be used in future systems as well. Spinning disks should only be used for data storage these days. I'm not a fan of Seagate's firmware problems over the years; I prefer other vendors for spinning disks, even though there are few others these days...heh.

As to optical drives, you are not going to find any new IDE connector DVD (or BluRay (BR)) burners these days. Only SATA. In fact, the only new IDE optical drive of any type I have been able to find lately is this DVD-ROM only (non-burning) MSI DH-18D4P.

I wouldn't worry about getting anything new optical-wise until you replace the motherboard/assemble a new system. BR reader/DVD burner combos aren't worth the extra price over standard DVD burners if you don't watch BRs on your PC. BR burners are even a less good deal; blank BR discs are very expensive. And technology on DVD burners has pretty much reached its peak over the past few years; you are not going to gain anything by replacing what you have now before getting a new PC.

You have more than enough SATA connectors on that board (10 !) to add both a SSD to your current setup and/or replace the 2 DVD IDE (if that's what they are) burners with SATA ones. Again, I wouldn't bother replacing the DVD burners on the old system if they still work. Unless you really need a BluRay (only if you have plenty of BluRay movies to watch). Avoid BR burners; get a BR reader/DVD burner combo if really needed. If you don't have BR movies, stay with DVD/CD-only burners.

For more complete upgrade advice over the above, telling what your current optical drive model numbers are and whether they are IDE or SATA would help.

As to other upgrading, that X58 chipset Intel board is 4+ year old technology. I wouldn't upgrade the CPU on that thing. As mentioned by others, wait for Haswell. And replace the board as well. AIso, I don't consider the 1155 a "dead socket". Its in the newest Intel boards with the most modern chipsets....and the successor to it (the 1150) isn't coming out until the Haswell is released. Also a much wider range of CPUs can fit in that socket compared to the 2011.

If worried about cost but willing to wait for (and pay the early-adopter price premium of) the Haswell, the upcoming AMD Steamroller is another option. But the price/performance ratio over current Piledriver/Visheras remains to be seen.
 
Last edited:
dpoverlord said:
I feel an SSD would be very beneficial but I do not have space in my hard drive rack for one at the moment so I would not to take one out.
Click to expand...

Greetings, its a SOLID STATE drive, it doesn't have to be secured against movement like a spinning drive, just tape it to the bottom of the case and let it sit there

Cheers
 
Don't go upgrading your cpu. Wait for a more necessary performance gap.

Also, that board is X58 so it uses a shit Marvell Sata 6gb/s controller so don't put your ssd on it.
Put whatever drives you dislike most on the Sata 6gb/s ports.

HobartTas said:
Greetings, its a SOLID STATE drive, it doesn't have to be secured against movement like a spinning drive, just tape it to the bottom of the case and let it sit there

Cheers
Click to expand...

This^
 
Moving to a good, modern SSD from a spinning disk of rust is almost certainly the biggest overall speed boost for the money you can make for your system
Click to expand...

Just because SSD`s have been the recent trend does not make a HDD "A spinning disk of rust".. this so called HDD has been serving us for the past 20 years and it has served well... dont be a stereotype by saying that HDD`s are crap just because a HDD has been replaced by a new shiny affordable SSD that you can buy... people still prefer HDD`s for mass storage and that is going to be the trend for quite some time to come unless prices go down drastically... No one uses a 1 TB SSD raid to fulfill their data needs FYI...
 
You get what you pay for.
With a SSD you get a lot of performance with limited space.
With a HDD you get a lot of space with limited performance.

Having a SSD for Windows and regularly used applications makes a world of a difference, even old C2D systems feel very snappy when you replace the HDD with an SSD.

On the topic of the CPU, Intel has not really been able to release something that "kills" an 9xx CPU with a good OC.

The 11xx socket processors are more focused on power use and having an updated platform than actual performance. You will not find anything in these sockets that can match your current CPU in overall performance.

2011 does not provide many new features and you have to get a i7-3930K and a good OC going before you notice any real benefit. The problem with doing this is the expense compared to the performance difference. Just the motherboard and CPU will probably cost more than $800.
 
murkris118 said:
Just because SSD`s have been the recent trend does not make a HDD "A spinning disk of rust"
Click to expand...

Ease down, bud, ease down.

I linked to that quote from Linus Torvalds because I thought it was amusing.

Nowhere did I say anything about replacing someone's storage multi-GB spinning disk drives with SSDs. Or "that they are crap". As an old, crusty (very crusty) dude, I've been working with hard drives for longer than 20 years and full realize both the price differences per MB and the reliability records between hard drives & SSDs in different usage scenarios ;).

In fact, my quote was "Spinning disks should only be used for data storage these days.". For the majority of people here and elsewhere, this is the advisable route to take. No one is suggesting setting up a 10 drive NAS with SSDs...heh.
 
JayJapanB said:
Can we have some pics of the case???

Vintage Lian Li FTW!
Click to expand...

Fritingo said:
"Lian Li Custom modded 10+fans" doesn't say much to me; would help if you said the actual model of that case. But nice screenshot though :).
Click to expand...

Yeah man its from 2000, Lian Li Pc-70 USB custom modded back in the day before it was big. Mods then cost me almost a grand to do and to have someone help me with it.

Go to:
http://darig.shutterfly.com/pictures/16

That also is a digidoc5 but I took out all the thermal sensors and just have the fans spinning 24x7 nonstop. 10 years later nothing is failed. The only downside of this case is that the side door with the greek symbols and neon light do not close with a thermaltake 120 Extreme.

Fritingo said:
If you want to spend even less per MB, the somewhat slower Samsung 840 (non-Pro) is around $100 for the 120GB size ($180 for the 250GB). Still infinitely faster than any spinning disk drive.
Click to expand...
Is there a big difference though between the Pro and non pro. I feel going the SSD route makes the most sense, I am only thinking with my desktop files I hit 100GB. Do you guys all move your files to separate storage drive and just make links to your desktop? Again, I could just get out of that habit.

Fritingo said:
A 256GB most certainly is. As others have said, even if your traditional hard drive bays are full, there should be plenty of room in that case to have a SSD in another location. Again, if you could pass along what model of case it is, it would help with advising.

I'm not a fan of Seagate's firmware problems over the years; I prefer other vendors for spinning disks, even though there are few others these days...heh.
Click to expand...
The Seagates were a good deal then so I grabbed them, who do you think is the most reliable? I am aiming more to go +256GB because I would hate to spend the money then find I needed more space on the SSD.

I would put:
OS - win 7 I dont think I will go 8 unless you guys think so..
most used apps (flashfxp, browsers, office softeware, productivity apps / photoshop)
Games (skyrim, few other ones)

Fritingo said:
Replace the 2 DVD IDE (if that's what they are) burners with SATA ones. Again, I wouldn't bother replacing the DVD burners on the old system if they still work. For more complete upgrade advice over the above, telling what your current optical drive model numbers are and whether they are IDE or SATA would help.
Click to expand...

I have a replacement POS Plextor 800a which had to have been the worst drive the ever created. The original 760 I had was better but sadly the replacement came with a remodded one. I personally was thinking that I have so much storage and about 200 blank DVD's around that I could do a backup, but this would take hours. If a Blu ray can hold 15 DVD's maybe I should go that route. Or better yet get a 3TB Hard drive and backup a lot of my important files then D/C it.

Fritingo said:
Wait for Haswell. And replace the board as well.
If worried about cost but willing to wait for (and pay the early-adopter price premium of) the Haswell, the upcoming AMD Steamroller is another option. But the price/performance ratio over current Piledriver/Visheras remains to be seen.
Click to expand...

I do not mind waiting, the more I see it, the I7-930 for me has satisfied my needs based off the responses I received from all of you guys... THANKS A MILLION, Based of the reqs I will go:

SSD (I think I want to go 256GB+ but would the 840 PRO be worth more than TLC???)
IDE - Maybe 1-3 3TB IDE for backup of my current IDE's (any suggestions?)
Memory (but may just wait to do this when I get a new mobo / cpu, I had 2 4GB sticks but I do not want to mix this with 3 2GB sticks and have conflicts since my board is better with 3 x 3 of the same type).
GPU - I want to sell the GTX 690 its overpowered for my system and I will just wait until the next gen.
Blu Ray - I don't use or plan to use any blu ray media, I would use it more for backups
CPU/Mobo - wait for Haswell or see reviews.
 
Last edited:
I'm in a similar situation to the OP, as I'm feeling the squeeze to upgrade finally despite the awesome performance of my i7-920 (ie. Lack of USB 3.0 and SATA6 for my new SSD etc..). I too suggest "Wait for Haswell". Don't waste your money on 1155 at this point given that Haswell, if I am correct will utilize a new socket - 1150. IF it turns out that Haswell is going to release in Q1 of this year, that is the platform to appraise.

The other choice is to do what I though I'd do originally and look to Socket 2011, but sadly I have no idea why Intel is releasing old technology there (despite it being the high end variant of said old technology). SB-E is a generation old at this point and still costs a fortune, despite X79 boards having problems with say, PCI-E 3.0! Now it appears that near Haswell's launch , Intel may make the same stupid mistake and come out with Ivy Bridge-E which will be late and expensive yet again. I can't understand why they don't release Haswell-E around the same time as Haswell itself, but it seems they just don't want people like you and I who have been existing with rigs comfortably competitive with top end offerings 3-4 generations and years later, to enjoy that again.

At this point I'd definitely hold out and wait for Haswell to see what shows up before making any decisions. If you want a SSD, just do as I plan to and run it on your Intel chipset SATAII ports; it will be more than 'fast enough" even if it won't reach its potential. Apparently, the SATAIII chipsets on X58 boards are all horrid so it isn't worthwhile. I'm none too happy about the expense of these platforms and the lack of quality upgrades, but we're going to have to do something soon. Least we can do this late in the game with Ivy Bridge is wait; see what Haswell provides and compare it to any IB-E offerings that come down the road later.
 
yea 3930K has atleast 2x more processing power then a Core i7 930. I went from a core i7 960 to a 3930K, and man, the UEFI bios compared with this lightning processor is amazing.
 
dpoverlord said:
Yeah man its from 2000, Lian Li Pc-70 USB custom modded back in the day before it was big. Mods then cost me almost a grand to do and to have someone help me with it. Go to:
http://darig.shutterfly.com/pictures/16
Click to expand...

Nice! A decade of solid running; you can't do better than that :).

As to the case particulars, yes, you have monsterous expandability options there. Despite being modified, looks like the PC-70 drive slots/cages are original. Which means you have 9 3.5" slots (3 normal flat mounts that are externally accessible, 6 drives on their side internally) and 6 5.25" slots. That is a quantity of drive slots most modern full towers would tremble in fear at :D.

If you find you are running out of 3.5" slots (can't imagine that happening with your quoted hard drive number currently), can sit the SSD somewhere flat and not even worry about securing it if you don't move the case around as someone above noted. But if you want it more secured, you will need to use a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter (or at a higher price, this one or this one) to put the drive in one of the 9 3.5" bays. There are some 3.5" SSDs, but most (including the Samsungs) are 2.5" wide.

If you run out of 3.5" bay room for your regular hard drives (I don't see how :)), can then go very old school and put one or two up in the 5.25" bays with this.

Most modern cases come with 2.5" mounts and/or adapters included as SSDs have become popular in the past couple of years. For your old school beauty, though, will have to use such an adapter.

dpoverlord said:
Is there a big difference though between the Pro and non pro. I feel going the SSD route makes the most sense, I am only thinking with my desktop files I hit 100GB. Do you guys all move your files to separate storage drive and just make links to your desktop? Again, I could just get out of that habit.
Click to expand...

Will start off by saying I'm not entirely clear what you mean by "desktop files". Everyone has different ways they handle things; all personal data out to external NAS setups or they keep everything inside the PC (as I do running RAID 6 setups) or otherwise.

At 100GB, sounds like your "desktop files" include personal data that could better be stored some place other than the system drive. As an example, on the main Windows system here (most applicable to you; won't get into my Linux systems), I run Windows 7 Ultimate with tons (and tons) of programs installed on the system drive. Including a couple of multi-gigabyte games. And the Windows swap file is there too. My desktop has shortcuts to installed programs (on the system drive) and folder shortcuts (to the data storage RAID). Shortcuts don't take up any space. Total space used on the system drive: approx. 66 GB.

Personal data is to store some place other than your main system drive: photos, videos, movies, songs, personal documents, downloaded programs (among other things). Along with your downloaded email if you are an old fogie like me. In Thunderbird (what I use), Outlook Express or whatever, you can set the folders of downloaded mail to another drive/partition and still keep the main program on the system drive. Same thing with Chrome & Firefox bookmarks and caches and so on.

Heck, for programs you don't use all that often and/or speed of access isn't important, you can even install some to your data storage drives (if they let you) instead of the system drive. As a result, I don't see much of a need for a SSD over 128GB. But if you still have doubts and can afford it, a 256GB would work.

The basic key: personal data is stored on data storage (spinning discs...of rust!) drives, not your main system drive (SSD). The OS, installed programs and swap file are all you need on the system drive.

As to the differences between the 840 Pro and non-Pro, there are speed differences (nothing like the difference between SSDs and hard drives, though) and the Pro also has a 5 year compared with a 3 year warranty on the non-Pro (which is common on consumer SSDs). My recommendation to friends on computers has remained the same for years: life is short, the more speed the better. As long as the price/performance ratio does not go out of whack.

Although, a review of the super cheap-per-MB 500GB 840 non-Pro ($350) was posted here just yesterday (it won the HardOCP Gold award).

I'd still go for the Pro personally. As an old fogie, I like the longer warranty, slightly higher performance and proposed increased durability. Although the 500GB non-Pro above (that specific size) looks like far and away the best value.

dpoverlord said:
The Seagates were a good deal then so I grabbed them, who do you think is the most reliable?
Click to expand...

Hard to say really these days. Like many things unfortunately, the reliability of consumer (spinning disc) hard drives appears to be going down in recent years rather than up among all manufacturers.

I currently like Western Digital (WD) Reds for general data usage (including on non-NAS regular desktops). Inexpensive, rated for 24/7 RAID usage & 1 million hour MTBF, cool running and low power usage. For alternatives, there are expensive enterprise drives like the WD RE, Hitachi UltraStar (company now owned by WD), Seagate Cheetah/Constellation & Toshibas. Hard to justify the prices if you don't have an enterprise budget, though. Another option might be consumer-priced Toshibas (also here).

I currently avoid Seagates due to their long history of firmware problems with various models.

As an amusing aside, I bought a copy of the first non-enterprise 7200rpm hard drive which was released by Seagate years ago: the Medalist Pro 9140. I experienced problems (and data loss) in Windows NT 4.0 with it. According to an increasing number of Usenet posts, many other users experienced the same thing with that drive on certain motherboards. They released a firmware update for it after the uproar, but it didn't solve the problem here, so I RMAed it. The drive they sent back had both the updated firmware along with a thin metal cover over the entire bottom of the drive the original didn't have (and that you won't see on many modern drives)...heh. Apparently they didn't bother to account for stray electrical signals and Windows NT's high sensitivity to flaky hardware in the original design :eek:.

The RMA went smoothly though, the one positive thing I could say about it. Other more recent Seagates have had firmware issues as well.

dpoverlord said:
I would put:
OS - win 7 I dont think I will go 8 unless you guys think so..
most used apps (flashfxp, browsers, office softeware, productivity apps / photoshop)
Games (skyrim, few other ones)
Click to expand...

Nice. Yes, Windows 7 is the desktop choice, if Linux isn't something you want to move to (but you should! :D). Windows 8 is a worse-than-Vista mistake; attempting to cram down people's throats a tablet interface on a desktop operating system is a fail move.

dpoverlord said:
I have a replacement POS Plextor 800a which had to have been the worst drive the ever created. The original 760 I had was better but sadly the replacement came with a remodded one. I personally was thinking that I have so much storage and about 200 blank DVD's around that I could do a backup, but this would take hours. If a Blu ray can hold 15 DVD's maybe I should go that route. Or better yet get a 3TB Hard drive and backup a lot of my important files then D/C it.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about the Plextor.

No actually, BR discs (single sided) can hold 25 GB max each. Versus 4.7GB for a (single layer) DVD, the size difference is just over 5 times more data, not 15. The price difference used to be significant (the last time I really looked at blank BRs), but the price per GB for each disc type (on Amazon at least) is almost similar now. Writing drives are 2 to 3 times the price, though, and for flexibility, DVD is still king.

Double-sided BR discs (50 GB), are still double the price or more of single sided (as are double-layer DVDs at 8.5GB), if you can even find a burner that can handle them. My personal experience with double layered DVDs on a burner that can handle them: unreliable.

Like you, I'm still an old school fan of DVDs for data backups. Even though external hard drives and the like are more popular these days. As to migrating data to a new system, you in fact don't need to spend anything more for backups. You don't need to backup everything (but its always a good plan, however) on the data drives before moving them to a new system. Clone your existing system drive to a new SSD using a free clone utility (dd, Clonezilla, PartedMagic (which includes dd)) or if you really want Windows stuff see here. You can use PartedMagic & Clonezilla (& dd) with a bootable CD/USB flash drive on existing "Windows" drives without issue, though.

For transferring data from a data drive on an old system to new, different data drives on a new system (in Windows at least), I simply plug both computers into a router/switch, make the old system's drives network accessible and copy everything over. Other people may do other things. But as noted, if you just plug in the data drives to the new system instead, there shouldn't be any/many issues (make sure the new system drive is up and running on the new setup beforehand, though).

JayJapanB said:
Also, that board is X58 so it uses a shit Marvell Sata 6gb/s controller so don't put your ssd on it.
Put whatever drives you dislike most on the Sata 6gb/s ports.
Click to expand...

^^ yep, I overlooked this originally. Circa 2008 third-party SATA revision 3.0 (6gbs) controllers don't have a good history. Never mind that you are unlikely to get that throughput speed on that controller, you are running a good risk of unreliability putting a new, genuine SATA 3.0 (6gbs) SSD onto it. You might run into a "what did this poor old drive do to deserve being slapped onto that controller" problem, but its for the best :D.

If you get the SSD first and want to connect it to the old system, use the built-in Intel controller port(s), even though they are the older SATA revision 2.0 (3gbs).

dpoverlord said:
IDE - Maybe 1-3 3TB IDE for backup of my current IDE's (any suggestions?)
Click to expand...

Don't know what you are referring to by "IDE", but if you mean "hard drives", see above ;). Whatever you do, avoid looking for/buying anything new with actual IDE connectors; you pretty much won't find them on modern boards, much less upcoming Haswell ones.

For regular backups on a new system, you could do as I do and do it to DVD discs (ahem). External hard drives (through USB 3.0 or eSATA connectors) are a popular current backup option.

Good luck!
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
As someone who had an I7 950 and switch to 1155, with what you described. I would wait for Haswell, and keep the I7 930 at 4ghz.
 
I went from a an I7-930 to a xeon e5649 just about a month ago. Gaming performance wise it was a sidegrade, folding performance it was an upgrade - gained nearly 50% more points/day, both clocked up to 3.8, but the westmere consumes a bit less power and runs 10-15 degrees cooler, so i can run my fans quieter.

So if you would benefit from more compute performance or decreased noise and heat, defnitely consider picking up a 32nm westmere or gulftown if you can find one for cheap. I paid $250 for mine. But if those arent really an upgrade for you, wait out until haswell.
 
SSDs are so small, you don't need to take a drive out. Just use some double sided tape and stick it to the bottom or side of your case.
 
Wait for Haswell.

I don't think you're going to see too much real life difference between the 840 and 840 Pro, yeah the difference is there, but you'd probably only notice if you were benchmarking them side by side, not typical OS use imo.
 
Thanks for all the advice, now I am in the mode of deciding which SSD is the right purchase.

Looking at Microcenter they have the OCZ Vector 256GB for 269. the 512 for $549
Then they have the Samsung 840 500GB @ 349, the pro 512 @ $519 & the pro 256 @$249.

Any other drives I should be looking at?
 
Opening up this thread again:

So a lot has changed, I did not upgrade anything from above

Now:

Surround 1600p
SLI Titan
Samsung Pro 840 512GB Raid 0 x2

at 7680 x 1600 I am getting in the top 40 for benches in Valley.

I am able to get to 4.2 / 4.3 GHZ on my chip but I every now and then will get a system crash when idling (weird I know) I have not gone past 1.4V I have stayed at 1.35 as my max. When I ran 4.347 it was stable in intelburn test but temps went high. If I went to O/C my titans I did about 1045mhz with a 3400mz ram speed.

I considered a 980x but is speed the only difference between that and a 930?

My main reason for wanting to upgrade actually is 3 things:

1. Tri Titans are hard as my older Rig case does not have enough metal bay slots to hold the 3rd Titan see photos:
In the case Titan photo see how there is only 1 opening then the next opening on the bottom is metal. I would need to figure out how to dremel (I don't own a dremel) or some other way to cut out that metal and open up my heavily modded lian li pc-70 case.

1000

1000

1000

1000

1000

1000



2. SATA 6GB have 3 WD Red 6GB and Samsung pro 840 drives I'd like to take advantage of

3. PCI 16x on all ports with more than 2 USB 3.0 ports.
 
dpoverlord said:
1. Tri Titans are hard as my older Rig case does not have enough metal bay slots to hold the 3rd Titan see photos:
Click to expand...

I'd recommend a new case. I don't think you could dremel a 3rd card in there unless you put it on blocks or something. If you can afford 3 Titans then the funds for a new case should be in your sofa cushions :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top