Hardware advice for Windows7 upgrade

[fthy]

Hi all,
I'm thinking about upgrading to Windows7 and was hoping if i can get some advice pls.

Option 1-
Do a clean install on a new SDD or VelociPator and use my existing C drive as a data drive

Option 2-
Build a new PC

There is no problem with my current setup but i think an upgrade is overdue .

btw, my current C drive (application and data is using about 160 GB)

Thx in advance ya.

[rwest]

If you're refering to the system in your sig, I'd say go with option1.

That C2D is a solid processor and matched with the P5k board it should be a strong system. Are you doing anything that's pushing these components?

160gb of 500 is not bad. 15% full is when you really need more space. For a 500 gig drive that's gonna be about 425gb full. Youve got plenty of room. Are you expecting to start filling the drive up?

Another option you may want to look at is load 7 onto your existing 500gb HDD and use the money to update your vid card. Of course this depends on what games your playing and what you want to do with your system.

4 gig of memory is still the reccomended amount unless your apps require more.

If your system is handling your apps just fine and you just want to experiment with 7, then you could partition the 500 hdd and load 7 to it. You don't have to get a seperate drive, unlesss you just want one.

An SSD will increase boot and load times, and your system will benefit from that.

Lastly; building is fun. If I had the money I'd build an updated new system for me about once a year. But, since I'm regularly broke...I won't get to build a new system for about 6-7 years. Updates only for me.

Depending on your funds and needs will mostly determine whether you should build new or not.

[fthy]

Thx rwest.

Option 1 sounds like a better bet to me as well

Are you expecting to start filling the drive up?

No, this is about as much as i'll be dealing with for a while. (application wise)

If your system is handling your apps just fine and you just want to experiment with 7, then you could partition the 500 hdd and load 7 to it. You don't have to get a seperate drive, unlesss you just want one.

How would i be able to find out how much space i've used on my current C drive on OS and application files?
Reason i'm asking is coz i need to find a big enough SSD for my upgrade.

Any reccommendation on SDD?

Thx.

[rwest]

Originally Posted by fthy How would i be able to find out how much space i've used on my current C drive on OS and application?

Go to my computer and look at the properties for each drive. Add the amount of used space together. That'll give you the total amount needed to load everything up, then at least double that for additional space.

You could just get an SSD for the OS only, but then I think all your doing here is helping boot time. You do have a raptor, you could easily split up your apps between the two. Put your most used apps on the SSD, and others on the Raptor, leave the 500gb strictly for storage of music and media files. If you do this a 160 -200gig SSD should work pretty welll I think.

Originally Posted by fthy Any reccommendation on SDD?

Unfortunately I don't, I'm happy with my WD blacks. Although I can't even afford a small SSD to even play with. Someone else will have to jump in with a reccomendation.

[fthy]

Thx again rwest.

Anyone else has any advice?

[fthy]

Hi all, i'm back again after some research.

Decided on getting an SSD as my OS/application drive.
Will be upgrading to Windows 7 Ultimate (64bits).

Few questions here and would appreciate if i can get some help....
1)Would my build supports SSD, need to upgrade RAM?
2)Does my mobo supports AHCI mode? Don't know what it is but read something about MUST set in AHCI mode when using SSD.
3)These are the SSD i'm looking at
G.SKILL Phoenix Pro Series FM-25S2S-120GBP2 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC
(Review looks pretty good, work out to be $249.98 shipped)
or
OCZ Technology 120 GB Vertex 2 Series SATA II 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G


Appreciate if i can get some comments......sales ends in less than 24hr .

Thx in advance.

[laurandavid]

Originally Posted by rwest If you're refering to the system in your sig, I'd say go with option1. That C2D is a solid processor and matched with the P5k board it should be a strong system. Are you doing anything that's pushing these components? 160gb of 500 is not bad. 15% full is when you really need more space. For a 500 gig drive that's gonna be about 425gb full. Youve got plenty of room. Are you expecting to start filling the drive up? Another option you may want to look at is load 7 onto your existing 500gb HDD and use the money to update your vid card. Of course this depends on what games your playing and what you want to do with your system. 4 gig of memory is still the reccomended amount unless your apps require more. If your system is handling your apps just fine and you just want to experiment with 7, then you could partition the 500 hdd and load 7 to it. You don't have to get a seperate drive, unlesss you just want one. An SSD will increase boot and load times, and your system will benefit from that. Lastly; building is fun. If I had the money I'd build an updated new system for me about once a year. But, since I'm regularly broke...I won't get to build a new system for about 6-7 years. Updates only for me. Depending on your funds and needs will mostly determine whether you should build new or not.

You mean 15% free space not 15% full right?

[rwest]

yep. Oops

[fthy]

Any comment on my choices?

[rwest]

Your board requires BIOS ver 1613 to support 64 bit. If you have to update BIOS you should just get the latest.

your ram is fine.

AHCI -Advanced Host Controller Interface supports Hot plugging and Native Command Queing. NCQ I think is kinda like cache not sure exactly, I think its supposed to be slightly faster at accesing data.
It's an advanced alternative to ide. Reccomended for Vista and 7.
Look in your BIOS for the settings.

Sorry fthy I just can't make a reccomendation with SSDs. Never owned one. Hang tight, the mods will get to the thread pretty soon.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Stick with magnetic drives for now. SSDs are not only extremely expensive for the capacity you get, but manufacturers are still treating consumers as guinea pigs for their firmwares; don't play Russian roulette with your data, unless you don't care for it.

[fthy]

Originally Posted by Nuclear Krusader Stick with magnetic drives for now. SSDs are not only extremely expensive for the capacity you get, but manufacturers are still treating consumers as guinea pigs for their firmwares; don't play Russian roulette with your data, unless you don't care for it.

Hmm.....
Would you suggest Raptor?
$119 shipped on Amazon.

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by Nuclear Krusader Stick with magnetic drives for now. SSDs are not only extremely expensive for the capacity you get, but manufacturers are still treating consumers as guinea pigs for their firmwares; don't play Russian roulette with your data, unless you don't care for it.

I agree with this statement. We see a lot of defective SSD drives or bad firmware problems regardless of the brand I have pretty much tried them all. I have had 4 fail so far in my Asus laptop, 2 Kingstons, an Intel and a Corsair. I am back to my good old WD 7200 RPM drive. Raptor won't give you any gains that you will notice over a WD Black, and Raptors are the most unreliable hard drives WD ever made!!!

[Nuclear Krusader]

I honestly don't see the need for speed hard-drive wise. It's hardly noticeable, unlike the difference 'twixt a 5400-rpm hard drive and a 7200-rpm (that's noticeable). Extra frame rates in games? Reduced load times? What's really the hurry?

[fthy]

Originally Posted by Khalil I agree with this statement. We see a lot of defective SSD drives or bad firmware problems regardless of the brand I have pretty much tried them all. I have had 4 fail so far in my Asus laptop, 2 Kingstons, an Intel and a Corsair. I am back to my good old WD 7200 RPM drive. Raptor won't give you any gains that you will notice over a WD Black, and Raptors are the most unreliable hard drives WD ever made!!!

Thx.
....but would Raptor give my PC a little boost compare to my Seagate?

Sounds like my setup would work fine with Windows 7 without any hardware upgrade huh?

[fthy]

Originally Posted by Nuclear Krusader I honestly don't see the need for speed hard-drive wise. It's hardly noticeable, unlike the difference 'twixt a 5400-rpm hard drive and a 7200-rpm (that's noticeable). Extra frame rates in games? Reduced load times? What's really the hurry?

Not sure if i'm talking about speed but i get CPU usage constantly to 100%while running application (Postgresql) and causing lag.

Not sure if was Window Vista, my hard drive or cpu, that's the reason i wanted to upgrade to Win 7 and a faster drvie.

[Khalil]

I have never used that software but this lag you talk of has nothing to do with your hard drives. It could be some of the settings in Windows Vista causing the lag.

[fthy]

Originally Posted by Khalil I have never used that software but this lag you talk of has nothing to do with your hard drives. It could be some of the settings in Windows Vista causing the lag.

Thx. Will look into that.

Is it true that the new WD Black 7200 is faster than my old Seagate 7200?
(based on what i read )

[Nuclear Krusader]

Probably, it depends on the cache. We'd need to know which Barracuda you have in order to know.

[fthy]

Originally Posted by Nuclear Krusader Probably, it depends on the cache. We'd need to know which Barracuda you have in order to know.

Deactivated but here is the link anyway.
Look similar to WD Black if you ask me

Appreciate everyone taking time to help me out.

[quartet-man]

Originally Posted by laurandavid You mean 15% free space not 15% full right?

I caught that too.

[quartet-man]

Originally Posted by rwest An SSD will increase boot and load times, and your system will benefit from that.

I think you mean decrease.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Originally Posted by fthy Deactivated Look similar to WD Black if you ask me

Similar, 'cept for the fact that the WD won't go firmware belly up and take your data along with it to the planes of oblivion.