New monitor or SSD?

MissChief

MissChief

MissChief

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Thinking about my next upgrade, I like to pick a few bits and bobs up gradually over the life of the PC so when I come to upgrade to the new machine I don't need to spend so much, so this time it's either an SSD or a new monitor.

Currently I have a Samsung 1TB with windows 7 on it and another 500GB Samsung with Windows XP which i'll probably take out as I never use windows XP anymore. Board is a Gigabyte P35C DS3R with SATA 2.

My monitor is currently a 22" 1680x1050, which TBH is enough but bigger is always better, right? it only has VGA so DVI would be nice. Thinking 24" 1920x1080 but would my GTX 460 1GB be enough? I'd rather not change that before the new upgrade early next year.

Thoughts?
 
What do you use the PC for? If it's mostly gaming then I'd go with get a new screen as the increased size & resolution in the game will outweight the fact it took you 30 seconds longer to get into it from switch on.

If you don't use your PC mostly for gaming, then definitely get an SSD. It makes Windows very fast and responsive and makes pretty much every program so nippy and fast it is just like night and day. Once you've moved to an SSD using a PC with just mechanical drives really hurts! :)

My opinion:
Pure gamer = screen
Anyone else = SSD.
 
Got a 24'' 1920 x 1200 and a 22'' 1680 x 1050.

Although the 24'' is nice, I quite like the 22'' by itself (used to be my work monitor). imo, a 64GB C300 makes windows, apps and browsing really smooth and respond quickly.

I have a similar setup to what you have in mind, and use the 500 gb for restore and backup data, the SSD for OS and apps, and a 1TB for games, and medias.

..."but" a dual screen is ace. hmmm tough one. Maybe reserve the SSD for when you want to update your rig.
 
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SSD seems to be the better decision myself. Was thinking about This one or the one on offer though the 'this week only' one has a marvell controller and much poorer write speeds. I hear about the Sandforce controller being the one to go for all the time, is the Marvell controller the cause of the slow write speeds? I'll probably only have the OS and a couple of games on it. Other not so often played games will go onto the 1TB drive. The Vertex 3 drives are out soon but about double the price I was thinking of spending and double the size too. i doubt I'll need anything bigger than 64GB in size. Are the Vertex 3's going to be released in smaller capacities?
 
Write speeds don't really matter to be honest. You'll only write to it once or twice..... Hence the c300 is a popular choice as you read from them hundreds of times :)

kd
 
The only prob with getting the C300 is that he has sata 2, so the Vertexx 2E / Corsair Force may be a better choice. I went for the Vertexx because of the better support from OCZ (got it before I upgraded to a sata 3 mobo).
 
MissChief said:
I'll probably only have the OS and a couple of games on it. Other not so often played games will go onto the 1TB drive.
Click to expand...

Out of those choices get the C300, if you upgrade to a new motherboard later you can keep the SSD and benefit from the increased speeds.
 
I'd go monitor

As I don't boot the computer much and only really demanding tjings I load are games and occasionally photoshop and i can't put games on an ssd anyway I wouldn't see a benifit

But the monitor i look at all the time.. I went monitor myself. In fact I went monitor crazy id rather sell my second gfx card or one of my hdds before either of my monitors
 
Monitor every time to be honest. The monitor is the one part of your PC that you look at constantly and is your visual interface to using it. It's the one item I'm happy spending a lot of cash on as it doesn't have to be upgraded regularly.
 
Both are important upgrades but you already have a good sized monitor with a good resolution for gaming. I doubt you'd see much benefit from the DVI vs VGA connection.

Therefore I'd go for the SSD.

From reading the Vertex 3 thread on here it won't be available in capacities lower than 120GB so you need a budget of £240 at current prices. If you want smaller capacities you need to look at the lower spec drives.

For me i would keep looking at the Vertex 3 but wait a couple of months until stock has good availability. Once it drops under £200 it will be at a similar price per GB to some of the others you have linked.
 
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