Spec me an upgrade

KiiYzOo · 5 May 2011 at 11:34

My system spec is;

Coolermaster storm sniper windowed edition
Msi p55a-g55
Intel core i3 540 @ 3.8ghz (for now)
Msi Gtx 460 768mb cyclone edition
1tb hdd
XFX 650w XXX edition
Custom water-cooling loop

My budget is £100 and I game at 1680x1050

titan13131 · 5 May 2011 at 11:48

Your system is pretty nice. The only thing I can think of is an ssd. The new crucial m4 is meant to be good and is within budget. I would link but on my mobile.

sk82jack · 5 May 2011 at 11:49

titan13131 said:
Your system is pretty nice. The only thing I can think of is an ssd. The new crucial m4 is meant to be good and is within budget. I would link but on my mobile.

Crucial M4

KiiYzOo · 5 May 2011 at 12:00

Isn't this better?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-075-OC&groupid=1657&catid=1660&subcat=1668

sk82jack · 5 May 2011 at 12:01

Yeah if you can wait 2 weeks then definitey!

KiiYzOo · 5 May 2011 at 12:08

Yeah I can I'll probably have a bit more money by then

Another option for me may be a new monitor or a new keyboard and speakers

titan13131 · 5 May 2011 at 12:24

Wow that ssd has much better specs, go for that if u can.

pastymuncher · 5 May 2011 at 13:33

The only thing is, your board has Sata3 provided by a Marvell controller. This is a terrible controller and is even bottlenecking Sata 2 drives. I know because i tried mine last week. Sata 2 with the Intel controller is much quicker. I dread to think how drastically this would hit the performance of a sata 3 drive.

KiiYzOo · 5 May 2011 at 13:47

Would it be better to go with a Sata 2 drive then?

KiiYzOo · 5 May 2011 at 14:13

Is there any way of using an ssd as a boot drive without loosing my data

pastymuncher · 5 May 2011 at 14:26

1. You could run it on the sata 2 controller with a view to getting the most out of it when you next upgrade the motherboard.

2. You could get a sata 3 add on card that fits in a pci-e slot. Just keep in mind that if you plug into the second pci-e 16x slot your graphics card will only run at 8x.

3. Buy one of the many sata 2 drives on offer just about everywhere at the moment. I only paid £154 for my 120Gb Vertex 2E.

Do you mean installing windows on the ssd while keeping your existing windows install on your current hdd? If you mean installing windows on the hdd while having a non-windows installed hdd it would be fine. I have windows, a couple of programs and my Steam collection of games on the ssd with a 1TB hdd for data.

KiiYzOo · 5 May 2011 at 14:30

I may just do option one then as I may upgrade later on in the year
Yeah I do mean that but doesn't that I have to re-install my applications then?
Would it be better to save my money and upgrade my mobo/CPU or to get a new graphics card instead?
Also is it a good idea to get a sound card?