Recommendations for SSD

S

sArge_sF

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Hi guys,

So it's about time I got myself an SSD... I've been sitting here with the same (nearly full) 500GB mechanical HDD for 6 years now. I feel that it is really bottle-necking my PC at the moment, but want some opinions before I buy things for no reason.

My Current build: (Windows 7 64 Bit)
- i7-2600K
- Asus P8H67-V (Needs upgrading due to no OC abilites)
- 2x2GB Apacer Giant II OC RAM
- 480W Superchannel PSU (This has held out for 6 years as well)

My work (I work from home) entails heavy browser use (40 tabs open across 2 browser), with large Excel files running queries, Skype use, Outlook use with 5 email accounts, and various other programs (about 5 other small ones) running in the background.

My main problem is that it suddenly gets slow - like mouse freezing for 1 second kind of slow. Things like maximizing a program take longer than it should, etc.

So my question is, is this a problem with my HDD, or RAM? At most I use 3.3GB out of the 4GB available RAM.

If the SSD can fix this issue, which one is the best to go with? I think I would need a 256GB due to the amount of programs I have. I have about R2500 to spend. Suggestions for the motherboard (± R2000) are also welcome.

Thanks for the help!
S
 
Get a Vertex 4 and a 1TB Black drive for storage. Throw you current 500gig away.
 
your problem lyes in both hdd and ram , the fact that u have so many things opened at one given time could be taking up all of your ram if your'e using onboard graphics it could be worse, cos then u have one more thing utilizing ram space, what happens then is that ur memory is then sent to ur hdd using the windows pagefile system so instead of memory being read directly from ram it goes to the hdd 1st the time it takes for it to be processed is really slow not forgetting that the hdd is reading and writing the other stuff you are working on simultaneously, up the ram to 8gb get an ssd to run ur os and important programs and 1 or 2tb for storage and you should be sorted
 
Your problem is not so much the speed at which your apps load initially:
My main problem is that it suddenly gets slow
Click to expand...
An SSD would be great to have but I don't think it's going to help much, what you need imho is more RAM.
 
sArge_sF said:
Hi guys,

So it's about time I got myself an SSD... I've been sitting here with the same (nearly full) 500GB mechanical HDD for 6 years now. I feel that it is really bottle-necking my PC at the moment, but want some opinions before I buy things for no reason.

My Current build: (Windows 7 64 Bit)
- i7-2600K
- Asus P8H67-V (Needs upgrading due to no OC abilites)
- 2x2GB Apacer Giant II OC RAM
- 480W Superchannel PSU (This has held out for 6 years as well)

My work (I work from home) entails heavy browser use (40 tabs open across 2 browser), with large Excel files running queries, Skype use, Outlook use with 5 email accounts, and various other programs (about 5 other small ones) running in the background.

My main problem is that it suddenly gets slow - like mouse freezing for 1 second kind of slow. Things like maximizing a program take longer than it should, etc.

So my question is, is this a problem with my HDD, or RAM? At most I use 3.3GB out of the 4GB available RAM.

If the SSD can fix this issue, which one is the best to go with? I think I would need a 256GB due to the amount of programs I have. I have about R2500 to spend. Suggestions for the motherboard (± R2000) are also welcome.

Thanks for the help!
S
Click to expand...

Sounds more like a RAM problem -BUT you can't go wrong with a SSD.

EDIT: As mentioned above.
 
avid-dreamer said:
your problem lyes in both hdd and ram , the fact that u have so many things opened at one given time could be taking up all of your ram if your'e using onboard graphics it could be worse, cos then u have one more thing utilizing ram space, what happens then is that ur memory is then sent to ur hdd using the windows pagefile system so instead of memory being read directly from ram it goes to the hdd 1st the time it takes for it to be processed is really slow not forgetting that the hdd is reading and writing the other stuff you are working on simultaneously, up the ram to 8gb get an ssd to run ur os and important programs and 1 or 2tb for storage and you should be sorted
Click to expand...

alphabyte said:
Your problem is not so much the speed at which your apps load initially:

An SSD would be great to have but I don't think it's going to help much, what you need imho is more RAM.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies.
I've got a Leadtek 9500GT 512MB which I use to run 2 screens. What ram and SSD would you recommend for a total R3500 budget?
The Vertex 4 256GB model seems to get some good reviews.

Thanks
 
As per the rest of the comments in this thread: You need to max out your ram before you get an SSD.


The main reason is because to get the best out of the tech you need to do things like disable your page file. Something that will also extend the life of your drive... they are quite delicate.

Also only get the Vertex 4 if your MB supports SATA 3, you can use the drive either way but you are paying a lot more for SATA3 and its wasted if you only support SATA2
 
I recently installed a Vertex 4 on my ageing PC (8Gb RAM, Q9550 processor) with SATA2 - man, it's like a new PC, it flies. Loving every second of it. Sure, your increase will be even better with SATA3, but my real life performance increase on SATA2 is very noticeable, boot and programs opening way faster and more responsive.
 
Nerfherder said:
As per the rest of the comments in this thread: You need to max out your ram before you get an SSD.


The main reason is because to get the best out of the tech you need to do things like disable your page file. Something that will also extend the life of your drive... they are quite delicate.

Also only get the Vertex 4 if your MB supports SATA 3, you can use the drive either way but you are paying a lot more for SATA3 and its wasted if you only support SATA2
Click to expand...

Yeah it has 2x SATA 6Gb/s ports.
Question remains, what RAM would be best for my build and for what I use the PC for? 1x 8GB? 2x 4GB? MHz?

Thanks
 
Nerfherder said:
As per the rest of the comments in this thread: You need to max out your ram before you get an SSD.


The main reason is because to get the best out of the tech you need to do things like disable your page file. Something that will also extend the life of your drive... they are quite delicate.

Also only get the Vertex 4 if your MB supports SATA 3, you can use the drive either way but you are paying a lot more for SATA3 and its wasted if you only support SATA2
Click to expand...

I'm one those ppl who opt to disable pagefile when using an ssd, other ppl argue that windows 7 doesnt like to go without a pagefile so they leave about a gig or so for pagefile use on the ssd. Whats ur take on pagefile use when using an ssd. I'd prefer to disable it cos if you have enough ram u can just force windows to utilize ram only by disabling the pagefile. I dont have any issues with the pagefile disabled.
 
avid-dreamer said:
I'm one those ppl who opt to disable pagefile when using an ssd, other ppl argue that windows 7 doesnt like to go without a pagefile so they leave about a gig or so for pagefile use on the ssd. Whats ur take on pagefile use when using an ssd. I'd prefer to disable it cos if you have enough ram u can just force windows to utilize ram only by disabling the pagefile. I dont have any issues with the pagefile disabled.
Click to expand...

I turned of my page file in Windows 7 and it works like a dream just make sure you have 8gb or more memory otherwise you will get allot of memory warning popups.

Windows 98 to Windows 2003 never like it without a page file and became unstable but I have yet to notice a problem with Wndows 7
 
I'm still running a page file with Windows 7 even though I do have 16GB of RAM.
Rather move the page file to your HDD than to disable it completely.
Currently I'm actually running a 1GB-4GB page file on my 128GB SSD and a 400MB one in a RAM drive. I just wish there was a way to change the page file priorities.

IMO you should add more RAM to your PC first, unless you don't have Windows 7 64-bit!
 
avid-dreamer said:
I'm one those ppl who opt to disable pagefile when using an ssd, other ppl argue that windows 7 doesnt like to go without a pagefile so they leave about a gig or so for pagefile use on the ssd. Whats ur take on pagefile use when using an ssd. I'd prefer to disable it cos if you have enough ram u can just force windows to utilize ram only by disabling the pagefile. I dont have any issues with the pagefile disabled.
Click to expand...

Funny enough I moved the pagefile to my normal HDD, I got too nervous.... :D It runs without a page file and I have 8 gig of RAM but it just didn't feel right not having a page file.
So in the end instead of messing up the SSD (and wasting space !) I just moved it to the other drive. I see that I never come close to reaching 8 gig so I think I might turn off the page file soon.

I can can actually hear the drive starting up when it uses the page file and its rarely, because I have so much RAM its not actually the swap space, so it becomes a bottleneck.


Bottom line : Max out your RAM, make sure you are using Win64 so that you can use all of it, get the fastest RAM you can.
 
Nerfherder said:
Bottom line : Max out your RAM, make sure you are using Win64 so that you can use all of it, get the fastest RAM you can.
Click to expand...
Rather get more RAM than faster RAM.
Like you'll be much better off with say 8GB of DDR3 1333MHz than 4GB of DDR3 2400MHz !
 
Okay - So I am going to up the RAM first before buying the SSD unnecessarily, although, from what I have read, having both more RAM and an SSD will dramatically improve performance - so its definitely on my list for the future.

Now that I know I'm buying RAM first, what model/brand/kits/speeds are recommended for my build and about R1000 budget?

I'm not too clued up on how the page file works, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Thanks again for all the replies
 
If your existing RAM is DDR3 1600MHz CL9 1.5V, then just add the following 2x 4GB modules to it: http://www.wootware.co.za/g-skill-f...-5v-cl9-dual-channel-ares-desktop-memory.html @ R469 (incl VAT, ex shipping).

If your current RAM's specs are different, then I'd suggest that you find RAM with similar specs, without paying more than R500 per 8GB of RAM.

Seeing that you're currently coping with 4GB, I won't recommend going for anything more than 12GB of RAM at this stage.

You can use CPU-z to find out the exact model number of your current RAM modules.
 
Pada said:
If your existing RAM is DDR3 1600MHz CL9 1.5V, then just add the following 2x 4GB modules to it: http://www.wootware.co.za/g-skill-f...-5v-cl9-dual-channel-ares-desktop-memory.html @ R469 (incl VAT, ex shipping).

If your current RAM's specs are different, then I'd suggest that you find RAM with similar specs, without paying more than R500 per 8GB of RAM.

Seeing that you're currently coping with 4GB, I won't recommend going for anything more than 12GB of RAM at this stage.

You can use CPU-z to find out the exact model number of your current RAM modules.
Click to expand...

Never mix and match memory, it could lead to all kinds of complicated incompatibilities. 8gb is very much the norm in any decent PC nowadays. I don't sell any rigs to my customers with less than 8gb.

@ OP

Get the 8gb RAM Pada linked, very good RAM, very good service and good pricing too.

Consider only getting an SSD after you got the RAM, as once your OS is loaded a SSD won't make much difference (monetary wise) in terms of how fast stuff opens (documents etc).

Also are you running a 64 bit or 32 bit Operating System?

P.S consider getting a decent Silver or Gold Rated PSU, your components are only as good as the PSU that delivers clean quality power to them.
 
@Slick:
I've mixed and matched RAM on many occasions. The most important one is to have RAM with the same voltages.
If you can get RAM with the same voltages, clock speed and clock latencies - then you shouldn't have any issues.
 
SLicK said:
Also are you running a 64 bit or 32 bit Operating System?

P.S consider getting a decent Silver or Gold Rated PSU, your components are only as good as the PSU that delivers clean quality power to them.
Click to expand...

Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

Good point about the PSU. I've had my 480W Superchannel for about 6 years. Maybe I should start with upgrading this, then go onto RAM, and finally onto SSD.

Keeping in mind that I have a 9500GT GPU (which I plan to eventually upgrade to a medium range GPU at a later stage) along with the other specs I mentioned in my original post, what PSU is recommended wattage and brand wise? After all upgrades would I be more in the 500W range or 650W range? I've heard good things about this: http://www.corsair.com/builder-series-cx500-v2-80plus-certified-power-supply.html

Thanks
 
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