Ideas on upgrading my desktop

six_storm · 08-11-10, 12:58 PM

The ol' birthday is coming up in a month and since the local board of education is full of douchebags and my wife isn't getting a job this year, I decided to put the dreams of getting new Macbook Pros on the backburner. Instead, I thought about upgrading my gaming PC without spending a ton of money.

Current Config:
Intel Q6600 Quad Core (Thanks MikeC)
Gigabyte Mobo
4GB of DDR2 RAM
MSI NVIDIA 260GTX 216-Core
1x 250GB - System Drive
1x 1TB - Storage (Music, Movies, Software Backup ISOs)
1x 1TB - Backup Only

I thought about the oldest parts that I still have running, which would be the hard drive and speakers. Why not just upgrade those?

I could get two Western Digital Black 750GB SATA hard drives ($75 per drive) and put them in a RAID 0, while backing them up nightly in case something goes crazy. With this, there should be a pretty decent increase in speed. Also, my current 250GB hard drive is about 4-5 years old. Maybe it's time to replace it with something better and faster.

As for speakers, I really don't care about this one too much. I'm almost considering not getting speakers and just using headphones for everything.

What else would you guys consider an upgrade that doesn't break the bank?

**Maverick123w** · 08-11-10, 01:33 PM

I would just get a single WD black drive for the OS drive. IMO pointless to have a 1.5GB os drive if you already have 2 1TB drives also in the system. The New 64MB cache drives should offer a nice increase in speed compared to a 5 year old HDD.

As far as speakers are you looking for 2.1/5.1/7.1?

08-11-10, 01:55 PM

Upgrade your GPU to a 460. $200~

stncttr908 · 08-11-10, 02:30 PM

ES ES DEEEEEEE

08-11-10, 02:31 PM

Took me awhile to figure that out.

six_storm · 08-11-10, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maverick123w

I would just get a single WD black drive for the OS drive. IMO pointless to have a 1.5GB os drive if you already have 2 1TB drives also in the system. The New 64MB cache drives should offer a nice increase in speed compared to a 5 year old HDD.

As far as speakers are you looking for 2.1/5.1/7.1?

I thought about just using my 555's and maybe getting that small Zalman microphone attachment for $10. Screw speakers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bearclaw

Upgrade your GPU to a 460. $200~

Meh, I think my hard drives are more of a bottleneck than my 260GTX.

six_storm · 08-11-10, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stncttr908

ES ES DEEEEEEE

SSDs are still too expensive IMO. I wouldn't mind paying like $100 for a 200GB+ SSD though. That would be barely enough space for me.

EDIT: $100 gets me 32GB. Ridiculous.

stncttr908 · 08-11-10, 02:40 PM

I'm managing juggling games and my applications on my 120GB just fine, but I agree ~ 256GB would be much better. Just something to think about.

six_storm · 08-11-10, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stncttr908

I'm managing juggling games and my applications on my 120GB just fine, but I agree ~ 256GB would be much better. Just something to think about.

SSDs are really going to have to come down in price for me to even consider buying one.

**bob saget** · 08-12-10, 02:05 AM

I really like my western digital black.

**nekrosoft13** · 08-12-10, 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by six_storm

SSDs are still too expensive IMO. I wouldn't mind paying like $100 for a 200GB+ SSD though. That would be barely enough space for me.

EDIT: $100 gets me 32GB. Ridiculous.

manage your OS better, you don't need more then 60gb for OS, most folks can deal with 30gb just fine even after several applications are installed, and common files are placed on C.

C = OS and files that have to go to common files
D = Applications/Documents drive
E = Games etc...

Drolfrawd · 08-12-10, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bob saget

I really like my western digital black.

+1 very good

08-11-10, 12:58 PM	#1
six_storm Registered User Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Nashvegas Posts: 11,575	Ideas on upgrading my desktop The ol' birthday is coming up in a month and since the local board of education is full of douchebags and my wife isn't getting a job this year, I decided to put the dreams of getting new Macbook Pros on the backburner. Instead, I thought about upgrading my gaming PC without spending a ton of money. Current Config: Intel Q6600 Quad Core (Thanks MikeC) Gigabyte Mobo 4GB of DDR2 RAM MSI NVIDIA 260GTX 216-Core 1x 250GB - System Drive 1x 1TB - Storage (Music, Movies, Software Backup ISOs) 1x 1TB - Backup Only I thought about the oldest parts that I still have running, which would be the hard drive and speakers. Why not just upgrade those? I could get two Western Digital Black 750GB SATA hard drives ($75 per drive) and put them in a RAID 0, while backing them up nightly in case something goes crazy. With this, there should be a pretty decent increase in speed. Also, my current 250GB hard drive is about 4-5 years old. Maybe it's time to replace it with something better and faster. As for speakers, I really don't care about this one too much. I'm almost considering not getting speakers and just using headphones for everything. What else would you guys consider an upgrade that doesn't break the bank?

08-11-10, 01:33 PM	#2
Maverick123w Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 1,841	Re: Ideas on upgrading my desktop I would just get a single WD black drive for the OS drive. IMO pointless to have a 1.5GB os drive if you already have 2 1TB drives also in the system. The New 64MB cache drives should offer a nice increase in speed compared to a 5 year old HDD. As far as speakers are you looking for 2.1/5.1/7.1?

08-11-10, 01:55 PM	#3
Bearclaw Guest Posts: n/a	Re: Ideas on upgrading my desktop Upgrade your GPU to a 460. $200~

08-11-10, 02:30 PM	#4
stncttr908 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: NJ, USA Posts: 4,496	Re: Ideas on upgrading my desktop ES ES DEEEEEEE __________________ PC - \| Core i7-2600K @ stock \| Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3 \| 4GB Patriot Sector 5 DDR3 \| Galaxy GTX 460 1GB @ stock \| Corsair Force 120GB SSD \| Seagate 1TB 7200RPM \| 320GB Seagate 7200.10 \| 2x Seagate 500GB USB 2.0 \| Lite-On 20x SATA DVD+RW \| Silverstone TJ-09 \| Corsair 620W PSU \| Logitech Z-5500s \| Sennheiser HD-570 headphones \| Samsung 2494LW \| Laptop - \| Dell Inspiron 1420 \| C2D T7300 (2.0GHz, 4MB cache) \| 2GB DDR2-667 \| 160GB 7200RPM HDD \| DVD +/- RW \| 14.1" WXGA+ (1440x900) \| Broadcom 802.11g \| NVIDIA 8400M GS 128MB \|

08-11-10, 02:31 PM	#5
Bearclaw Guest Posts: n/a	Re: Ideas on upgrading my desktop Took me awhile to figure that out.

08-11-10, 02:40 PM	#8
stncttr908 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: NJ, USA Posts: 4,496	Re: Ideas on upgrading my desktop I'm managing juggling games and my applications on my 120GB just fine, but I agree ~ 256GB would be much better. Just something to think about. __________________ PC - \| Core i7-2600K @ stock \| Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3 \| 4GB Patriot Sector 5 DDR3 \| Galaxy GTX 460 1GB @ stock \| Corsair Force 120GB SSD \| Seagate 1TB 7200RPM \| 320GB Seagate 7200.10 \| 2x Seagate 500GB USB 2.0 \| Lite-On 20x SATA DVD+RW \| Silverstone TJ-09 \| Corsair 620W PSU \| Logitech Z-5500s \| Sennheiser HD-570 headphones \| Samsung 2494LW \| Laptop - \| Dell Inspiron 1420 \| C2D T7300 (2.0GHz, 4MB cache) \| 2GB DDR2-667 \| 160GB 7200RPM HDD \| DVD +/- RW \| 14.1" WXGA+ (1440x900) \| Broadcom 802.11g \| NVIDIA 8400M GS 128MB \|

08-12-10, 02:05 AM	#10
bob saget Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Vancouver, originally Russia Posts: 23,133	Re: Ideas on upgrading my desktop I really like my western digital black.