twisty on 23/4/2015 at 04:44
My strategy over the years has always been to invest in building a system that will run everything that I want to run for as long as possible. From the time that I constructed the most recent system replacement/major upgrade in 2011 until now I have been able to play most games using the highest settings without much issue (see current setup below). While I don't currently have time at the moment to play games, I have been mulling over the idea of performing another upgrade in a couple of months time when I will have some more free time. One of the main reasons that I am thinking of upgrading is so that my machine can comfortably handle some of the next-gen titles coming out soon such as the Witcher 3; I also use this PC for work and study but my current setup can easily handle any of the applications that I use. I would however like to replace one of my hard drives with an SSD, but I have given up trying with this motherboard as it seems to have issues with them (I've tried 2 different types without success).
Looking for some advice as to whether or not I should just upgrade my graphics card and a few components or go with a whole new motherboard etc.
Here's my current setup (used Speccy):
Operating System
Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 2600 @ 3.40GHz
Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology
RAM
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24) (2*4GB)
Motherboard
ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3
Graphics
VK248 (1920x1080@60Hz)
1279MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570
Storage
931GB Seagate ST1000DM003-9YN162 (SATA)
931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EARS-00Y5B1 (SATA)
Renzatic on 23/4/2015 at 14:35
I'd say go piecemeal.
Your motherboard supports up to the Ivy Bridge line of Core-i chips, which aren't all that much slower than the following Haswell/Broadwell/Skylake chips. Most of Intel's focus has been on mobile speed and efficiency rather than performance gains these last couple of years.
To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, (
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-4770K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-2600K/1537vs621) here's a simple benchmark pitting your Sandy Bridge i7 vs. a Haswell i7. By upgrading to the latest and greatest, you'd be spending hundreds of dollars for about a ~15% performance increase. It's not worth it. Your motherboard and processor are fine.
But your graphics card and HDDs aren't. Those would be the two things I'd swap out. Get an SSD and a 970 like I am. You'll see a MASSIVE boost for about $600.
twisty on 24/4/2015 at 13:11
Tend to agree re the card. As I mentioned though my main issue with SSDs is that my motherboard has rejected two of them already; both different brands as well. I've tried using the Intel controller and the Marvell one without much success, so as much as I want one I am a little worried that I might end up with another paperweight.
In saying that, knowing what the potential benefits are I really want one, so I'm also interested in seeing how an internal SDD will fare:
(
http://www.austin.net.au/samsung-850-evo-m-sata-240gb-internal-solid-s.html) Samsung 850 EVO M-SATA 240GB Internal Solid State Drive(SSD) & (
http://www.austin.net.au/crucial-m55-1280-128gb-m2-solid-state-drive.html) Crucial M55-1280 128GB SATA3 Solid State Drive
Renzatic on 24/4/2015 at 22:49
Dumb question, because I'm sure you have, but it bears stating nonetheless. You've tried updating the EFI/BIOS/whatever, right? There's no reason why a current motherboard would reject an SSD that I can think of other than that.
Between your two selections, I'd go with the M.2 drive. I read that the first batch of mSATA drives are meant for low cost, entry level machines, while M.2 is meant for the higher end. It's what Apple uses in the Mac/Macbook Pros. The only thing faster are proper PCIe cards, which are awesome, but cost an arm and a leg.
edit: let me take that back. (
http://www.legitreviews.com/samsung-evo-850-msata-m2-ssd-review_160540/6) mSATA actually looks a little faster.
twisty on 25/4/2015 at 14:26
Yes I did at the time and at another stage 6 months later or so when I bought another SSD. I also bought new cables, tried different SATA ports etc with no success. There have been a couple of new releases since then but I can't see anything in the release notes about SATA improvements. It's probably worth mentioning that at the time that I purchased all the parts for my current system in 2011, the motherboard chipset was cutting edge and SSDs were still kind of newish. Incidentally, which SATA controller do people tend to use these days: Marvell, Intel or something else?
I just did a search and came up with an interesting thread that seems somewhat similar to the problems that I had, with the final result being the discovery that his (
http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/47307-someones-help-me-z68-extreme4-gen3-sata-tedious-problem.html) ASrock Z68 Extreme 4 Gen 3 had a faulty SATA chip. I'm hoping that this is not the case however as I don't really want to fork out for a new board and CPU as my current i7 is definitely good enough for what I need it for. However, this (
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/328518-30-asrock-extreme-gen3-detect-sata) other thread I came across is probably more relevant as it more closely aligns with my experience and occurs irrespective of whether I'm plugged into the Marvel or Intel controller (with the appropriate choices made in the BIOS)
Re your suggestion for the M2 drive, my mobo doesn't have a slot for that (when I looked at the picture originally I thought that it was a PCI express connection). Oddly enough however the user manual alludes to there being a connector for that:
Quote:
[INDENT]- 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0,
RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5, Intel Rapid Storage and Intel
Smart Response Technology), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug"
functions
- 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by Marvell SE9120,
support NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions
(SATA3_M2 connector is shared with eSATA3 port)[/INDENT]
heywood on 27/4/2015 at 13:22
I Googled as well and it looks like a lot of people with that board have experienced various problems with drive detection and booting. You could try different SATA cables, or swap cables to different SATA connectors on the board, and try to find the magic BIOS settings. But since you're considering a new boot drive anyway, consider just getting another LGA1155 board. If you have a local Umart, you might be able to find one there. Otherwise, Newegg serves Australia now and lists LGA1155 boards for as little as $50.
twisty on 28/4/2015 at 02:19
Thanks heywood, I had a quick search for LGA1155 boards on those sites plus a couple of others. Unfortunately the boards I came across are all lower specced than the one that I'm using (e.g. less USB 3 ports, less SATA3 etc.) so it leaves me in a bit of a predicament really. I think what I will try to do is to buy another SSD in a couple of months time and if it doesn't work then I will get a new mobo then.
Renzatic on 3/5/2015 at 18:57
To both show you what you really want to have an SSD, and to toot my own horn, I made a quick video showing off just how long it takes me to boot into Windows from a cold start.
[video=youtube;LmYN5UbJ6qc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmYN5UbJ6qc[/video]
Putting in the password added nearly a 3rd to the total time. I can reboot from the desktop back to the desktop in under 10 seconds.
And excuse the video quality. I think I've dropped my iPhone one time too many.
twisty on 3/5/2015 at 23:25
Yeah, definitely want one (or two). I've become used to it with my surface pro 3 -- which is almost instant on/off -- and seeing your video makes me envious about bringing this experience to the desktop.
On another note, I was reading through my mobo manual and discovered that it only does pcie3 on ivy bridge. From what I've read it probably won't make that much difference for a single video card so will stick to my board unless I can't get an ssd to work.
twisty on 27/5/2015 at 15:02
Well I took the advice given and have purchased a Asus GTX970 Turbo and a Samsung Pro 128GB SSD. I've decided to call this build Old Bitey, after the spiteful mother fish in Spelunky, having scratched myself while poking around in my case. My complimentary Witcher 3 key should be dispatched within a few days, however I won't be installing anything until next Thursday at the earliest.
What I would like to do is to move my boot partition to my new SSD however am after some advice about how I should go about it. Would I be better off just cloning my C drive from my old HDD on to my SSD or should I reinstall the OS instead? (FYI Win 8.1)
