SSD System drive and other upgrades, is it worth it?

[newstuart]

Looking at giving my pc an update as it is running a little slow and has the odd freeze.

At present I have a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R motherboard and Q6600 CPU with 2gb of ram which I have used for the last 2 years using one 500gb drive for system, pictures and recorded TV and 2 1TB drives for movies.

I am planning on adding a SSD drive for the system and getting an extra 2GB ram.

I plan to consolodate this pc and my home automation pc into one which would mean this would stay on 24/7 running homeseer and MCE to 3 extenders (max 1 + pc being used at any one at a time).

Any suggestions if I need to look at anything else?

And any thoughts on which SSD drive to go for?

[elootos]

That's the same mobo and cpu I run in my louge PC, great combo

SSDs have without a doubt been the biggest performance leap for me in the 2 PC I have them in. Couple it with 4Gb ram and you PC will be flying

I've got 64Gb models and they are more than big enough for a Win7 install plus various software.

My first was a Samsung, second was an OCZ and the OCZ was definitely faster, but that's because it was 6 months newer and had updated hardware. Either way, Media Center zips along with one and there's never any lag.

You could also then combine your current 3 platter drives in a RAID, giving a global network share for TV, Films etc. I know the P35 mobo has some good RAID options, or buy a PCI-E SATA card with it on for about £15.

[huxley]

Like the man above says. I have an OCZ Vertex and one of the newer Intel ssds. The Intel one is a little faster than the OCZ.
But both give the same performance with Media Center. Word of advise, when you do your setup just use the drivers windows (windows 7) instals for the drive as these will allow trim to work.
Also make sure you turn off the defrag task.

I`ve not had one stall or false start since going to an ssd boot drive in the last year.

[newstuart]

Thanks guys , going to go for it and order one today, need to devide which though.

I have 2gb ram at present and was going to increase this to 4gb, is it worth increasing this to 6gb do you think? I have a 64 bit system so i read it can use the full 6gb

[huxley]

4gb is more than enough for an HTPC, having said that mine has 8gb (I saw the empty slots as a challenge) lol

Before you buy you ssd drive have a little read about Trim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM
From what I`ve seen of late OCZ and kingston drives now support it as well as the newer Intel drives.
Make sure you check out the firmware on your drive as flashing after your os instal may need you to start over.

[newstuart]

Hi Folks

Im looking at this one,

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/30GB-OCZ-...rite-speed

It is only 32 gb but the pc will only have Windows 7 64 bit & My Movies installed, all recordings and files will be on a seperate drive.

Does this look a good one to go for?

I assume I will need some brackets to fit it in replacement of the 3.5" drive, any other hardware needed other than a sata cable (I cant see anything but want to be sure)?

[phillj]

You will need to use some mounting brackets (like these: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Lycom-DT-...a-35-Bay), they do more expensive ones (well we are only talking a couple of pounds), but you don't really need to dissipate heat as they don't generate much (having no moving parts). The good thing about the more expensive ones is that they are only one piece so slightly easier to install: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Akasa-AK-...ive-cooler

I have an SSD in my work laptop (old 64G first gen one) and it take the same sata connection as a standard 3.5 drive.

[huxley]

I have one of those Vertex drives in my revo.
If you dont have space for an adapter in your case you can always use some sticky pads/ velcro.

[northan]

I don't know what case your going to use, but the silverstone raven2 or fortress2 full case has a clever idea where it has all the spaces free to allow for HD's and optical drives but tucks the ssd behind the Mobo tray. I think they effectively use cable ties to hold in place. It looks like a great case for servers if not the price.

[newstuart]

Hi guys

cant remember the model of the case to be honest but it is a huge server type case with about 8 3.5" bays and 5 5.25" bays

I think I will just get one of those adaptors and use one of the 3.5