SSD or Not? Is it worth the extra bucks?

ticktoc

Honorable
Feb 10, 2014
31
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10,540
Approximate Purchase Date:In Process

Budget Range:300 dollars
Just wondering if it is worth the extra money to get an SSD? What gains will it give me? Would I be better suited to get a video card instead. I would appreciate any help or advice you could give me? If I install the OS on the WD Black drive, and later decide on SSD would it be a problem to re install Windows on the SSD? Thank you

System Usage is for light gaming surfing the internet some editing of home video and pictures

Are you buying a monitor: Yes



Parts to Upgrade:SSD and monitor

Do you need to buy OS: Have Windows 7 HP SP1

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg,Amazon, Tiger Direct

Location: Tennessee

Parts Preferences: Samsung 840 EVO Pro 23 inch monitor ( Suggestions welcome)
Video Card I'm looking at: ASUS GTX 650-E Doesn't require power from PSU

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Already Have the following:
I5 4570 cpu
GA-Z87x-D3H Gigabyte motherboard
Kingston HyperX KHX 1600 C9D 8GB
Corsair CX450M PSU
Antec three hundred two case
WD Black 1K HDD
ASUS DVD burner




 
Solution
the gains on a ssd installing windows on it will have faster boot loading time than regular hdd's and faster data transfer. now that psu is pretty not the best but it should run mid-range cards now you're right saying an samsung evo those are the best so far 120gb will suit you're needs. as for the screen the asus 1080p ips monitors are to make the best quality picture 21.5inch is perfect for gaming at 5ms.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Asus VS229H-P 21.5" Monitor ($139.86 @ Amazon)
Total: $229.85
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when...

Traciatim

Distinguished
Do you really hate load times? The SSD will help. Other than load times there really isn't much benefit. Since you have a Z87 you could also go the route of a 60GB SSD and a cheap 7200RPM drive and use SRT in order to make your day to day snappy but not have to deal with separate drives or storage issues.

If you are going to play games, then video card > SSD every time. SSD is purely for loading convenience.
 

barto

Expert
Ambassador
If your budget is only $300, than I would sacrifice the SSD for a good GPU (760 GTX or a 270x). SSDs only help load times. They do not aid in game play. You can add one later if you like. Window keys are tied to the motherboard so you shouldn't have issues installing the OS on the SSD to the same system at a later time.

Personally, the SSD is worth every penny. There is nothing like a crisp quick boot. I'm so in love with mine, I'm putting one in my grandparent's computer.
 
the gains on a ssd installing windows on it will have faster boot loading time than regular hdd's and faster data transfer. now that psu is pretty not the best but it should run mid-range cards now you're right saying an samsung evo those are the best so far 120gb will suit you're needs. as for the screen the asus 1080p ips monitors are to make the best quality picture 21.5inch is perfect for gaming at 5ms.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Asus VS229H-P 21.5" Monitor ($139.86 @ Amazon)
Total: $229.85
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-13 11:56 EDT-0400)

or

without an ssd or monitor if you're just upgrading it than i highly recommend a gpu and psu heres decent ones.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($183.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $253.97
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-13 12:03 EDT-0400)
 
Solution

ticktoc

Honorable
Feb 10, 2014
31
0
10,540


Thanks for the quick response. I was really looking hard at the M500 But some of the reviews show it better encrypted but slower write times. I think I will go with the Graphics card. What do you think about the ASUS GTX 650-E I picked it because it doesn't require the power from the psu, it runs off the MB
 
Something like this would be great:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $219.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-13 12:11 EDT-0400)

The SSD will make your entire system feel faster, and the 750 Ti doesn't require much power at all, but can run games very well. With your budget, you could even move up to a 240/250GB SSD if you feel you need it.

I have a 128GB SSD and have 5 games, Windows 7 and all my programs on it with about 35-40GB remaining.

Or get a monitor, SSD and a graphics card! lol

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 1GB Video Card ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Samsung S22C350H 21.5" Monitor ($109.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $299.97
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-13 12:15 EDT-0400)
 

ticktoc

Honorable
Feb 10, 2014
31
0
10,540


Modern, thanx. I'm going with the Samsung 840 evo and 21.5 ASUS monitor I will save up for the Graphics card later on. I really had my heart set on the Seasonic Mii2 psu, just couldn't find the extra money. Oh well, it may go on sale soon I'm picking your answer as best soultion. Thanks everyone for your input it is greatly appreciated. Can't wait to get this computer running, this Pentium 1.2 GHZ has about seen it's last days LOL
 

ticktoc

Honorable
Feb 10, 2014
31
0
10,540


You are correct. When I picked this power supply, I went to some psu calculator site and put in my parts and it showed with everything including a GTX 650 TI OC 2mb card at full load 350w. Thanks for reminding me. You have to understand this build I'm doing has been over the course of 3 months. The only real regret was the case I picked, it will do.
 

Traciatim

Distinguished


Personally I would pick a GTX750 or 750 ti based on the new maxwell stuff from NVidia. It also doesn't require a 6-pin PCI-E connector (but yes, still does use power from the PSU). 2GB models are generally pretty cheap for video cards and according to videocardbenchmark.net comes in at roughly twice as fast as a 650 . . . Doesn't the CX450M have a PCI-E connector included anyway?


 
Don't ever look at websites like GPUboss, videocardbenchmark.net, etc. as they rarely actually do indicate real world comparisons lol

That said, the 750 or 750 Ti are great, low power cards. You can get medium/high in BF4 with them. About power draw, you shouldn't expect more than 175w MAX at full load, especially since you won't be overclocking.
 

Traciatim

Distinguished


Sure, GPUBoss s kind of crap, but Passmarks test is just an aggregation of everyone's test scores that use that card so it's a pretty good indicator of overall performance. Obviously not every game will follow the exact performance chart and some of the cards have relatively small sample sizes which might skew results a bit, but it's a perfectly valid starting point when researching card ranges before you go looking at specific game benchmarking sites to narrow down your choices.