Random Computer Shit

[OG buckshot jr]

If you're only gripe is loading times, there is no greater improvement than an SSD - hands down.

I strongly advise you don't waste money on a RAM upgrade unless you're on DDR-2 800mhz. In this situation, I would evaluate what your board can handle because newer RAM is cheaper, and thus a mobo upgrade + RAM is favourable. Obviously, this would probably include a cpu upgrade, at least down the line.

 

[$alvador]

An SSD is likely your best value buy now because they're always on sale somewhere, there's noticeable performance benefit and it's a part you can reuse in future builds. If you want to extend the life of your current CPU then the best way to do it would definitely be an AM3+ board, 1600MHz RAM and a CPU cooler to overclock a bit. Problem is, it's a few hundred bucks for a relatively small overall performance boost and AM3+ has no future.

It's a crazy time to upgrade now because on one hand you have AMD announcing that they're abandoning pure x86 in pursuit of APUs and HSA, and on the other hand Intel has released its best desktop x86 roadmap in years. Combined with the fact that DDR4 has arrived and in 2015 there will be a bunch of new chipsets out that make DDR3 obsolete.

So right now what you need is a stopgap solution to tide you over until DDR4 replaces DDR3 as the standard. The best option, IMHO, would be to get a used K-suffix (unlocked) i5 or i7 CPU off eBay. Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPUs were way ahead of the curve when they came out and they're still stupid fast overclocked so you really can't do better if you're looking for the best value ahead of a full system upgrade to DDR4.

 

[up-n-atom]

An SSD is likely your best value buy now because they're always on sale somewhere, there's noticeable performance benefit and it's a part you can reuse in future builds. If you want to extend the life of your current CPU then the best way to do it would definitely be an AM3+ board, 1600MHz RAM and a CPU cooler to overclock a bit. Problem is, it's a few hundred bucks for a relatively small overall performance boost and AM3+ has no future.

It's a crazy time to upgrade now because on one hand you have AMD announcing that they're abandoning pure x86 in pursuit of APUs and HSA, and on the other hand Intel has released its best desktop x86 roadmap in years. Combined with the fact that DDR4 has arrived and in 2015 there will be a bunch of new chipsets out that make DDR3 obsolete.

So right now what you need is a stopgap solution to tide you over until DDR4 replaces DDR3 as the standard. The best option, IMHO, would be to get a used K-suffix (unlocked) i5 or i7 CPU off eBay. Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPUs were way ahead of the curve when they came out and they're still stupid fast overclocked so you really can't do better if you're looking for the best value ahead of a full system upgrade to DDR4.

We're at a stand still and PC history is repeating itself in the mobile space but at a faster pace. With everyone abandoning PC hardware and going into the mobile business the prices have been escalating. RAM a year ago was half of what it is today and HDD prices haven't returned since the 2011 tsunami. And Intel is just screwing all its customers with feature creep and lock out:

http://www.ilsistemista.net/index.p...he-mess-of-intel-processors-feature-list.html

ECC is going to be a hot topic and needs to go beyond the server space because proof of concept bit corruption is becoming mainstream and it's only time until malware exploits it.

https://www.ece.cmu.edu/~safari/pubs/kim-isca14.pdf

https://github.com/CMU-SAFARI/rowhammer

Buy what you need if you really need it, but in the last 5 years there has been very little incentives to upgrade and it could be as high as 7 years. My overclocked Q6600 build from 2007 still kicks ass whenever I power it up.

http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/636-15-best-overclocking-cpu.html

Although the article is a year old the last staple CPU is from 2011, Sandy Bridge i5 2500K. Intel switch to tri-gate hasn't been smooth sailing with a lot of delays and Haswell added tin cooling issue so I can't think of a 2012-2014 CPU that can be added to the list.

 

[OG buckshot jr]

Agreed, i won't budge from my 3570K because it's just not worth it (had Q6600 before, but massive improvement to Ivy bridge in hard-core multi-player games like bf).

 

[everyth1ng]

Buy what you need if you really need it, but in the last 5 years there has been very little incentives to upgrade and it could be as high as 7 years. My overclocked Q6600 build from 2007 still kicks ass whenever I power it up.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. My overclocked Core i7-920 still kicks ass, too.

However, I'm in a bit of a situation. I want to get into streaming on Twitch, but my i7-920 definitely isn't up to snuff when it comes to that. At this point, I'm wondering if it would be better to just buy a relatively low end i5 or i7 secondary PC to use for streaming instead of trying to upgrade to something that could handle gaming and streaming simultaneously on one system. What do you guys think?

Hypothetically, if I was to go the single PC route, upgrading my existing system, I'd probably opt for either the i7 4790k or the i7 5820k. I just don't have the money right now, and I'm not even sure it would be worth it even if I did. I'd also have to buy Dual Channel DDR3 or DDR4, respectively, as well as a new motherboard, and that's a lot of money that I don't have.

 

[up-n-atom]

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. My overclocked Core i7-920 still kicks ass, too.

However, I'm in a bit of a situation. I want to get into streaming on Twitch, but my i7-920 definitely isn't up to snuff when it comes to that. At this point, I'm wondering if it would be better to just buy a relatively low end i5 or i7 secondary PC to use for streaming instead of trying to upgrade to something that could handle gaming and streaming simultaneously on one system. What do you guys think?

Hypothetically, if I was to go the single PC route, upgrading my existing system, I'd probably opt for either the i7 4790k or the i7 5820k. I just don't have the money right now, and I'm not even sure it would be worth it even if I did. I'd also have to buy Dual Channel DDR3 or DDR4, respectively, as well as a new motherboard, and that's a lot of money that I don't have.

For a two PC setup there are two options. 1st is using a capture/replay card and that would add latency. Most cards I've seen use HDMI which already is latent too. They are not cheap either ranging from $250 to $1000 but you have no other option if you want to do console streaming as well. 2nd is using a capture card with host PCs GPU in dual output set to mirrored. They are less expensive ranging from $150 to $1000. Both come in the form of PCIe or USB3 and the overall quality will be the best with little overhead on the host.

Single PC will always be troublesome. Not sure how the software is written, ie. do they use the GPU and/or parallel process? Either way I'd assume a lot of memory for both the CPU and GPU is necessary depending on the resolution. If you're down sampling and overlaying that's where my question comes from because it can be performed on either end. Either way it's still using a lot of resources and they cost. Someone that streams could fill us in but the two PC route sounds more ideal especially if it's your destiny to make money from it.

 

[everyth1ng]

For a two PC setup there are two options. 1st is using a capture/replay card and that would add latency. Most cards I've seen use HDMI which already is latent too. They are not cheap either ranging from $250 to $1000 but you have no other option if you want to do console streaming as well. 2nd is using a capture card with host PCs GPU in dual output set to mirrored. They are less expensive ranging from $150 to $1000. Both come in the form of PCIe or USB3 and the overall quality will be the best with little overhead on the host.

Single PC will always be troublesome. Not sure how the software is written, ie. do they use the GPU and/or parallel process? Either way I'd assume a lot of memory for both the CPU and GPU is necessary depending on the resolution. If you're down sampling and overlaying that's where my question comes from because it can be performed on either end. Either way it's still using a lot of resources and they cost. Someone that streams could fill us in but the two PC route sounds more ideal especially if it's your destiny to make money from it.

Thank you for this. My stance on Twitch is that I'd just like to try it and see what happens. It would certainly make my life a lot easier while I'm in university if it turned out to be successful, but I have quite a bit of experience in a couple of other fields to fall back on, too.

 

[zackychuu]

So I've decided to go for an SSD for now, and hold out for whatever the new year brings to upgrade everything or just start anew.
I'm pretty happy with my pc aside from the load time so that seems like the best way to go?
That way I can also take the SSD into my new build just like Salvador said.

So the next question to ask is, what are the best SSDs to look at?
I would like a fair amount of storage space. My current windows partition is 250GB and I'm using 130GB of that space.
I always see them on sale on Amazon and places like that but I've always been worried that I'll pick up one of the makes that is considered shit.

Then once I have it I'd like to transfer my current windows partition to the SSD, just because it's easier than a fresh install.
Is there ways of doing that?
I have a 1TB Ext HDD if that would help any.

 

[OG buckshot jr]

My advice would be to certainly perform a fresh install as it always helps performance. The only thing you bring over is media and anything under your user space (docs, pics, etc). It's also nice to have clean drivers..

As for SSD, I have amazing experiences with Crucial M500/M550 series drives (I have a couple 480gb's and couple 250gb's), and I've also heard great things from ADATA, they've stepped their game up.

You're going to see wild figures from different manufacturers, but the fact of the matter is they're all the bloody same in real-world performance, so buying a trusted brand at a good price point (why i like Crucial drives) is a good start.

Try not to waste your money on top-shelf Samsung Pro, Kingston Hyper X and the like because they're really not better in real-world performance. In fact, samsung is actually slower than what they used to be because they use a smaller, more power efficient NAND flash [re: slower] than the old Pro's.

My top picks are:
Crucial, ADATA, Intel 5xx-series.

Of course, there are lines of each product - as in different tiers, from entry to 'pro' level, so google any purchase first, but it shouldn't be hard. Any rating of Sata-3 6GB/s and around 450mbps read/write is gold.

Edit: on British amazon I see a 500gb Crucial M500 for 149pounds, that's a fantastic deal!!

 

[zackychuu]

Edit: on British amazon I see a 500gb Crucial M500 for 149pounds, that's a fantastic deal!!

Well if you say that's a good deal then it looks like I know what my next paycheck is going on.
Thanks for all the help guys!

I know a Clean install is better and I'll be looking into that too, but do I have options for transferring everything?
I'm terrible when it comes to remembering how everything is set up and what programs I use and things like that.

I'll still be using my current 1TB HDD too, so I think this is a dumb question but can I remove my 250GB partition and then add it to my other partition on the drive? Or do I have to wipe it and make a new partition for the whole drive? I think the answer is the latter but I've not looked into this stuff for a while.

Edit:
Is there anything special I need to do when installing on an SSD? I've never used one before.

 

[OG buckshot jr]

I'll try to answer them all:

1. Best way to transfer is from drive to drive, documents, music etc. Do not transfer anything from c:

2. I need clarity on your 1tb question. You've got a 1tb drive that has a 250gb partition for the OS? So 250gb OS, 750gb for gay pr0n? I'll await your clarification before I answer.

3. For the SSD, install it in your existing computer the way it is and go into Disk Management via Computer Management and it will ask to "Initialize" the disk. You just click ok, and done. You can also format it there too, if you want.

When you go to install Windows, unplug your old drive as the boot partitions from your new and old drive will try to touch penises. Once Windows is on the new ssd, you can plug the old drive back and transfer any nudes from One Direction back on, if you wish.

 

[zackychuu]

1. Best way to transfer is from drive to drive, documents, music etc. Do not transfer anything from c:

Got it.

2. I need clarity on your 1tb question. You've got a 1tb drive that has a 250gb partition for the OS? So 250gb OS, 750gb for gay pr0n? I'll await your clarification before I answer.

Yeah, 250GB partition for OS and then the remainder (750GB partition, but not really) for Steam etc.

3. For the SSD, install it in your existing computer the way it is and go into Disk Management via Computer Management and it will ask to "Initialize" the disk. You just click ok, and done. You can also format it there too, if you want.

When you go to install Windows, unplug your old drive as the boot partitions from your new and old drive will try to touch penises. Once Windows is on the new ssd, you can plug the old drive back and transfer any nudes from One Direction back on, if you wish.

So basically just the same as a regular HDD?
I was assuming there would be some kind of different process or software or something.

 

[Cock]

I know a Clean install is better and I'll be looking into that too, but do I have options for transferring everything?
I'm terrible when it comes to remembering how everything is set up and what programs I use and things like that.

Crucial drives come with Acronis TrueImage HD, which will copy all the programs/settings from your old drive to the new one.

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/The-Cru/Cloning-with-Acronis-TrueImage-HD/ba-p/143991

 

[OG buckshot jr]

Nice, cock, I didn't know that! Zachy, same as a regular HDD, yes.

Edit: if Cock's info proves true for the line of Crucial drives I have (M500/M550), looks like I'll have a few spare keys to give out lol. Gonna check the drive boxes when I get home, however I don't remember seeing anything...

 

[Brades]

Nice, cock

 

[Shotgun Jesus]

Nice cock, Zachy

 

[up-n-atom]

If you're up to the task and want to do a "proper" install that utilizes your HD and increases the longevity of your SSD, ie. Windows on SSD and Users on HD. You can even go further by moving Program Files, ProgramData, Temp, etc. onto the HD for greater longevity at the cost of performance.

Install:

http://www.brileigh.com/windows/ins...sers-program-files-and-programdata-folders-2/

Install/Setup:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds

 

[OG buckshot jr]

I wouldn't do that as many games store config files and launch xml's/ini's in local/roaming data.. could cause a slow down, no?

 

[Cock]

I wouldn't do that as many games store config files and launch xml's/ini's in local/roaming data.. could cause a slow down, no?

Exactly what I thought,

 

[up-n-atom]

I wouldn't do that as many games store config files and launch xml's/ini's in local/roaming data.. could cause a slow down, no?

If you're satisfied in knowing that in 3-5 years your SSD will become read-only then you ignore all possible avenues to reduce write cycles. This is satisfactory for our through away culture because they really don't understand these repercussions. HDDs have a cache to alleviate some of the burden of a performance hit with the help of the OS disk scheduler and more so when doing parallel IO and even more so with RAID 0. It's all up to the user and their priorities. The 2nd link everyone should read no matter their configuration because it has many optimizations.

EDIT: Since we're on the topic if you want the maximum throughput go with an PCIe SSD.