SSD or Sandy Bridge upgrade options

[Solarium]

So after upgrading my 8800GT to a 5870, I wasn't so impressed with the performance upgrade. I'm thinking that there's a severe bottleneck in my system and am debating the best way to upgrade.

My current rig:
E8400 @ 3.6ghz with Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R
2x2gb of G Skill PC800 ram
GPU Sapphire ATI 5870 1gb stock clocked
Seagate 500gb 5400rpm HDD (bought 2 yrs ago for $64, OS on this drive, Vista experience shows this as severe bottleneck)
some ancient 8 yr old 120gb HDD
PSU 430 watts

my options:
1. Upgrade to i5 2500k with new mobo and 8gb PC1600 ram, costing around $400 on a good day

2. Upgrading my HDD to 120gb SSD (OCZ Vertex 2 -$200 at NE), then Samsung F4 2TB for storage space ($79), and Windows 7 family pack to upgrade all 3 comps at home ($129) - total costing around $400

 

[Markfw]

I think you need to specify what made you think your latest upgrade disappointed you. For games, it should have been a substantial upgrade. If not, what games ? and what fps before/after.

 

[Solarium]

I think you need to specify what made you think your latest upgrade disappointed you. For games, it should have been a substantial upgrade. If not, what games ? and what fps before/after.

I felt that the FPS increases were minimal. I got a good increase in SC2, but not as much as I wanted. Under ultra settings at 1080 my fps dips below 30's at times. CS: Source didn't even increase at all, still getting pretty much same fps except smoke runs smoother now. Overall, I expected a much larger increase especially coming from a 8800GT.

 

[Tsavo]

SSD and HDD's aren't going to boost your FPS.

I wouldn't want to use a new CPU with a 5400 RPM drive, though.

I'd try to swing a 2500K with 4GB of RAM and a Samsung F3 1TB but that's $500 shipped, perhaps a little more. It will give you the biggest boost in computing enjoyment though.

 

[beginner99]

I felt that the FPS increases were minimal. I got a good increase in SC2, but not as much as I wanted. Under ultra settings at 1080 my fps dips below 30's at times. CS: Source didn't even increase at all, still getting pretty much same fps except smoke runs smoother now. Overall, I expected a much larger increase especially coming from a 8800GT.

SC2 sure is CPU bound at times. It only uses 2 cores but if you have a lot of background stuff (torrent, AV, firewall,...) running additional cores would probably help.
Don't know about CS. Maybe you have vsync on?

In general, an SSD will hugely improve your everyday experience. No more stuttering. However it will probably have no or a negligable effect on fps in games. Games and levels will load faster (but not that much) but else don't think it will help much with gaming.
So if your main concern is fps, I would go with the new CPU.
(I think 4 gb ram would be enough but it's cheap now so not that big an issue)

 

[Gideon]

A new CPU would definitely benefit you more in games, especially in SC2:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/129

Core i3 530, which is in the bottom of the list (being over 2x slower than 2500k) is about equal to your current CPU:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/118?vs=56

That is, when not even taking OC into account, which with that CPU really is a must IMHO.

The SSD will make your average computer usage a lot smoother, but will pretty much only provide you with faster loading times in games.

All in all, it really depends on the everlasting question, what do you mostly do with your rig ? Keeping 5400rpm HDD and Vista is certainly painful for everyday use (though a fast CPU and lots of RAM will probably mitigate that somewhat), but for games, Win 7 and SSD will only help you with loading times.

 

[smakme7757]

A 5870 is a decent card for gaming so you should have seen a decent performance gain, but of the two upgrades i would save and buy both.

You will get to a new level of OS 'Snappyness' with an SSD and if you choose the 2500k you will reap the benifits of DDR3 ram and a newer cpu architecture which is just fantastic and your games will love you for it.

Either way you can't loose.

 

[eternalone]

SSD would be your best bet since its actually something you need. Then if you want you can upgrade to sandy bridge, but then again that SSD might keep you happy enough till you see what Bulldozer brings us.

 

[poohbear]

if you're looking to increase minimum FPS in games, the Sandy Bridge is the only thing that would help you. Vista is still a decent OS, w/ a $90 60gb OCZ vertex2 added to the cost, you'd notice a massive increase in load times for day to day stuff! The Vertex2 has its own garbage collection and therefore doesnt need the TRIM feature in Win7 for SSDs.

 

[Solarium]

Not sure if the prices of SSD's are going down further, but I want to hold out for a 120gb under $100, perhaps sometime later this year? I think the CPU/Mobo/Ram combo + the Samsung F4 2TB sounds good right now, although I really REALLY want the SSD too! I would hate to partition the 2TB into a storage and a OS portion now and install vista 64, only to format again when I get the SSD to install windows 7.

 

[Obsoleet]

It is a popular myth that SSDs do NOT increase (minimum) FPS.
Have a look for yourself. http://www.anandtech.com/show/2614/14

That said, when you buy a SSD I have owned all the brands and models, and would suggest the Intel and Intel only. Just my experience / opinion.

 

[Solarium]

If I upgrade from a E8400 @ 3.6 to a i5-2500k @ 4.4, will I need a new PSU? (BTW my current PSU isn't 430, it's actually 520 - SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W).

 

[bryanW1995]

definitely not, that psu is great. I'm using an older corsair hx 520 (just a rebadged seasonic s12) on an i7 @ 4.0 with a gtx 460 running dc 24/7 with no psu issues at all. in fact, that psu has run a highly oc'd quad for the past 3 years or so on DC 24/7, and the older quads used more power at their OC threshold than an SB @ 4.5 or so.

edit: oops, forgot that I moved the hx 520 to my x3350 rig 6 mos ago. that rig is stressed even more b/c it has a gtx 260 and a 9600 gso running seti 24/7.

 

[richierich1212]

That PSU will be fine. And I'm sure SB will really help out SC2 fps; CSS not so much because that game is pretty old now and it's not that demanding. But an SSD makes everyday computing so much better. A cheap X25-v make my E5200 @ 3.6GHz and 250u @ 2.1GHz sytems fly, lol.

 

[Solarium]

SB, SSD, man I just wish the world were a perfect place and I'd have both But for the average man, SB now and SSD later when the newer version drives down the prices of the older ones down to around $100 per 120gb would be the plan

BTW, how will the Samsung F4 perform as a boot drive, since I plan to use it until I can afford SSD's

 

[richierich1212]

F4 is slow, only 5400RPM. Only use it for storage.

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

So after upgrading my 8800GT to a 5870, I wasn't so impressed with the performance upgrade. I'm thinking that there's a severe bottleneck in my system and am debating the best way to upgrade.

My current rig:
E8400 @ 3.6ghz with Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R
2x2gb of G Skill PC800 ram
GPU Sapphire ATI 5870 1gb stock clocked
Seagate 500gb 5400rpm HDD (bought 2 yrs ago for $64, OS on this drive, Vista experience shows this as severe bottleneck)
some ancient 8 yr old 120gb HDD
PSU 430 watts

my options:
1. Upgrade to i5 2500k with new mobo and 8gb PC1600 ram, costing around $400 on a good day

2. Upgrading my HDD to 120gb SSD (OCZ Vertex 2 -$200 at NE), then Samsung F4 2TB for storage space ($79), and Windows 7 family pack to upgrade all 3 comps at home ($129) - total costing around $400

I don't really have any advise other than to say I am in same "boat" so to speak, but I would upgrade the CPU before anything else.

I DO have a question for you though...HOW did you get 3.6 OC with the Gigabyte board on the 8400....cuz my Gigabyte board FAILS to OC my E8400 CPU...

 

[Solarium]

The GA-P35 is a great board to OC, 3.6 OC isn't even that high compared to others. Many others get 3.9-4.0, but I'm running at 3.6 because that's the only speed I can get 48+ hours of stable prime95 on cpu. What speed RAM are you using? I'm running ram at 800, CPU clock at 9.0x400, so it'll be more in sync. I had to raise the voltage to 1.250 from 1.225, but temps are around 43 celcius during idle and 60+ stressed. Recently to get some more juice out of my E8400 before it retires, I tried to OC it more to 3.89 (9.0x433), while it was able to boot and run 1 test of 3dmark 11, it failed prime95 after a few minutes. Needless to say, I had to declock it back to 3.6. I have a good feeling that the 2500k will be a tremendous upgrade for both of us though, just waiting for a non-microcenter combo deal to pop up, hoping for a 2x4gb 1600mhz ram along with the CPU + mobo for $400