31 replies to this topic

[Randomrocket]

Hey guys, Im looking to increase my computer speed. My RAM is fine it's the hard drive I wanna upgrade.

Solid State Drives are way too expensive for me (and small). I was wondering if you guys could help me on if I should get a Raid setup or what.

I have a western Digital 750gb hard drive right now and it takes forever for the computer to turn on it seems. I was thinking about going with a Raid 1 setup. But any thoughts or suggestions would be awesome.

Raid 0 has no recovery if a disk fails so that's why Im thinking about going with a Raid 1. But i don't know how to set it up and stuff.

Or if there is an easier way to increase my speed, please tell me.

[matty0]

are you sure its your hard drive thats bottle-knecking your speed? its almost always ram/cpu... even a 5400rpm drive gives access speeds of 300mbps+... what do you need more than that for?

in terms of a speed increase in that department however, you can look into 7200rpm sata2 drives or even usb3 if you want portability. stay away from ssd... they're hellish quick but they have a limited number of writes possible before a fail or data corruption. stick with traditional non ssd.

tbh though... i know you say your ram is fine... but are you sure?

[Randomrocket]

tbh though... i know you say your ram is fine... but are you sure?

I have 4 GBs of DDR3. Im already planning on getting at least 2 more GBs.

Mys CPU is a AMD Phenom II x4 945. One of the faster quad-cores made by AMD. Its not my cpu.

Now, Im really confused. I would have thought it would be more hdd that's slowing me down. Then again, I usually have AAE, chrome, media player, sony vegas, and skype on at the same time. I know that when I use all of those, that chugs ram. But it takes forever for my pc to boot up!

[Quinn]

are you sure its your hard drive thats bottle-knecking your speed? its almost always ram/cpu... even a 5400rpm drive gives access speeds of 300mbps+... what do you need more than that for?

in terms of a speed increase in that department however, you can look into 7200rpm sata2 drives or even usb3 if you want portability. stay away from ssd... they're hellish quick but they have a limited number of writes possible before a fail or data corruption. stick with traditional non ssd.

tbh though... i know you say your ram is fine... but are you sure?

Thats not very fast, when you convert it (Megabits converted to Megabytes.)
(36.62109375 MB/s)

I have 4 GBs of DDR3. Im already planning on getting at least 2 more GBs.

Mys CPU is a AMD Phenom II x4 945. One of the faster quad-cores made by AMD. Its not my cpu.

Now, Im really confused. I would have thought it would be more hdd that's slowing me down. Then again, I usually have AAE, chrome, media player, sony vegas, and skype on at the same time. I know that when I use all of those, that chugs ram. But it takes forever for my pc to boot up!

If you can, buy an SSD. They are the most dramatic speed boost I have ever seen. I put mine in my laptop, boots in seconds.
But, if you cannot afford a SSD, check what's running on startup. I can help you out with this over TV, if you would like.

Edit:
I know you said they are way to expensive, but trust me. And for size, I have a 60GB OCZ. I put Windows 7, Openoffice and a few more core programs on there, and still have close to half of the space free.

[matty0]

I have 4 GBs of DDR3. Im already planning on getting at least 2 more GBs.

Mys CPU is a AMD Phenom II x4 945. One of the faster quad-cores made by AMD. Its not my cpu.

Now, Im really confused. I would have thought it would be more hdd that's slowing me down. Then again, I usually have AAE, chrome, media player, sony vegas, and skype on at the same time. I know that when I use all of those, that chugs ram. But it takes forever for my pc to boot up!

Thats good hardware, if you have issues with boot times, there are 2 places to look initially, and a 3rd if they dont make enough of an impact.

1) start menu then all programs/startup and make sure there is nothing that you wouldnt want running at boot time.
2) msconfig - from the start menu type that in "msconfig" and it will boot. then go to the startup tab and remove anything that isn't essential. there will be A LOT! leave all the m$ stuff and anything driver related, but you'd be supprised how much crap gets stuffed in there and then is forced to load at boot. give it a good clear out!
3) clean/defrag your HDD and Registry. if you've had your computer for 6 months+ you should consider a HDD defrag. this will be slow (set aside a day...). if you are unsure on how to do these processes, its made very simple in windows 7 manager by yamicasoft... a google search could help you track it down free...

if these things REAAAAAALY dont help, then yes an ssd is faster. but my honest advice to you would be that if you really want to get one, get the smallest possible (think <20gb) and use it purely for the OS to install onto. use other drives for storage and programs. that way you get the boot and load speeds of an ssd drive, without the write errors or the massive price of getting an actually useable sized one.

If you can, buy an SSD. They are the most dramatic speed boost I have ever seen. I put mine in my laptop, boots in seconds

get a nice 7200rpm drive and compare it to ssd... ssd will win, but you'l pay 3x what i pay and you'l get 60gb... i'll have 1tb

[Randomrocket]

I know you said they are way to expensive, but trust me. And for size, I have a 60GB OCZ. I put Windows 7, Openoffice and a few more core programs on there, and still have close to half of the space free.

ugh. Thats another question. Would I have to uninstall and wipe everything clean to transfer Windows 7 to another hard drive?

Thats good hardware, if you have issues with boot times, there are 2 places to look initially, and a 3rd if they dont make enough of an impact.

Thanks man. I went through it and turns out I had a lot of stuff on there I didnt need. (I dont even own a lexmark printer! how did that get there??) lol

I'll see tomorrow if it made a difference.

[Quinn]

Thats good hardware, if you have issues with boot times, there are 2 places to look initially, and a 3rd if they dont make enough of an impact.

1) start menu then all programs/startup and make sure there is nothing that you wouldnt want running at boot time.
2) msconfig - from the start menu type that in "msconfig" and it will boot. then go to the startup tab and remove anything that isn't essential. there will be A LOT! leave all the m$ stuff and anything driver related, but you'd be supprised how much crap gets stuffed in there and then is forced to load at boot. give it a good clear out!
3) clean/defrag your HDD and Registry. if you've had your computer for 6 months+ you should consider a HDD defrag. this will be slow (set aside a day...). if you are unsure on how to do these processes, its made very simple in windows 7 manager by yamicasoft... a google search could help you track it down free...

if these things REAAAAAALY dont help, then yes an ssd is faster. but my honest advice to you would be that if you really want to get one, get the smallest possible (think <20gb) and use it purely for the OS to install onto. use other drives for storage and programs. that way you get the boot and load speeds of an ssd drive, without the write errors or the massive price of getting an actually useable sized one.


get a nice 7200rpm drive and compare it to ssd... ssd will win, but you'l pay 3x what i pay and you'l get 60gb... i'll have 1tb

Exactly what I said

Also, the only reason I put the SSD in my laptop was because it has two hard drive bays. Currently my laptop has the 60gb SSD and a 640gb WD in it. And, its not even close to 3x the price
Edit:
Just checked newegg, the price for a 7200 rpm HDD is around $75.. The price for my SSD is currently $125

ugh. Thats another question. Would I have to uninstall and wipe everything clean to transfer Windows 7 to another hard drive?


Thanks man. I went through it and turns out I had a lot of stuff on there I didnt need. (I dont even own a lexmark printer! how did that get there??) lol

I'll see tomorrow if it made a difference.

You could clone the drive, but it would be a lot of work. It may also not boot correctly. Your best bet would be to install a clean copy of windows 7 onto the new HDD, then re-install your programs (or you could copy over the files directly and import the registry)

[matty0]

You could clone the drive, but it would be a lot of work. It may also not boot correctly. Your best bet would be to install a clean copy of windows 7 onto the new HDD, then re-install your programs (or you could copy over the files directly and import the registry)

he's right. install fresh. drive cloning works... but its never perfect somehow

[Quinn]

he's right. install fresh. drive cloning works... but its never perfect somehow

I wish you didn't live in the UK, but somewhere closer to me

[matty0]

I wish you didn't live in the UK, but somewhere closer to me

me too we get on like a house on fire haha.

[Quinn]

me too we get on like a house on fire haha.

lmao!
We could start a business, I could fix the PCs and you could fix the Macs!

[matty0]

would be soooo fun haha. you'd have all the business tho windows... haha

[Quinn]

would be soooo fun haha. you'd have all the business tho windows... haha

Well... Lets put it this way, I'll fix the hardware issues, then you make it a hackintosh

[matty0]

Well... Lets put it this way, I'll fix the hardware issues, then you make it a hackintosh

sounds like a plan! a damn fun one

[Randomrocket]

Just checked newegg, the price for a 7200 rpm HDD is around $75.. The price for my SSD is currently $125

Aight check this one out. OCZ Vertex 30 GB ssd This one look good? I have no experience in ssd's

[Quinn]

Aight check this one out. OCZ Vertex 30 GB ssd This one look good? I have no experience in ssd's

Check this one out: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820211487
It's specs look good, and the reviews are 4-5 eggs. One guy said that after installing Windows 7, he had 22.9 Gigabytes free. Again, this drive is only 40gb, so you will be loading windows and a couple of essential programs, and thats it. Again, its all about what you're willing to pay.

[Randomrocket]

Check this one out: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820211487
It's specs look good, and the reviews are 4-5 eggs. One guy said that after installing Windows 7, he had 22.9 Gigabytes free. Again, this drive is only 40gb, so you will be loading windows and a couple of essential programs, and thats it. Again, its all about what you're willing to pay.

Aight thanks a ton guys. Now I just gotta think of what I want on there. Maybe Adobe After Effects, 3Ds MAX, and.... maybe Split/Second and Crysis.

[Quinn]

Aight thanks a ton guys. Now I just gotta think of what I want on there. Maybe Adobe After Effects, 3Ds MAX, and.... maybe Split/Second and Crysis.

Crysis and Split/Second don't need to be on an SSD.. I play both fine stored on a regular HDD. There are few games that actually benefit from being on an SSD, usually those that have a lot of large, large files to load. GTA IV is a good example. Don't load it up too much, you want free space. The more free space you have usually means the faster the drive (For both SSDs and HDDs)

[Randomrocket]

Crysis and Split/Second don't need to be on an SSD.. I play both fine stored on a regular HDD. There are few games that actually benefit from being on an SSD, usually those that have a lot of large, large files to load. GTA IV is a good example. Don't load it up too much, you want free space. The more free space you have usually means the faster the drive (For both SSDs and HDDs)

hmmmm. Alright then. What about programs that have a lot of processor intensive need? Like 3Ds MAX

[Quinn]

hmmmm. Alright then. What about programs that have a lot of processor intensive need? Like 3Ds MAX

When you start a program, much of it is loaded into the RAM. So unless the HDD you're using for storage is extremely, extremely slow (worse than a 5400rpm laptop drive ) then I won't make much of a difference, except for the initial loading.