I have been considering an SSD upgrade, as I'm sure most have. I have been running a Core2 Q6600 on an nForce 680i SLI for nearly three years now. The platform as a whole hasn't been perfect, but it has been quite good.
The problem?
The 680i does not support AHCI. Despite some sites claims that AHCI does not impact performance, I wanted to have the option. Also, I'm more inclined to believe sites that do more thorough testing. Additionally, I do get bitten by the "upgrade bug" and have a desire to upgrade more than "just" my hard drive. :)
There are obviously a couple of potential solutions. First, upgrade the entire platform. Second, add a SATA controller with AHCI.
When considering a system upgrade, it really looked like the cost would quickly ramp up. Motherboard, CPU, and 8GB of RAM would add up to a hefty sum. I wanted to ensure that the CPU would be at least as fast as what I have, and preferably be faster. The Phenom II 955 seemed a good candidate. The Athlon II models seemed faster in some things, but not faster across the board. The Intel P55 platform seems fast, but it would be slightly more expensive and also... incomplete? It's PCIe configuration seems like it intentionally cripples the platform. The X58 costs significantly more. I also wanted to go with 8GB because that is what I have now. I do run virtual machines using VirtualBox, and the extra RAM is nice.
So, I started looking at the second option. The best choice appears to be Asus' U3S6. It adds USB 3.0 (beyond just AHCI via SATA 6G controller), and is only $30. The card has a limited selection of "compatible" motherboards, but people have reported success getting this card working on other motherboards.
The challenge of add-in cards is that they tend to block the fan of dual-slot video cards. The U3S6 is 4.8" long, and that definitely overlaps the fan on my GTS 250. So...
The Radeon 5770 seems to be a good upgrade from the GTS 250, and there are models that have the ATI reference cooler with the fan at the end of the card. Some measurements and estimates from online photos show that the U3S6 shouldn't interfere with the fan.
Total cost for the XFX XXX 5770 (which includes BattleForge) and Asus U3S6? $200. That's less than what 8GB of decent DDR3 memory would cost me, and on the whole, it should give me a bigger boost in performance than upgrading the CPU, motherboard, and RAM would.
To be continued... :)
The problem?
The 680i does not support AHCI. Despite some sites claims that AHCI does not impact performance, I wanted to have the option. Also, I'm more inclined to believe sites that do more thorough testing. Additionally, I do get bitten by the "upgrade bug" and have a desire to upgrade more than "just" my hard drive. :)
There are obviously a couple of potential solutions. First, upgrade the entire platform. Second, add a SATA controller with AHCI.
When considering a system upgrade, it really looked like the cost would quickly ramp up. Motherboard, CPU, and 8GB of RAM would add up to a hefty sum. I wanted to ensure that the CPU would be at least as fast as what I have, and preferably be faster. The Phenom II 955 seemed a good candidate. The Athlon II models seemed faster in some things, but not faster across the board. The Intel P55 platform seems fast, but it would be slightly more expensive and also... incomplete? It's PCIe configuration seems like it intentionally cripples the platform. The X58 costs significantly more. I also wanted to go with 8GB because that is what I have now. I do run virtual machines using VirtualBox, and the extra RAM is nice.
So, I started looking at the second option. The best choice appears to be Asus' U3S6. It adds USB 3.0 (beyond just AHCI via SATA 6G controller), and is only $30. The card has a limited selection of "compatible" motherboards, but people have reported success getting this card working on other motherboards.
The challenge of add-in cards is that they tend to block the fan of dual-slot video cards. The U3S6 is 4.8" long, and that definitely overlaps the fan on my GTS 250. So...
The Radeon 5770 seems to be a good upgrade from the GTS 250, and there are models that have the ATI reference cooler with the fan at the end of the card. Some measurements and estimates from online photos show that the U3S6 shouldn't interfere with the fan.
Total cost for the XFX XXX 5770 (which includes BattleForge) and Asus U3S6? $200. That's less than what 8GB of decent DDR3 memory would cost me, and on the whole, it should give me a bigger boost in performance than upgrading the CPU, motherboard, and RAM would.
To be continued... :)
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