How should I upgrade my PC?

[Tjj226_Angel]

Recently I acquired 200 dollars and I decided to spend it on my old rig. I have a laundry list of options but before I start listing them off, you should know I live in the US and I can easily get to a Microcenter. I would be willing to spend all the way up to 250 dollars, but I feel that the mot important thing for this build is to get matching fans considering I have just a crap load of different LED fans that were donated from a friend. I do want to go with Black fans with white LEDs and a white LED strip from Bitfenix, however that would eat up about 45 dollars of the budget right there. So I would only like to spend about 150 on something unless there is something you think my build just can't live with out.

 

With that in mind you should know what I have in my build:

 

Asus P6X58D premium mobo

 

Intel i7 950

 

GTS 450

 

1 tb HDD from samsung

 

Noctua NH-D14

 

12gb of mushkin ram 1600mhz with 9-9-9-24 timings 3x4gb

 

Corsair 800D case

 

Now, as you can see there is some room for improvement. I am looking to sell this computer on ebay for about 1.2K considering all the individual parts are still worth more. However, I wanted this machine to learn about computers and it is NOT a gaming machine. Help me turn it into one to sell.

 

What I would like to do is to get the OCZ synapse 64gb edition, a video card, and my fans and LED strip all for about 300. However, that is the absolute ungodly max I want to spend.

 

Here is what I am looking at....

 

Video card Zotac

 

OCZ synapse 64gb for 155 USD

 

3 xigmatech 120mm black fans with white LEDs for 10 buck each and I already have 1 of the 140 mm for the exhaust (the rest of man fans are various shades of blue, lol) so I am getting a second for the lower intake for 3 bucks after rebate (TAHNK YOU XIGMATEK )

 

For LED strip, I am not sure what to get. I already have a pair of blue logisys cathode style lights that for some reason look absolutley disgusting. The light bleeds every where, and the color quality reminds me more of garage shop lights than anything meant for color accents, so please don't recommend any cathode style lighting. However, if there are any special LED strips that people have worked with, let me know.

 

 

Now here are my questions.

 

Video Card: The video card would be purely for resell of the computer fyi. Should I get another gts 450 and put it in SLI, sell the 450 I have and look for a cheap gtx 560, or possibly go with a ATI/AMD solution? I should also say, I will sell the 450 if I don't put it in SLI, but I either use the money towards a better graphics card than the 460, or I use it for some nice mods like a mobo shell/armor or something. I am not accustom to AMD or ATI myself (other than the too expensive 6900 series), so I am sure what sort of card I should be looking for in the 100 to 150 range. In which case please tell me what the card will be like in terms of a nvidia card so I know what you are talking about. (Sorry I am an AMD noob )

 

SSD: Here is where I start getting confused as to what I should do. Personally the SSD is the most important for me. I don't game at all on my PC (built it because it was fun) so an SSD is what I would get the biggest benefit out of. Now I would really like to cache my hard drive with the OCZ synapse, but 155 is ridiculous to spend on 64gb of data for an SSD. Does anyone know of software, or a way I could cache the hard drive with a regular 60gb SSD? If there is, then I would just get the OCZ agility 3 60gb edition for 65 bucks after rebate. If no one knows of anything, then tell me what other options I have for about 130 or below. I might go with an upwards of 170 for a 120gb Mushkin SSD, but that would really be breaking the bank . Lastly, I could just say screw it all and blow 300 bucks on 2 120 gb SSD's in raid 0, but that probably isn't the smartest choice .

 

Led strip / fans: Looking for a white led strip as I already said, but if any one knows of a a website where I can get the 120 mm fans for cheap, that would be great too!

 

 

Lastly, I am not confined to any one of these options. If you (the reader) feels as if there is just something my build just can't be with out, please let me know.

 

Thank you all in advance

[Stonerboy779]

You can cache with a 20tgb the 64gb is just the max size the cache can be the 60gb should be fine.

 

Auto store led lights if they end up too bright you can and a resistor or drop voltage. Fb just wire them into a molex or something.

 

Havent opened the zotac link on my phone but for gfx just sli the 450 should get some good and cheap performance.

 

Oh and white LEDs ftw

[Tjj226_Angel]

You can cache with a 20tgb the 64gb is just the max size the cache can be the 60gb should be fine.

 

Auto store led lights if they end up too bright you can and a resistor or drop voltage. Fb just wire them into a molex or something.

 

Havent opened the zotac link on my phone but for gfx just sli the 450 should get some good and cheap performance.

 

Oh and white LEDs ftw

 

 

My question is how would I cache my hard drive? I want to be able to use "ANY" SSD (not the ocz synapse) "WITHOUT" the use of the SRT technology since I don't have a Z68 chipset board.

 

Secondly, out of curiosity does any one know what 2 gts 450s would equate to? If it is like a GTX 560 or better I am sold, If it is like a GTX 550 or below, I might see what they offer on ebay.

[Tjj226_Angel]

Let me rephrase the question. How can I cache my hard drive with out using a ocz synapse or intel SRT technology. If any one knows of a way, please tell me!

 

Bye the way, thanks for your time so far stoner, now if only you find that Revodrive in a cracker jack box for 5 bucks like you said you would

[Stonerboy779]

Let me rephrase the question. How can I cache my hard drive with out using a ocz synapse or intel SRT technology. If any one knows of a way, please tell me!

 

Bye the way, thanks for your time so far stoner, now if only you find that Revodrive in a cracker jack box for 5 bucks like you said you would

No dice on the revo. And no dice on anyone using a vertex 3 as anything other than a boot drive for a x58 always getting z68 for people caching. I wonder if the software ect for the synaps would work with the vertex.

[Tjj226_Angel]

No dice on the revo. And no dice on anyone using a vertex 3 as anything other than a boot drive for a x58 always getting z68 for people caching. I wonder if the software ect for the synaps would work with the vertex.

 

That is what I have been trying to figure out. I mean all ti is is the daplex software that is natively incorporated into the memory of the drive, so why couldn't you just use the same software on a different drive?

 

If it comes down to a 64gb synapse for 150 or a 120gb SSD for black Friday door buster deal, which one would you, or any one go with?

[Stonerboy779]

Synapse if it drops on Friday. And maybe if you were a test subject with the vertex as it wil likely drop in price for the sale.

[Locutus]

Throw out the fans, sell the card, buy an AMD 6950.

[Tjj226_Angel]

Throw out the fans, sell the card, buy an AMD 6950.

 

I need the fans. Some of my fans are starting to die and with an air heat sink, those fans are crucial. Thats what I get for buying cheap 5 dollar fans from a bin . I do however have a laptop 640 gb HDD and a 680 W PSU that i will probably sell off. I am hopping to get 160 for both, and if I sell my video card along with it, I would hope for about 250. I was planning on saving any money I could for my next build. However, that is not to say that I wouldn't mind spending money if I could end up seeing a gain on the investment. With all the rebates and sales I have in this pc, when I do sell it, I will still be making 200 bucks. I would like to see 400 dollars of profit off my pc and sell it for 1.6K (to idiots). My question is, would I see a profit gain or profit loss if I went with a 6590 or gtx 550 ti over the current plan of simply adding another gts 450?

 

I do feel like I need to incorporate an SSD though, simply because the SSD revolution is right around the corner. So with that being the biggest purchase I don't want to break the bank for video cards if I am going to be loosing money on it, if you know what I mean.

 

On a side note, I will be spending about 1.5K for my ivy bridge build. Would you (the readers) think that is enough for an i7 ivy setup?

[Stonerboy779]

I need the fans. Some of my fans are starting to die and with an air heat sink, those fans are crucial. Thats what I get for buying cheap 5 dollar fans from a bin . I do however have a laptop 640 gb HDD and a 680 W PSU that i will probably sell off. I am hopping to get 160 for both, and if I sell my video card along with it, I would hope for about 250. I was planning on saving any money I could for my next build. However, that is not to say that I wouldn't mind spending money if I could end up seeing a gain on the investment. With all the rebates and sales I have in this pc, when I do sell it, I will still be making 200 bucks. I would like to see 400 dollars of profit off my pc and sell it for 1.6K (to idiots). My question is, would I see a profit gain or profit loss if I went with a 6590 or gtx 550 ti over the current plan of simply adding another gts 450?

 

I do feel like I need to incorporate an SSD though, simply because the SSD revolution is right around the corner. So with that being the biggest purchase I don't want to break the bank for video cards if I am going to be loosing money on it, if you know what I mean.

 

On a side note, I will be spending about 1.5K for my ivy bridge build. Would you (the readers) think that is enough for an i7 ivy setup?

Well considering it is being sold on. SSD boot drive nice and cheap.

Let someone else deal with it being a boot drive, don't bother caching. Just show super fast boot times and load one game on the SSD and show how quickly a level loads ect.

[Locutus]

Not everyone feels that an SSD is really necessary at this point.

 

The major bottleneck on your rig is your GPU, from what I can see. Especially for gaming, etc.

 

If you plan on selling it, either sell it as "like-new" or you're going to be losing most of your money on it. Used computers (and parts) rarely make their money back, let alone profit.

[iskout]

If you're looking for gaming performance, I'd grab a new GPU. You COULD get another GTS 450, but I'm curious about your PSU. What brand is it? Normally, I'm not much for brand loyalty, but you said that you have a 680w PSU, and I've seen only a limited number of PSU's that use that unusual wattage, most of them not being very reliable.

 

If you're looking for a general use gain, I'd grab an SSD.