Sherdog PC Build/Buy Thread, v5: Stop Thinking of Your Router as a Peripheral

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Madmick said:
Yeah, then that Intel 750 is your only option for an SSD that runs at these speeds. The Intel 750 is designed to run in the PCIex4 slot as an "AIC" ("add-in card"...no different than slotting a GPU or sound card into a PCIe slot):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167359

That's definitely a pricey upgrade alternative to the Samsung 850 EVO 500GB ($150), but it's ~3.5x as fast. I thought it was worth pointing that out when gamers don't think twice about getting that EVO drive at a rate of $300 per TB when the Barracuda 1TB costs $46, and the 850 EVO drives are only ~3x as fast as the Barracuda. Below gives a quick rundown of read speed and cost of the respective drive sizes you're considering purchasing in the latter two (with the Barracuda shown for context):
  • (165 MB/s) Seagate Barracuda, 3.5" SATA3, 1TB -- $46 ($0.05/GB)
  • (496 MB/s) Samsung 850 EVO, 2.5" SATA3, 500GB -- $149 ($0.30/GB)
  • (1,741 MB/s) Intel 750, AIC PCIe x4, 400GB -- $330 ($0.83/GB)
Nevertheless, if you aren't switching motherboards, then you already have your OS up and running. This is something I would plan for the next OS install with the Samsung m.2 drive on a new motherboard with the appropriate port. By then they should have only become even more economical.

Oh, they don't list other system specs like the CPU or RAM, but check out the Samsung NVMe SSD in action on Witcher 3. It's all instant: startup, loading a saved game, fast traveling to a new area. Everything. It's all freaking instant. I saw articles with complaints about 1min+ load times in this game. I fully suspect traditional hard drives are the bottleneck there. Assuming it is: imagine if you pulled a 1min load time on a normal HDD. That might be a mere 3-5 seconds on the Samsung 950 Pro.

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I need a little more help. I was digging more into that intel pci-e card and I don't think it would benefit me. I'm crossfired so my only available x4 is 2.0. Wouldn't Sata 6.0 be faster?
Here's the pages from my mobo with slots
E8534_P8Z77-V_LK-page-001.jpg

E8534_P8Z77-V_LK1-page-001.jpg
 
jefferz said:
I need a little more help. I was digging more into that intel pci-e card and I don't think it would benefit me. I'm crossfired so my only available x4 is 2.0. Wouldn't Sata 6.0 be faster?
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Oh, hell no.

SATA3 = 750MB/s ceiling bandwidth
PCIe2.0 = 500MB/s per lane x 4 = 2000MB/s (that's dual-channel; thus you needn't halve it)

But, first, since this is highly important, verify that your motherboard supports NVMe boot protocol. Almost none but the newest boards do, so yours probably doesn't. If not, then you can't run the boot drive off it, and can only use it as a secondary drive, not the OS drive. If that's the case, I'd say "screw it" to anybody, and just wait until you're on your next motherboard and a new OS to fire things up. I mean, yeah, you could still benefit from it as a pure game drive, but just generally speaking, I hate that. The faster drive may sometimes be waiting on the slower OS drive just to process stuff, and you lose the benefit. This could be a Madmick OCD thing. It's just that you want to build a river where the widest part is the mouth, and it narrows gradually towards its delta. This setup sees the river widen, but all that means is the water level lowers because the mouth can only push so much out with its narrow opening. Practically speaking, I'm not sure what this looks like for gaming load times.

*Edit* Corrected SATA3 to use the theoretical bandwidth specification, not the practical 600MB/s, because that's what I'm using with PCIex2.0.
 
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Madmick said:
Oh, hell no.

SATA3 = 750MB/s ceiling bandwidth
PCIe2.0 = 500MB/s per lane x 4 = 2000MB/s (that's dual-channel; thus you needn't halve it)

But, first, since this is highly important, verify that your motherboard supports NVMe boot protocol. Almost none but the newest boards do, so yours probably doesn't. If not, then you can't run the boot drive off it, and can only use it as a secondary drive, not the OS drive. If that's the case, I'd say "screw it" to anybody, and just wait until you're on your next motherboard and a new OS to fire things up. I mean, yeah, you could still benefit from it as a pure game drive, but just generally speaking, I hate that. The faster drive may sometimes be waiting on the slower OS drive just to process stuff, and you lose the benefit. This could be a Madmick OCD thing. It's just that you want to build a river where the widest part is the mouth, and it narrows gradually towards its delta. This setup sees the river widen, but all that means is the water level lowers because the mouth can only push so much out with its narrow opening. Practically speaking, I'm not sure what this looks like for gaming load times.

*Edit* Corrected SATA3 to use the theoretical bandwidth specification, not the practical 600MB/s, because that's what I'm using with PCIex2.0.
Click to expand...

My mobo doesn't do NVME.
I ran across this Amazon product ASIN B00MYCQP38Would I still run into the same issues?
 
jefferz said:
My mobo doesn't do NVME.
I ran across this Amazon product ASIN B00MYCQP38Would I still run into the same issues?
Click to expand...
No, NVMe boot support comes from the firmware in the UEFI BIOS. It's not something that can be adapted, but it is something that motherboard manufacturers should be able to add for most UEFI-capable boards with firmware updates. This is all just if you want to use it as the drive from which you boot.
http://download.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/sb/nvme_boot_guide_332098001us.pdf

You can still use this drive as a game drive, right now, and it will be your fastest by miles. It may still see the majority of load time benefits. I can't say for sure. It's possible that if the game is on that drive, even though the game must run on top of Windows, which will be on a slower boot drive, it's possible that Windows will never actually be a choke point for the loads. But stuff like your drivers and everything is on the boot drive, so I feel like its slower speed could potentially be a bottleneck which renders most of the benefit of the Intel 750 as moot.

So until your motherboard gets NVMe boot support, unless you intend to use it as a secondary game drive, which potentially sees its performance advantages diminished, then there's no reason to get it. Just wait until that is added, then see what it available on the market. Your performance/price ratio will only be much better by that point. Just keep in mind that you have to rebuild everything from scratch with a fresh OS install.

To clarify, my strategy if a build is capable of doing it:
  1. Boot/OS drive -- PCIe/m.2 SSD (i.e. Intel 750...the games you're playing most intensely at any given moment...stuff like Steamtool to move games around drives)
  2. Game Drive(s) -- your current fastest SATA SSD's
  3. Media Drive(s) -- HDD's or slower SATA SSD's if your game drives are mostly empty.'

*Edit* Heh, found this:
http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=70710
 
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jefferz said:
Thank you sir, much appreciated. I have a z77 board so it looks like I'll be going with a Samsung Evo 850 1tb.
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I like that call. Save the money for superfast SSD's for the next motherboard.
 
Madmick said:
I like that call. Save the money for superfast SSD's for the next motherboard.
Click to expand...

I'm going to try to hold out until the next gen Intels or if the new AMD's are good, I'll jump on one of them right away.
 
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Madmick said:
Ha, so I was updating my knowledge of some of the more recent models of G-Sync and Freesync compatible monitors released. I had hoped there would be some 30"+ 4K models to ogle, but no dice. However, in learning this, I discovered the Acer Predator X34 Ultrawide Curved 34" 1440p 75Hz G-Sync monitor. Looks like it's between this, the Acer Z35 Ultrawide 35" 1440p 144Hz G-Sync, and the Acer 27" 4K 60Hz G-Sync monitor for top dog among G-sync displays. I'm not really a fan of the curved screens, but that's because with a single screen if you stand at the correct viewing distance the optical effect provided by the curvature is minimalized. Realizing that some crazy affluent overclocker out there probably coupled an i7-extreme processor with a quad sli Titan setup trying to discover if it could run 7680x1440 at a reliable framerate (and I was right...and the answer is "yes, it can"), naturally I then wondered, "What would a tri-monitor setup of these look like?"

acer-predator-x34-hero.jpg
Click to expand...

Glaring problem with these 21:9 screens: they're too goddamn wide and not tall emough. I tried one out(the 1440p IPS Dell) and it's like having a 23-24" monitor in height with a 32" TV width. You almost need to squint which makes these things seem silly to not have a 1600 height

However, if you can stack two of these bad boys on top of each other then it'd be amazing
 
I ended up picking up a 750gb WD Black 7200rpm 750gb laptop drive for $42 from a local store. I'm going to try it in one the brackets on the backside of my case, but I'm thinking heat may be an issue.
 
may not belong here, but anyone know a good adblock ap for android?
 
So kind of random: I was cleaning out my office drawer and found my old i7 920 DO Stepping. If any Sherdogger in Ontario wants it for free, just PM me. I lost the heat sink, but the CPU was pulled from a working system.

Does 4.4Ghz, which all things considered, can still hold its own in modern games (probably similar performance to a 4670k).
 
So I'm looking to replace my hard drive and I was wondering, would I be better off buying around a 1 tb (give or take 100 gb) SSD and transferring everything to it or should I keep my current HDD for storage and buy a smaller SSD?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I looked at pcpartpicker.com and saw http://pcpartpicker.com/part/mushkin-internal-hard-drive-mknssdre1tb that badboy. I've never heard of mushkin before, any positive/negative experiences?

My current MOBO is an ASRock 990FX Killer
 
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hughesfan20 said:
So I'm looking to replace my hard drive and I was wondering, would I be better off buying around a 1 tb (give or take 100 gb) SSD and transferring everything to it or should I keep my current HDD for storage and buy a smaller SSD?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I looked at pcpartpicker.com and saw http://pcpartpicker.com/part/mushkin-internal-hard-drive-mknssdre1tb that badboy. I've never heard of mushkin before, any positive/negative experiences?

My current MOBO is an ASRock 990FX Killer
Click to expand...

Keep you mechanical for media storage (videos, music etc), but install primary applications and games on the SSD.

Mushkin is actually a very reputable brand (they are well known for making quality RAM). Truth be told, I haven't heard too many complains about SSD failure since the older model OCZ drives. For the most part, if you stick to the bigger guys: Crucial, Corsair, Samsung etc. you will be fine. Even "mid tier" brands like Patriot and A-Data are solid.

If you don't mind paying a little bit more, you can get an Intel drive. I have only ever heard positive things about them (aside from being pricier)
 
Local Best Buy had 240gb PNY SSDs on clearance for $42.
I'm kicking myself for not picking any up
 
Brampton_Boy said:
Keep you mechanical for media storage (videos, music etc), but install primary applications and games on the SSD.

Mushkin is actually a very reputable brand (they are well known for making quality RAM). Truth be told, I haven't heard too many complains about SSD failure since the older model OCZ drives. For the most part, if you stick to the bigger guys: Crucial, Corsair, Samsung etc. you will be fine. Even "mid tier" brands like Patriot and A-Data are solid.

If you don't mind paying a little bit more, you can get an Intel drive. I have only ever heard positive things about them (aside from being pricier)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response, how well do Intel SSD's play with AMD motherboards?
 
hughesfan20 said:
Thanks for the response, how well do Intel SSD's play with AMD motherboards?
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It should be fine - they all use the same sata 6GB interface.

Given that you are looking at a 1TB drive, don't bother going with Intel. Yes, it is more stable, but looking at the prices, it is like an extra $150 over the Mushkin. That isn't worth the premium
 
hughesfan20 said:
Thanks for the response, how well do Intel SSD's play with AMD motherboards?
Click to expand...

Most recommendations are if you want a budget 1TB SSD go with that Mushkin Reactor. If you want a good performance/dollar go with Samsung Evo 850.
 
GhostZ06 said:
may not belong here, but anyone know a good adblock ap for android?
Click to expand...
"AdAway" is the ultimate adblocker if you have root. It's the "NoScript" of the smartphone world. All of my stuff requires root access and/or Xposed framework, except for the basic "Adblock" that comes with the browsers (pretty sure this is the same one as for the desktop browsers).
 
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