[SOLVED] Buy new SSDs for 7 year old pc or finally time for new build ?

[128MB]

Current main system since 2014:
Intel Core i5-4670K @4.4ghz
Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3
GTX 1080 Ti (plan on keeping just yet)
Cooltek W2
Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x8gb ddr3-1600
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
Seasonic Focus GX-750 (brand new my previous died)

My other SSD's have died losing my entire steam library and this pc is from 2014, im starting to think is it worth buying old sata ssd's again or finally upgrading the main parts (mobo,ram,cpu) to use m.2 drives which are actually cheaper than sata.

 

[jay32267]

If the PC still does what you want it to do.....it's a lot cheaper replacing the drives,
...and if you mainly game....M2s don't get you much anyway.

 

[punkncat]

If you have an open PCI-e slot you could utilize an M.2 adapter.
A 4670K is nothing to sneeze at. Considering the pricing on new GPU it makes sense to wait this one out a bit. I wouldn't replace that system at least until after the new new AMD/Intel stuff comes out.

 

[geofelt]

Buy a quality ssd replacement(samsung or Intel)
It can be carried forward to a new build later.

M.2 is a size format.
I would not chase one if budget is of any concern.

Most can not tell the difference:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DKLA7w9eeA

 

[USAFRet]

I would just put in another SATA III SSD.
1TB or so.

My other SSD's have died losing my entire steam library

This should never be a thing.

Backups are your friend.

 

[helper800]

I would just put in another SATA III SSD.
1TB or so.


This should never be a thing.

Backups are your friend.

Backups are your friend, however, that means he would need double the amount of drive space to do so, right?

 

[USAFRet]

Backups are your friend, however, that means he would need double the amount of drive space to do so, right?

Not necessarily.

An external drive of sufficient size....$40 for a 1TB, $150 for an 8TB...free software to create Images.
Free software, done.

In my backup routine, I have half dozen systems, dozen+ physical drives, doing daily or weekly full drive backups to a single folder tree on my NAS. Currently, that space is just under 4TB. THis includes 30 days of Incremental images for my main system, several rolling images for the others.
That could just as easily be a single shared external drive.


Today, backups are like car insurance. A required thing, and NO reason no to.

A dead drive should never be more than "oh crap, I need a new drive". It should NOT involve loss of data.

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[helper800]

Not necessarily.

An external drive of sufficient size....$40 for a 1TB, $150 for an 8TB...free software to create Images.
Free software, done.

In my backup routine, I have half dozen systems, dozen+ physical drives, doing daily or weekly full drive backups to a single folder tree on my NAS. Currently, that space is just under 4TB. THis includes 30 days of Incremental images for my main system, several rolling images for the others.
That could just as easily be a single shared external drive.


Today, backups are like car insurance. A required thing, and NO reason no to.

A dead drive should never be more than "oh crap, I need a new drive". It should NOT involve loss of data.

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

I see. I personally do not keep backups of anything because my computer does not have any important information on it that is not already in Dropbox, Google Drive, or Onedrive. Then again I only have like 50 gb of data on those three for redundant cloud backup. I have an old 3570k system, my last build, that I have been wondering what to do with. Maybe I put it on the network as a NAS, hmmm?

 

[USAFRet]

I see. I personally do not keep backups of anything because my computer does not have any important information on it that is not already in Dropbox, Google Drive, or Onedrive. Then again I only have like 50 gb of data on those three for redundant cloud backup. I have an old 3570k system, my last build, that I have been wondering what to do with. Maybe I put it on the network as a NAS, hmmm?

I'm just saying... the loss of a drive should never result in "I lost my whole Steam library".
There are many ways to do this.

 

[helper800]

I'm just saying... the loss of a drive should never result in "I lost my whole Steam library".
There are many ways to do this.

Backups can definitely save a huge amount of time if you lose data, but then again the 5-10 min of maintaining a backup every week to month over the years also adds up. I guess it comes down to how you value your data and if it is easily retrievable after loss or if its unique and gone forever once its lost.

I mean "losing" a steam library is, for most people, a non-issue considering you can re download a 1-2 terabyte steam library in like 8 hours or so with a decent internet plan. Start it in the morning > go to work > get back > steam library no longer "lost."

 

[USAFRet]

Backups can definitely save a huge amount of time if you lose data, but then again the 5-10 min of maintaining a backup every week to month over the years also adds up. I guess it comes down to how you value your data and if it is easily retrievable after loss or if its unique and gone forever once its lost.

I mean "losing" a steam library is, for most people, a non-issue considering you can re download a 1-2 terabyte steam library in like 8 hours or so with a decent internet plan. Start it in the morning > go to work > get back > steam library no longer "lost."

My backup routine, across multiple physical systems and drives, takes me exactly zero time, daily or weekly.
Automated softwre FTW.

More importantly, its not just the Steam lib. That is trivial.
Every day, we see people here fretting over losing the pics of the first 5 years of their baby.

Or ransomware/nasty virus, killing the whole system.

A good backup routine and you can recover the entirety of a running system, OS included. Tell the ransomware dude to stick it where the sun don't shine.

 

[helper800]

My backup routine, across multiple physical systems and drives, takes me exactly zero time, daily or weekly.
Automated softwre FTW.

More importantly, its not just the Steam lib. That is trivial.
Every day, we see people here fretting over losing the pics of the first 5 years of their baby.

Or ransomware/nasty virus, killing the whole system.

A good backup routine and you can recover the entirety of a running system, OS included. Tell the ransomware dude to stick it where the sun don't shine.

Well, that's certainly nice that its an automated process. Do you use raid 5 or 10 with the drives in the NAS?

 

[USAFRet]

Well, that's certainly nice that its an automated process. Do you use raid 5 or 10 with the drives in the NAS?

In or attached to the QNAP

QNAP TS-453a
4x drives -
480GB SSD system drive and small shared space - Volume 1
1x 16TB - Volume 3
2x 8TB, JBOD - Volume 4

QNAP TR-004
4x 4TB, JBOD - Volume 2

4 bay Medaisonic - All individual drives
8TB
3TB
3TB
3TB


The house systems get backed up to the NAS, the NAS backs up to the TR-004 and MediaSonic.

 

[128MB]

Thanks for all the info i already have a 4x4TB NAS... but never backed my steam librairy. ill download the games again its not about that loss its about is it still financially worth it buying sata ssd for a 7 yr old comp whilst i could maybe upgrade and go directly for nvme on a new build.

guess im just ordering a samsung 870 evo then

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for all the info i already have a 4x4TB NAS... but never backed my steam librairy. ill download the games again its not about that loss its about is it still financially worth it buying sata ssd for a 7 yr old comp whilst i could maybe upgrade and go directly for nvme on a new build.

All up to you, but for me, I'd just add a SATA III SSD.
Less hassle.

 

[helper800]

Thanks for all the info i already have a 4x4TB NAS... but never backed my steam librairy. ill download the games again its not about that loss its about is it still financially worth it buying sata ssd for a 7 yr old comp whilst i could maybe upgrade and go directly for nvme on a new build.

guess im just ordering a samsung 870 evo then

In my opinion, there's never enough SSD storage to be had, you can always use it in a future build assuming you don't reach the TBW (write endurance) of the SSD and it dies.

 

[geofelt]

Backups are your friend, however, that means he would need double the amount of drive space to do so, right?

Backups can be compressed so they do not take the space of the original.
A good backup must be EXTERNAL to avoid such disasters as ransomware, fires, and such.
HDD drives perform very well in a backup role, and they are cheap per gb.

 

[USAFRet]

1 TB drive, 400GB actual consumed space.

A Macrium Relect full drive image will be somewhere between 350-375GB.