What would you upgrade???

[TahoeDust]

It is the holiday season and traditionally I like to show my system a little bit of love. If you were going to put a little bit of money into this system (around a $500 budget) how would you spend it? It is predominantly a gaming rig, but is also used for a little bit of everything...encoding, burning, photoshop, video editing, etc...

Motherboard: Asus P8Z68 Deluxe
Processor: i7 2700k @ 4.8GHz
Cooling: Corsair H100 w/ 4 x Push/Pull Gentle Typhoon AP15
Ram: 16gb GSkill Sniper 1866
GPU: 2 x EVGA SSC GTX 970 SLI
SSD: 2 x OCZ Vertex 3 60gb Raid 0
HHD: 1tb 7200rpm Barracuda
Optical: LG Blu Ray Burner
PSU: OCZ ZT 750w modular
Case: Corsair 650D
Keyboard: Logitech G510
Mouse: Logitech Performance MX
Monitor: Asus MX299Q 29" Ultrawide 2560x1080

 

[boju]

There isn't really much in the way of hardware to improve on. Your system is pretty much in prime already, only thing i could probably suggest is getting a larger SSD 500GB/1TB and removing the need for raid and move the system swap file to the 60GB's.

 

[TofuLion]

better yet, plextor m6e:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820249047&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

 

[TahoeDust]

Hmmm...those are good suggestions. I do love the performance I get out of my Raid 0 SSDs. I wonder if I would notice the difference from what I have now to something like Crucial MX100($190), Samsung 840 Pro($280), 850 Pro($320) 512GB. Are the Samsungs worth the premium price?

 

[TofuLion]

the intel 730 series endorses the use of raid 0 quite a bit. it could be a marketing ploy on their end, but i've read some reviews that seem to prove they are very effective http://www.pcworld.com/article/2365767/feed-your-greed-for-speed-by-installing-ssds-in-raid-0.html

 

[boju]

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2121333/dual-ssd-raid-worth.html

 

[TofuLion]

OP is already running raid 0, i dont think drive failure is a concern

 

[TahoeDust]

OP is already running raid 0, i dont think drive failure is a concern

Correct. Drive failure is not a concern for this application. It is regularly backed up and nothing of importance is stored there.

 

[TofuLion]

to be honest though, the sata 6gb/s is really the limiting factor when it comes to ssd. for the best speed you can get, go PCIe.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1489684/ssd-interface-comparison-pci-express-vs-sata
the rest of your system is about as efficient as you can get it, minus the PCIe SSD

 

[TahoeDust]

to be honest though, the sata 6gb/s is really the limiting factor when it comes to ssd. for the best speed you can get, go PCIe.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1489684/ssd-interface-comparison-pci-express-vs-sata
the rest of your system is about as efficient as you can get it, minus the PCIe SSD

I am not sure about a PCIe SSD. The only available PCIe on my motherboard that is x2 or better is the PCIe 2.0 x16_3 and from what I have read it shares bandwidth with PCIe 2.0 x16_1 which one of my 970s is in. I have not been able to find where someone else has run a PCIe SSC in my motherboard.

I will probably stick with good old fashion USB 6gb.

 

[TofuLion]

in any case, the crucial mx100 is a capable, budget ssd. the speed gained from 840 is probably not worth the price difference, but then again neither is i5 to i7. i still recommend the intel 730, i haven't used them yet myself but i am eager to do so.

 

[boju]

OP is already running raid 0, i dont think drive failure is a concern

Data Failure isn't the only thing they talk about, data throughput will be hard pressed to notice a difference compared to single SSD. I just chose that thread since they talked about failure as well but i favored the speed part more, was hoping you seen that part too.

Samsung SSDs are pretty up there in quality a long with others, there'd be reviews done everywhere between the best.

Edit. Should have just pointed to this instead; http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485.html

 

[TahoeDust]

Well, I found a good deal on Samsung Evo 250gb drives. I got two of them at $109 each and they each came with a copy of Far Cry 4. I already have FC4, so after selling the games I should be into them for ~$75 each. 500gb of Samsung raid 0 SSD goodness for $150.

I also ordered a EVGA Supernova G2 850w PSU.

 

[TofuLion]

good deal! gotta love this time of year. my build has already dropped $200 and I'm only half done

 

[TahoeDust]

Yeah...this will do...