What are your computer specs?

[Nunusaur]

Pardon me if this has been done before.

But I'm trying to get a new PC built, after about 8-10 years of putting up with 1,5GB RAM and 150GB of HD space. Imagine having to edit with that. >.< Explains why I have a pile of unfinished projects, lol... I'm a complete PC noob, so I would like some opinions on what specs should I be going with? I also play games such as Aion, so great graphics is a must. I wouldn't want exaggerated specs though, and be spending extra money on something that would be unnecessary.

Here are the specs so far:

1. Intel Desktop Board DZ68DB - Media Series - motherboard - ATX - LGA1155 Socket - Z68 - USB 3.0, FireWire - Gigabit LAN - onboard graphics (CPU required) - HD Audio (10-channel)
2. Intel Core i5 3570K - 3.4 GHz - 4 cores - 4 threads - 6 MB cache - LGA1155 Socket – Box Ref: BX80637I53570K
3. Kingston ValueRAM - Memory - 8 GB : 2 x 4 GB - DIMM 240-pin - DDR3 - 1333 MHz / PC3-10600 - CL9 - 1.5 V - unbuffered - non-ECC
4. Corsair Builder Series CX500 V2 - Power supply ( internal ) - ATX12V 2.3 - 80 PLUS Bronze - AC 90-264 V - 500 Watt - active PFC - Europe
5. Western Digital 2TB 5400rpm 64mb Cache 3.5 inch Green Caviar
6. Liteon 22x DVD Writer Dual Layer
7. EVGA Geforce GTX 550 Ti 2GB 1080p - Full HD 7.1 HD Surround Sound DDR 5 Full Directx Support PCI- Express 2.0 VGA card
8. Corsair Force Series 3 - Solid state drive - 120 GB - internal - 2.5" - SATA-600 + Mountable kit

Would an SSD be worth its price? I would like to have 2 separate hard drives, one for storage and another to run the OS & Programs on. The HD for storage will be a Western Digital 2 TB Green Caviar. I'm struggling to decide whether or not to buy an SSD to run the OS and Programs on, considering I could buy a 2 TB black caviar with that money. But I'd prefer something that is both silent and speedy.

What are your computer specs?

Help and opinions would be muchly appreciated!

[aesling]

If you're going Intel, you might want to consider an i7 instead of an i5. Intel does to be kind of pricey though, so if you're on a tight budget you might want to check out a price to performance comparison list, such as http://paulisageek.com/compare/cpu/

As for the SSD, my fiance got an one when he rebuilt his PC and he loves it. If you're going for speed, it's definitely worth it.

[Pwolf]

Everything looks fine except the WD Caviar Green. Do not buy that piece of crap. The performance sucks and they are more prone to failure. Spend the money to get the Black version.

As far as the SSD, performance wise, using it as the OS/programs disk, you'll boot faster and load programs quicker. It will not do anything to make editing faster unless you use it as your storage disk.

[ngsilver]

I use 2 SSDs in my system currently, 1 is the OS disk and it does a lot to speed up boot and program load times. The other is an editing scratch disk/footage storage for projects. The size of each disk is only 80GB, which I'm noticing is a little low for both disks and I plan to upgrade shortly, getting a 120 for my OS disk and repurposing the current OS disk for a 2nd editing drive, giving me 160GB for that.

As far is speed is concerned with editing, the actual editing part isn't much faster with the SSDs, but the final rendering and encoding times are much faster if my data is on the SSDs rather then my 8TB raid array (5400 RPM drives as it is for storage rather then speed.) Depending on what I'm editing the speed is either 2x to 6x faster in the SSD. However effects and other things that require processor power to render more then seek times for footage wont have much change with the SSD.

I think they are a good investment if you are looking for a performance boost. But if you're strapped for cash you can make do without them as well.

[Nunusaur]

If you're going Intel, you might want to consider an i7 instead of an i5. Intel does to be kind of pricey though, so if you're on a tight budget you might want to check out a price to performance comparison list, such as http://paulisageek.com/compare/cpu/

As for the SSD, my fiance got an one when he rebuilt his PC and he loves it. If you're going for speed, it's definitely worth it.

Thank you very much for your suggestion, I shall look into it!

Everything looks fine except the WD Caviar Green. Do not buy that piece of crap. The performance sucks and they are more prone to failure. Spend the money to get the Black version.

As far as the SSD, performance wise, using it as the OS/programs disk, you'll boot faster and load programs quicker. It will not do anything to make editing faster unless you use it as your storage disk.

Ahh, is that so? >.< The reason why I was considering going for the Green Caviar is because I've read reviews about both Black and Green caviars; Green is designed for minimal energy use and aren't ideal as a gaming/OS drive (but that shouldn't be a problem, since I will buying an SSD for that), it is also not as noisy/loud as the Black one. Whereas the Black caviar is designed for speedy performance, but I have read many complaints about the Black caviar's noisiness. What HD would you suggest for storage?

Thank you for your opinion!

[Pwolf]

It saves energy but in the process you lose performance and quality. Honestly, from my experience, I would just stay away from them. As far as noise, your case and PSU fans are going produce more noise then the hard drive. For my OS disk I am using a WD Velociraptor (140gb) and two 1tb WD Caviar Blacks in a mirrored raid configuration for editing/storage.

[Nunusaur]

It saves energy but in the process you lose performance and quality. Honestly, from my experience, I would just stay away from them. As far as noise, your case and PSU fans are going produce more noise then the hard drive. For my OS disk I am using a WD Velociraptor (140gb) and two 1tb WD Caviar Blacks in a mirrored raid configuration for editing/storage.

So you're using a Black Caviar for storage? So far, do you find the noise it makes noticeable? Most of the times, I tend to keep my computer on and only shut it down like what- once or twice in a month? xD I wouldn't be happy if I didn't get a good night's sleep because of my drive being noticeably loud throughout the night. Deciding on what storage drive to go for is the only thing that is left. With the suggestions I have gotten in this thread, I'll definitely be going for the SSD for a faster, and better perfomance. Only thing is, I've read that doing a full format can reduce an SSD's lifespan, so I'm going to have to look into that more in case I'd ever need to do a clean Windows 7 re-installation on my SSD.

Again, thank you guys for helping me.

[BasharOfTheAges]

HDDs are pretty much silent compared to fans, and fans are pleasant and soothing.

[Nunusaur]

Ah, I see. I suppose the Black Caviar is better for storage than Green, in conclusion?

Another question (last one for now, hopefully ); I've read that the HDD has to be unplugged before installing an OS on the SSD, if an OS was previously installed on the HDD, that is. What if the HDD has no OS installed on it, and is only for storage? Does it still have to be unplugged if I wanted to install Windows on the SSD?

When my PC gets newly built, I will be installing Windows 7 on the SSD myself. The seller that will be building my PC would install it for 115 euros, which I'm trying to save. But since this will be my first time using an SSD, I'd like to know more so that I don't risk damaging it.

Thanks a lot!

[Pwolf]

shouldn't matter so long as you select the right one. I think people say to unplug the drive so that you don't accidentally reformat the old data.