Need advice on upgrading

[AbC-50]

Currently, I'm running a 3 years old AM2+ setup with a gigabyte ma-790x ud4p motherboard and phenom 2 720be CPU. I am looking into getting my first SSD. But I did some research and found that my choices would be very limited with no trim support. :( so i came up with a couple of options:

• buy new SSD only (probably a crucial m4)
• upgrade motherboard, ram(am3+ with ddr3), and new SSD (vertex 4 maybe)

I use this computer a few hours a day, and occasionally play skyrim on it. My budget would be roughly $100 for SSD and additional $150 for ram and mb if necessary.

I'm unsure of the real world performance difference between the 2, and whether upgrading my motherboard and ram will justify its cost. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

[sswilson]

If you're happy with the general performance of your current hardware and the only reason you'd be upgrading the motherboard would be for trim support, I'd suggest you look at newer SSDs with greatly improved non-trim idle maintenance features rather than upgrading your motherboard just for trim support. (AKG now includes non-trim results in his reviews.... ;) ).

[techman95]

honestly if you want an ssd you need to get one that is at least 180GB or larger (say 256 or so ) because anything smaller will be filled up way to quickly and really not worth it unless you cache with it and only intel chip sets support caching. and for the board i would recommend a 990x or fx series board since they have the best support of trim and s.m.a.r.t, but dont get me wrong the 970 series boards will work just not as well as the 990 series of chipset, so if you really want to do an ssd you need to get a larger budget and really do some research. if you get the size you need and with the controller that suits you (sandforce, indilinx, or marvell) you will love having an ssd.

[AbC-50]

Originally Posted by sswilson

If you're happy with the general performance of your current hardware and the only reason you'd be upgrading the motherboard would be for trim support, I'd suggest you look at newer SSDs with greatly improved non-trim idle maintenance features rather than upgrading your motherboard just for trim support. (AKG now includes non-trim results in his reviews.... ;) ).

Hehe, you're right. I wasn't sold on buying a new motherboard just to get trim and sata3 either, since I won't be using most of the other features. I did look at the vertex 4 review on here, but its slower than the m4 under non-trim. Are their any other options out there around the $100 mark?

[EmptyMellon]

Originally Posted by AbC-50

Hehe, you're right. I wasn't sold on buying a new motherboard just to get trim and sata3 either, since I won't be using most of the other features. I did look at the vertex 4 review on here, but its slower than the m4 under non-trim. Are their any other options out there around the $100 mark?

Crucial has a new line of SATA II drives, called Crucial V4 - Newegg.ca - Computer Hardware, Hard Drives, SSD, Internal SSD, Crucial, SATA II, and there are some 128GB SSD for $99.

[hossdaddy]

have you tried to unlock and overclock that cpu? approx 70% of those cpu's will unlock and should overclock to approx. 3.2ghz or higher. This would represent a significant improvement for you and best of all its free!

[Dzzope]

Drop in an M4 and be happy..
I would go 256GB with current prices if you have the funds to do it, gives you plenty of room for all your games and apps and leaves free space for the drive to work with to stay fast
(try not to fill an ssd..)

And like said above.. unlock and overclock..

[AbC-50]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Yes I do have the CPU unlocked and oc'ed. Looks like I'll be going with a M4. Thanks again.

[hossdaddy]

what cpu cooler are you using? Have you installed a cpu temp monitoring program?