Techsalvager

Main PCs

AMD BE-2300 1.9GHz
4GB DDR2
250GB
160GB
160GB
26" inch sharp LCD
DVD Burner
Windows XP

P2 450mhz
256MB ram
80GB hdd
DVD burner
Windows 95

Celeron 1ghz
256MB
80GB HDD
CD burner
Windows XP

Laptop\tuning laptop

Intel Core 2 Duo ULV
2GB ram
30GB SSD
15inch LCD
Touchscreen tablet\laptop
Windows 8\Developer Preview

Network Appliance

Cobalt Qube 2700
NetBSD

Oscar

iTrader: (2)

Gaming/movie/solidworks/random BS PC:

ASUS M3A mobo
AMD Phenom X4 9500 @ 2.2GHz
4GB DDR2
ATI HD5750
520W Corsair PSU
ancient 120GB HDD, looking for a 250GB SSD
also ancient DVD burner
22" widescreen LCD
Vista 64 bit OS
bad-*** CPU cooler

School/tuning/random BS laptop (HP DV6617):
Intel dual CPU T2310 @ 1.46GHz
2GB DDR2
Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS
120GB HDD
less ancient DVD burner
15.6" LCD
Vista 32 bit OS
fancy remote control for media players

And a 1TB external USB HDD plugged into the laptop 24/7, sharing with the PC.

The bios on the laptop won't let me OC it :(
How hard/expensive will it be to upgrade the RAM and HDD on the laptop? I really like this one, except it could do with some more memory and a slightly larger HDD.

neogenesis2004

iTrader: (12)

Personal:

Asus UX31-DH72 Ultrabook
- Core i7-2677M Processor (up to 2.9GHz Turbobewst WUT!!)
- 4GB RAMz
- 256GB SSD
- 13.3-inch LCD (1600 x 900 HOLLA!)

8.9" Galaxy Tab
- Most perfect ------- size evar. Long *** battery life for international flights during leave.

Work:
2 Old *** Dell Optiplex's that are probably from the beginning of the war. Total pieces of ----.... Good enough for RDP though.

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

Oscar: Upgrade to a SSD. Those run between $1 to $2 per gigabyte. A good 120gb drive will run you between $100-$200 typically. For laptop purposes, well, you'll have to experience it for yourself, but it's a ridiculous increase in speed. It will do a lot more for you than simply upgrading the RAM or increasing the hdd size.

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

120GB for $100-200?????

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...d=1&name=120GB

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

FRT, what you've linked is in the proper price range I quoted. What are you talking about and/or trying to get at?

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

Are you kidding me, half those are $200 min unless you want some junk. One thing about SSDs is there is a HUGE difference in performance between them.

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

An OCZ Agility 3 (Which is loved by the extreme hard-core performance crowd) is available for $140 MIR.

The Agility 2 and Vertex 2's are available in the lower-end of the price range I talked about as well, and they are hardly poor performers.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...1&limitstart=5

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

The Agility 3 really? The POS was plagued with firmware issues causing lock ups.

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

So was every other brand using the SATA3 Sandforce controller. The firmware issues have been long-solved at this point from popular opinion and empirical testing. You are blaming firmware issues on a single company when numerous companies had the exact same problem.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

A quick anecdotal note-

I have had a total of three SSDs. An Intel in my main desktop PC, an OCZ Onyx in my media server, and a Samsung in my laptop.

The Intel and Samsung units have been performing flawlessly for the past year and a half or so. The OCZ, by comparison, failed completely after about three months.

Moral of the story: When it comes to storage devices in general, and SSDs in particular, pay a little extra and buy from one of the more respected names.

Oscar

iTrader: (2)

I'm looking for ~150-160GB for the laptop. I'm looking at $250-ish then. That's quite steep for a large thumbdrive Same goes for the PC, something around 180GB. I'm not ready to spend $500 on 2 SSDs just yet.

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

This contradicts my personal experience, Joe.

I have actually had severe headaches with an Intel SSD, but my two OCZ drives have never given me a hiccup. I also picked up a Kingston SSD as my first SSD (What? I trust their RAM, bought based on brand recognition), and oh god was that a piece of ----. I don't think I've had as much trouble with a single PC component since the 486 or early-pentium era.

Keep some variant of it on your mind. I cannot even use my laptop anymore unless I have a SSD in it - I tried putting a high-end mechanical drive in it, said "---- it, I'm going back to my shitty SSD" after about an hour of playing with the (much larger) mechanical drive.

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

Also MIR? Who does that nonsense. The price is $170. I'll give you $175-250. But no lower.

My Intel SSD not only has absolutely insane speeds, but has been completely stable out of the box. The OCZ one I had in my computer prior was junk. The computer would often BSOD on boot.

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

I don't know. Most of the major review sites and enthusiast forums I visit?

Again, I've never had this problem with OCZ or Samsung drives (Interestingly, my experience with Samsung mirrors Joe's) FRT. I've had this problem with Intel and Kingston drives - of which the former was a bad drive and had to be RMA'd (Post-RMA it was as stable as the OCZs and the Samsung), the latter was due to fucked firmware.

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

I'm just saying I think with SSDs more so than other parts, you get what you pay for.

Just look at the reviews from my link. Both intel drives get 5 eggs.

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

And even the first Intel drive I saw fell into my $100-$200 estimated price range.

So...? I mean, what are we even arguing about? I didn't even advocate a specific brand in my original post, just gave him a rule of thumb and an estimated number pulled out of my bum based on my last buying experience.

Anyways, back to Oscar: Get some variant of SSD if you possibly can, even if it's "only" a 60gb drive or something. I'd wager both FRT and Joe would agree with that much - for me, the SSD was the single largest performance increase in any PC I've had in at least 5 years, if not 10. It made a bigger difference than any RAM I've put in, any processor or motherboard, even any hard drive (And I've had SCSI 15k RPM drives RAIDed and short stroked in a desktop before!!)

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

Yes the first intel drive fell 1 cent from your highest estimate. I guess you are not looking at all the drives above your max $200 estimate. You also used the words "good" and "typically". If we are looking typical prices for a good drive you are flat out wrong. That is what I am arguing about. We are talking having to go 2/3 more money ($100 to $175) for what would be considered the low-end of good.

But whatever honestly I'm about to go eat Chipotle so either way I'm happy.

Oscar

iTrader: (2)

I'd love to try one, but anything less than 160GB would set me back in storage space I need. I'll keep saving a little more and look for a deal on SSDs in the near future though. Thanks.

jared8783

iTrader: (2)

Gigabyte p43-es3g
pentium dual core 3.4 overclocked to 4.53
2gb kingston hyper x clocked to 1066
radeon hd 2400
asus sata dual layer dvd burner
wd sata 500gb
dual CRT moniters 19" and 17"
this is my im sort of proud of budget build
built it for 210

hooked up to a kvm switch to

asus p5n-sli
pentium 4 ht 3.4
2gb ocz that is advertised stable at 1000 but i cant keep it stable past 900
its just running at 800
i honestly have no clue what vid card is on that
160gb


laptop
dell d610
celeron 1.73
1gb ram 667
40gb hard drive