How-To Geek

I've finally decided to sign up for an account. Been a forum lurker for awhile now, love the site!

So like the title says I'm looking for some help in deciding what I should go for first.

All contained in a COOLER MASTER HAF 912 I have:

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition 3.2GHz Processor
Gigabyte 890FX Motherboard
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W Power Supply
ASUS Radeon HD 6850 Graphics Card
Crucial RealSSD C300 SSD for the OS
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 3.5" HDD for media storage

I've had this build for almost 2 years. Its done really well, haven't had any hardware failures and they've been treating me well. But I feel something has to go because it feels like this machine could be so much better with just a bit of TLC.

I'm a pretty avid gamer, so I was thinking of getting another of my same GPU and run them in crossfire. I hear that can give up to something like a 90% performance boost. I was also thinking of getting rid of the HDD and replace it with another SSD. It's rated a 5.9 in my performance index while everything is above 7.5. This would reduce a lot of noise as well as I'd be able to cut back on a couple case fans making the whole machine quieter. Another thing I've thought about doing is doubling my ram and using a bunch of it as a RAM disk.

So I come to this wonderful community for a bit of direction. Thanks in advance!

May be Best to wait on this and make new Build.
http://www.howtogeek.com/forum.....?replies=2

Your suggestions look very reasonable, thank you. However I have question. In the past when I was considering dual hdd's I was told to stay away from raid 0 as it is unstable/risky, because if a drive failed I'd have to start over. that still the case with ssd's? Or are they more reliable, making them worth it?

@gedstar,

Two 128GB SSDs running in Raid 0 array gives 256GB Capacity Single SSD with roughly
twice the R/W performance of one SSD.

@i544cj0n35,

Nothing Exotic I posted in my upgrade parts list, all items are just standard component parts which have been on the market for at least a couple of years.

In fact had to search for the video card as it has been deactivated and no longer available on newegg.com.

Rick P.

Agree with afuhnk.

This GTX Video Card has 96% 5 egg rating!! No HDMI however but ships with an adapter.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....#38;Page=1

Feedback tab says some cry for joy after using card.

(LOL) :) :)

I posted the GTX 690 Video Card just for fun. :) :)

A GTX 670 Video Card is $420 bucks.

ASUS GTX670-DC2-2GD5 GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....6814121637

Are you sure you want to invest that much money the in old machine ????

If you upgrade with the Parts Listed I gave you above plus add a good video card, the machine will be Wonderful !!!!

I run an Asus 6850 in a Generation 2 Intel machine and it works fine. :)

I understand the Wife will allow issue for sure !! (LOL) (LOL) :) :)

Happy Building.

Rick P.

Well video cards are the same as any other computer part.

One goes Strictly by Specifications and the Price they can afford.

There is NO magic when choosing video cards as there is none for choosing CPUs.

Specs are Specs and Quality is Quality so the better the Spec and / or Quality, the more the component will cost.

It's NOT a feeling or fashion decision.

Rick P.

Tom, that's where Component Specs come into play. :) :)