Processor suggestions

[Tannosuke]

I have decided to upgrade my processor. I have AMD Athlon(tm) X2 64 Dual Core Processor +4800 2.5GHz. It's 6 generations old and decided to upgrade it only for gaming, and music purposes(I'm a professional music producer). I want a SOUNDLESS and SILENT processor. I don't wanna hear ANY sounds produced bu this new processor.

I have grasped 2 of the strongest, but I don't know if they do produce sound. It's up to you guys, if you suggest what i think or any new processor I do not know. I can invest up to €300.

Here you go what kind of processors I found.

1) AMD PHENOM II X6 1100T 3.3GHZ SIX-CORE BLACK EDITION.

AND

2) AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0 GHz Dual Core Socket AM3 65W Box.

The ball goes on you...

[vuzedome]

Well, 300 is a lot to go around.
So you mind as well start from the top of the list and work your way down.
Core i73820 perhaps?

[datora]

.
Let me understand this more clearly, please.

Will you keep your current motherboard (plz state make/model, if so) and switch only the CPU?  And, the €300 is purely for the CPU?  Very generous for only a CPU, but gets tricky if you look at CPU+mobo combinations.

Will you overclock?  You can get CPU + cooling block + fans to do that and still be ultra-silent.

Games.  How important?  You doing this upgrade just for the games, or also for other tasks?  List a couple of the cutting edge titles (games & apps) you wish to play, and you want full resolution on ultimate settings?  Or, are you happy dialing back for more casual play?

What sort of GPU setup do you have going?  To maybe take up your slack on games or look at to consider upgrades.

What's your hard drive setup looking like?  Have an SSD?

And, memory specs, please.


Because, if you're going with a whole new mobo+CPU and cutting edge game performance is your top goal, you'd want to go with an i7 or somesuch ... and then I think €300 will probably get tight to really go crazy.

Otherwise you're sticking with AMD, and we need the mobo spec to make sure the CPU runs in its socket ... and can also look to other bottlenecks that the budget can be distributed on to ease.

[Tannosuke]

I see... So you need to check on the specs to understand my situation.

Here you go:

Mobo make/model: MSI MS-7250
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) X2 64 Dual Core Processor +4800 2.5GHz
Video Card: NVidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti
Monitor: 2x IISonic 20.7" LCD(1680x1050 resolution, 60Hz)
RAM: DDR2 4GB Single
Power Supply: Can't open it ATM or is there a software to find out which PSU is in my PC(?). I also have an external PSU, thanks to the incident with the blackout.

I already upgraded the RAM from 2 to 4GB thanks to PoP: The Forgotten Sands' lag, and the Videocard from Radeon series 8600 GT to NVidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti, because I wanted to finally upgrade it for gaming purposes(such as Amnesia and The Witcher 1).

I'm having problem running The Witcher 2, because when it has been tested it has been found being failed due of this CPU. The rest have passed the req specs test for TW2. When I tried playing it, I found it being in the worst resolution and graphic settings and barely being playable. That's why I decided to do it. A serious upgrade.

I'm not into other stuff except of games and music production. And please, spare me the word "casual", because I HATE the casual shit.

[vuzedome]

I guess that means you want to drop a new processor into your existing rig.
Can't say much on the phenoms though with your current socket.
It's better if you get a new mobo while you're at it.

[Tannosuke]

Well, that's what I'm thinking of doing. I'll have to discuss it with my mates to find a way around it.

[rostheferret]

I could be wrong on this, but don't most processors make little noise anyway? I've always stuck to Intel mind, but I'd hardly call it loud. The best bet to keep a PC quiet is to look at how it's cooled. I know some prefer liquid cooling, but I've just moved from a liquid cooled processor back to the stock fan and I found the pump rattled my case even when padded to hell with sticky foam and made a LOT more noise than the fan does, and I'm using a pretty shitty fan. Unless you need the extra cooling power for an overclock or your graphics cards, I'd stick to fans.

If you're looking at boards - and I suggest you probably should - there was a Gigabyte board that was supposedly pretty loud, made a load of buzzing; the X58 or something, so maybe just go ASUS to be on the safe side. It's only a matter of time before the RAM becomes your next restriction so it might be better to bite the bullet now, get a decent mobo/cpu and not have to worry about it for a few more years. As for processors, a half decent processor should be able to handle most games with some ease, so from my limited ripping experience the main focus is on your music production. Do the programs you use utilise multiple cores? Many programs still don't, in which case a higher clocked dual core might be better than a lower clocked quad+ for this application. The flip side is that most games these days, do utilise multiple cores, so if your budget can stretch to it, it's definitely better to go that way and maybe look into overclocking if the clock speed isn't up to scratch.

That 300e is looking real tight right now...

[kitamesume]

based on what you want:
1) a big upgrade from AMD Athlon(tm) X2 64 Dual Core Processor +4800 2.5GHz.
2) silent rig (silent processor is n/a, because a processor is naturally silent, what makes the noise is the HSF.)
3) a gaming capable rig.
4) a fancy studio equipment-like rig, i.e. has the features to make it viable.
5) €300 budget, excluding the GPU, harddrive and monitor.

solution:
1) get the i3-2100, but i highly suggest you wait for ivy bridge.
why: because intel's sandy bridge consumes so little power compared to AMD's athlon and phenom line, the ivy bridge is even more power efficient. so what does that have to do with silence? well the less power consumption your rig will use, the less heat it will produce, in conjunction to that you need less airflow/cooling power to cool the components down which is the main cause of noise, hence silence.

2) the i3-2100 is already a good partner to the GTX 550 Ti, you don't really need a much powerful processor.
why: since your GPU is an entry card you wouldn't need to partner it a monster CPU, your GPU will become a bottleneck if you do so.

3) this is more of a question, or a task for you to do. to know what your PSU's ratings is, you just need to read it's label, normally written on it's side and easily visible when you open your computer case's side panel. so what i'm going to ask is how many A(amps) can the +12V line output? what total wattage does it have?
based on your answers we might need to change it.

4) another question in hand, is your harddrive a sata drive or a pata drive?
this could effectively blow your budget up, since harddrives now a days costs quite a penny. not to mention the most fragile thing to be shipped around, you either get a Dud/Dead On Arrival, or a thing that last you weeks, maybe months then it becomes your personal paper weight.

5) there are perks other than power efficiency when going with intel as well:
* one is the Z68 motherboard supports Smart Response Technology, simply to explain, it uses an SSD to boost a regular harddrive's read/write speed.
* though not necessarily intel only, some of the motherboards are packed with features that you might wanna have and for a cheap price as well, i.e. USB3, SATA III, PCI-E 3.0, and some other stuffs.

6) you could sell your current rig for a broke price to up your budget a little, maybe sell the processor, motherboard, case, psu and ram by 100-150$, of course excluding the GPU and monitor.

example rig: (note: currency is in US dollars)
[$124.99 - $15(promo until 4/2)] Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor
[$104.99] ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
[$44.99] Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL : $259.97

[$84.99 - $5(promo until 4/2)] Samsung by Seagate Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ/ST500DM005 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" - Bare Drive
[$19.99] APEX SK-393-C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (note! careful with cheap cases, some of them are cheap enough to be called a junk.)
[$44.99 - $8(promo until 3/29)] CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRAND TOTAL : $396.94

[Tannosuke]

@rostheferret,

Then how much do you think would it cost if you suggested them really?

And yep, lately, when I produce music with Cubase SX5, I experience crashes to PC startup. I figured that this PC can't hold it any longer in some cases of music production procedures.

The same happens, when some games freeze and crash back to the OS.

If I have to sacrifice some more money to upgrade my PC to the highest end, I'll do it.

@kitamesume, exclude the external HD, because I already bought a Seagate 2TB, because of PC clearance(had to move ALL the anime series and movies there). I also have a 1TB Ritmo.

As for the internal HDs I have the following:

SAMSUNG HD501LI SCSI Disk Device
ST316081 SAS SCSI Disc Device
WDC WD10 EARS-00Y5B1 USB Device

[kitamesume]

SAS drives? ouch,  i don't think theres much boards that support those these days.

well anyway, if you have a SATA based harddrive then you could slash of some of the price, the example rig i gave as a whole is exactly €300, excluding the shipping fees.

[Tannosuke]

SAS drives? ouch,  i don't think theres much boards that support those these days.

well anyway, if you have a SATA based harddrive then you could slash of some of the price, the example rig i gave as a whole is exactly €300, excluding the shipping fees.

With my mates already thought of that. I asked them about changing these SAS to a powerful one 1TB Internal HD, which could be supported in all boards.

[kitamesume]

wouldn't it be a wiser decision to just sell those SAS drives and buy a WD black drive, pair it up with an SSD of enough size in SRT mode to cache the WD black, plus use another SSD to dedicate an OS for it? the sum of it might be expensive indeed but the speed you'd get is much more faster than an ordinary raid array composing of mechanical HDDs.

but we're getting derailed from the topic, since you got a ton of drives, you could just switch the example's HDD for an SSD, the rest can be externally connected, no problem with that.

it'll look like this: (note: currency is in US dollars, and shipping costs excluded.)
[$124.99 - $15(promo until 4/2)] Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor
[$104.99] ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
[$44.99] Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL : $259.97

[$128.99] Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR120GB 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
[$19.99] APEX SK-393-C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (note! careful with cheap cases, some of them are cheap enough to be called a junk.)
[$44.99 - $8(promo until 3/29)] CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRAND TOTAL : $445.94 or €334.14

Edit: though since you're making a bigger upgrade with this plan, i might just suggest that you both bump your budget and wait for ivy bridge.

the main reason for these is that with ivy bridge, you get to build a much more energy efficient rig, which means a quieter rig since less cooling would be needed. i might also suggest you swap your current GPU for the next in line GTX 650 Ti when it comes out for the same reason as the Ivy Bridge.
and also to mention that there seems to be quad core ivy bridges at 77W TDP in intel's charts, that would mean a very cool and efficient quad core, vastly more powerful than the i3-2100 at that.

and the budget bump would be to effectively pick which components will you want, like a better case than the junk i just suggested, and maybe a much more efficient PSU. sadly corsair VX series aren't in newegg, its vastly more efficient than the CX series at almost the same price.

plus, SSDs doesn't have any moving parts, hence its practically a noiseless drive, unless by some reason it does make some noise, you'll need to replace it at once.


to give you a rough idea of why i've kept mentioning efficiency:
1) higher efficiency = less heat generated.
2) less heat generated = less cooling required.
3) less cooling required = less noise generated.

Edit2: sorry for posting a long, boring post.

[Lupin]

1) AMD PHENOM II X6 1100T 3.3GHZ SIX-CORE BLACK EDITION.

Get that  one. Then spend the rest of your money on better video card, more storage and/or a good cpu cooler.

I wouldn't recommend anything below 4 real cores. From what you have posted, I can conclude that you're one of those users who wants to make the most out of their hardware, trying to keep it around for as long as possible. The i3 suggested in the earlier post doesn't really fit that in my opinion. It lacks the core count to keep up in the future.

If you go AMD, get the X6. If you go intel, get a real 4 core SB or wait for IB. Either way, it's a pretty big upgrade for you.

[vuzedome]

As much as you're trying to push Tanno to go SSD, I just don't see a need for it, YET.

[kitamesume]

the i3 was pointed for it's little heat generation, that would mean the HSF's fan could run under 40% of it's max RPM, making it silent most of the time. but in comparision with the athlon option, i3 > athlon.
so the option is either i3 vs phenom X6, but the phenom X6 is quite a hot chip. so its more like i3 vs i5? meh.

but if you plan to push the budget higher then go for the intel's quad since they run cooler than any other processors in the same performance department as of now, though recommending to wait for intel's ivy, should be out by june. the SSD are just extra, well he does wants silence and SSDs are silent, literally.

[datora]

.
As much as I usually like AMD, I don't see that as a good option for you here.  The energy & heat use are higher, and even when overclocked they will not push the envelope for cutting edge games.  I go with AMD when gaming performance is not at a premium.  Since that is your highest priority here, Intel is pretty much your option, and that performance/efficiency premium is not free.  Also, you don't seem interested in linux options.


You can keep the GPU, for now, and plan on upgrading it "later on."  What you probably should look at is a mobo+CPU combo for "right now," as in the next couple of months if you don't want to wait.

Your DDR2 RAM can't be migrated; you will have to purchase new DDR3 RAM.  2 x 4GB kits = 8GB is cheap and powerful and plenty right now.  You should be able to get a 1600 or even an 1833 kit for under $50, maybe as low as ~$35 (I don't know the EU market right now; I'm estimating by U.S. prices).


The entire budget can be dedicated to mobo+CPU+RAM and you can scavenge the remaining parts from your old rig (the SAS drive probably an exception).  This will get you a new rig that's actually running now, but you'll want to be planning a few more upgrades in the six or so months following that.

The mobo will want (at least) the following features: USB 3, SATA III (6 Gb/sec), support 1800 (or even 2100) DDR3 RAM, ability to overclock.  It will be "premium" price because it's Intel, but some budget boards are out there with everything you need.  Many boards have expansion capacity that you'll never use; since you're on a budget, look where you can make acceptable sacrifices (e.g.: Do you really need 7 expansion slots?  Maybe 3 or 4 are enough.).  Sound off most modern mobos is quite good, so you don't need to worry about a soundcard, and make sure you find a mobo without an onboard GPU ... no sense paying for that if you already have one to drop into an expansion slot.

kitamesume has solid Intel-based knowledge, so I'd start with his suggestions to learn what specifications are important there.  One upgrade I would look at is at least an i5 processor, and make sure its a new generation, like a 2550 or something; not one from last year.  If you get one that runs native at 3.5 GHz, you can overclock to 3.7 or 3.8 GHz with very little impact on system heat/noise but get a very solid performance bump.  If your CPU is so strong that your GPU becomes your bottleneck .. that's Very Good, because you're going to keep shopping and budgeting for a new GPU about six months or so from now.  Live with your 550 for for now, but it's headed into its final days and you should just plan for it as one of your next upgrade projects.

You can get a better cooling block cheap, even better if you get a bare CPU with no cooling block and you can invest your savings into getting one you can really use, like can mount 2 x 120 mm silent fans on it.  Don't worry about mad overclocking, like trying to push one of those up into the 4.2 or 4.5 range; not worth it.

And, this means your case has to be able to fit all this gear.  Make sure you take that into account to decide if you recycle the current case or need to move to a new one.

Look for fans that run at under 20 dBA, even under 18 and down to 16 for extremely silent cooling.  Many fans run at 25 or 28 and even higher.  Some move ~75 cubic feet air/min (CFM), but are sound-rated at 22 or 25 dBa noise levels ... better to get three fans pushing 55 CFM and rated <18 dBa than 2 fans pushing 82 CFM and rated 25 or 28 dBa.  Creatively mount your fans to push air across your hottest areas (CPU, GPU, RAM in that order).


Power supply: once we know what you have better advice can be given.  Generally, you should probably plan on upgrading it.  The only question will be how fast ... like "immediately" or is six/eight months down the line acceptable?  Newer PSUs are more efficient, cooler, quieter.  Also, yours has been in service for "a while," so it's chances of failure are increasing; a new one appropriately matched to your needs will be insurance of likely service for three to five or more years.  Should you look at a new case, look for bottom-mounted PSUs that draw cooling air from outside the case (usually through the bottom with a filtered intake).


A Solid State Drive (SSD) used as your main OS & applications drive will boost you madly in speed, so look seriously into that.  Most people I wouldn't push it, but for data-intensive/cutting edge games, it will make a big difference.  Side effects: your OS will zoom along, as well as any other major apps you run.  A 120 GB SSD is a generous amount of space, and the 120/128 sized ones right now are hitting the $1 per GB price point for 2nd gen SATA III drives (very fast, much more reliable).  They use extremely little energy and are very cool, as well as being as silent as a dead brick.

The SAS drive .. any possibility to put that into an external enclosure and dedicate it as storage ..?  It's probably your hottest, noisiest component.  Worth considering to get rid of it for whatever you can sell it for & replace it outright.  I've nearly a terabyte of PATA drives that I've filled with anime & music & other backup data that I rarely access and placed them into dry, cool storage with a PATA external USB 2 case.  Occasionally I drop one of those drives into the case & plug them into a computer ... maybe once every 2 months.  An option for you to look into here, especially if your SAS doesn't just drop into your new build.

Large capacity drives are finally dropping a little bit in price again, although nowhere near as "near-free" they were last summer.  Recently saw a 2TB drive for $110 on newegg, though it wasn't necessarily a brand I'd blindly trust; considering I got some much better 2 TB drives for $60 last year, that price is still relatively outrageous.  Slate that out for upgrade "in the future" and figure out how to utilize what capacity you have now & "get by."


At the end of all this, the base system you have now stands the potential of being re-built into a functioning system after you've scavenged off what you need for the new system.  There will be a mobo+CPU+RAM combo that all works together, which you decide if you want to make a back-up system or sell it off.  Possibly a PSU & case will also be leftover, &/or the SAS drive &/or the case.

[kitamesume]

well since this is getting detailed might as well jump in.

(note: currency is in US dollars, and shipping costs excluded.)
[$124.99 - $15(promo until 4/2)] Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor
[$104.99] ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
[$44.99] Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL : $259.97

[$128.99] Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR120GB 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
[$19.99] APEX SK-393-C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (note! careful with cheap cases, some of them are cheap enough to be called a junk.)
[$44.99 - $8(promo until 3/29)] CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRAND TOTAL : $445.94 or €334.14


========================================================================================
going into details
========================================================================================

[$124.99 - $15(promo until 4/2)] Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor
*place holder for the ivy bridge i kept mentioning.
*superior to the athlon you opted in both efficiency and performance.
**inferior to the phenom II x6, BUT has the advantage of being cooler in temps on most occasions. vastly more energy efficient, specially in idle.

[$104.99] ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
*supports ivy bridge
**supports PCI-E 3.0 when an ivy bridge processor is installed.
*built-in USB3 & SATA III controller, a very useful feature.
*on-board audio ALC-892, a priceless component when you aren't opting for an audio-card and you value sound quality as well, on-par with value audigies in sub $50.
**only bested by $100+ audio-cards, debatable.
*supports up to 4 rams, a priceless feature when looking from a lower budget point, specially if you value ram capacities, very useful to video/image editors.
*has plenty of expansion slots, and has both pci-e and pci, quite a useful feature when opting for add-in cards like audio-card, pci/pci-e to sata or even raid controllers.
*solid capacitors, more durable than your average capacitors, though recent motherboards are usually equipped with these.
*combo cooler option, this is native to only asrock, debatable, it is a feature where even though its an lga1155 motherboard, it supports both lga775 and lga1155 cpu coolers.
*Z68 chipset, supports intel Smart Response Technology, as previously explained, it uses an SSD to cache a regular HDD's read/write tasks, effectively boosting it's performance.
***for a price of $105 with these much features, its hard to find any other option.

[$44.99] Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop
*no comment, its just your average branded bling ram thats being sold for a cheap price.
**i kinda liked it's high newegg positie feedback.
***if you know of anything better than this then go ahead.

[$128.99] Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR120GB 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
*nearly $1/GB.
** one of the most rare occurrence of getting 75+% of five stars in newegg feedback, considering its an SSD.
*SSDs in general are crowned to be the fastest drives in current date, with a max read/write speed of 500MB/s for new models.
*SSDs are also designed to be power efficient, running well under 5watts during read/write tasks and well under 1watts during idle.
*SSDs are practically silent, since no moving parts are present whatsoever.
***the OS isn't the only thing that benefits from fast SSDs, programs that tends to read/write files occasionally benefits greatly when installed on an SSD, games that tends to load scenes frequently, or change maps/scenes/location/etc. benefits greatly when installed on an SSD.

[$19.99] APEX SK-393-C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (note! careful with cheap cases, some of them are cheap enough to be called a junk.)
*it's cheap.
**might as well call it junk?

[$44.99 - $8(promo until 3/29)] CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
*it's an efficient PSU.
*placeholder for the corsair VX series, or even other PSU that is more efficient.
*it's one of the most cheapest PSU that doesn't cut quality.

[rostheferret]

Like others have said, I would go for an i5 processor; games are using multiple cores now and getting anything less is just going to mean you'll be upgrading sooner rather than later. The clock speed on the RAM barely makes a noticeable difference; look into G.Skill. They pretty much only do RAM and even their lower end models come with decent heatsinks. You said your PC occasionally crashed; I'd attribute this to the RAM more than the CPU tbh. No RAM = using pagefile, and that aint ever pretty to see.

Look for a mobo with USB 3.0 and a couple of 6Gbps SATAIII connectors (you'll be wanting to upgrade HDD memory at some point, but it's not urgent for now), in fact I got nothing against the one Kita mentioned, but if you can wait a few months for the ivy bridge processors to become available it'll be worth it in the long run. If not, you're probably looking at something like an i5-2500. I disagree that SSDs are worth it right now, I'll probably look into one when my current windows drive dies on me but not before. Spend that money on a decent fan the processor instead.

[datora]

.
Agreed that the SSD is not necessary for your immediate budget.  But, you do need to "look seriously into that" because it will be just about your top bottleneck in system performance, probably even before looking to upgrade your GPU.

SSD is a critical upgrade you will need, and finding a reliable SATA III / 2nd gen model for under $1/GB is probably going to be higher priority than a massive storage (such as 2 TB) drive.  Take your time & shop hard for one; Patriot, Samsung, Intel, Plextor all are good names to look at.  This is based entirely upon you placing priority on game performance upgrade, and it is assumed one that has legs to it, instead of being crippled next year.  That's why I suggest aggressively looking for an i5 CPU option, if you can afford it.  If you can't, settle for an i3, but make sure you have a mobo that can take an i5 or an i7 next year when you might very much want to upgrade at low cost then.


Yes, memory speed is not paramount, but don't try to save $5 by going with 1033 DDR3.  You can get 1600 or 1833 for the same price these days, and it supports better options to adjust clock speeds/timings and voltage in the BIOS.  Don't waste money on 2133 or 2300 RAM; that's a performance edge that will not make a difference.  Look more closely at the best timings that you can find.

Basically, 1833 RAM running at CAS 9 is common and about as cheap as memory gets right now.  If you can get it to CAS 8, even better.  However, 1600 RAM running at CAS 7 is at least as fast, if not slightly better.  If you have 1833 RAM, you can underclock it to 1600 and get better timings (such as CAS 7) and have it perform more efficiently than running it at 1833 w/ CAS 9.  For one example.  No sense settling for ultra-budget 1033 RAM and running it at CAS 8 or CAS 9, then finding out it's part of your performance bottleneck when you get that SSD or upgraded GPU.

G.SKILL is great, I have it, use it & love it, but you won't go wrong with Mushkin, PNY or Patriot, either.  All of them have excellent performance memory, and their budget lines are all solid ... just shop these out by price and try to find something at ~$35 or $40 for a paired 2x 4GB = 8GB kit.  Depending on your  location, you may have to go higher.  I don't know what your local options are.

[rostheferret]

Random idea I had, another option to an SSD might be a raid 01 configuration. Essentially you take a partition half the size of each hard drive - you'll be needing two for this - and RAID0 it (meaning it's distributing the information to both HDDs). Then you RAID1 it with the the remaining half of each HDD. That way information is backed up and you're using the read/write speed of both HDDs. It's solid to my mind in theory, but in practice I don't know if it would mirror that way (or randomly distribute amongst HDDs making any backed up information incomplete, and thus doing little more than effectively halving your HDD space) or how well it affects read/write speeds.

*Awaits someone to explain why it won't work*

EDIT: Writing to both HDDs simultaneously means write speeds won't be improved at all (damnit) but read speeds should be.