Replacing my SSD and GPU

[WeatherMan]

Hi guys,

I'm looking at replacing both my SSD and GPU, which were a 240GB Sandisk SSD and a GTX670.

The SSD I did have is no longer usable as one of the data pins snapped off from the connector, I bought it used a few years ago and the data connector plastic shroud broke off a few years ago, I'm surprised it's lasted as long as it has, but the pin is now missing and the solder pad gone from the board, making it repairable, so it's been binned.

I'm looking at a replacement and it should be no less than 240GB, within £90 with as good read/write speeds as possible. What are the best brands and models right now? I've not looked for a long time.

I'm also looking for a replacement graphics card, I've not had a dedicated card for a few months now and want to get back into gaming, so looking for a card which is comparable to my old 670 but not break the bank at the same time.

I've tested my whole system to find out whether anything is faulty (the mobo died when the graphics card did) and still do not know why, maybe a power surge, but the PSU is still operable and powering my current PC, the specs are:

Asus m-itx socket 1155 board (pulled from another PC)
Intel i5 3450
6GB of DDR3 running in single channel (heatsink is too big to fit both sticks of my patriot ram)
3TB HDD
24" 1080p panel from iiyama

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[lincsman]

Hi there. I'll give my take on the situation, and you can take it or leave it up to you.
If your heatsink is too large for the RAM, it might be put on the wrong way. If you REALLY want more RAM in there, you could remove the processor, insert the RAM, then return the processor to the board.
As for solid state drive, instead of searching the web for you at this point I'll just say that Samsung is what I was told is the highest quality brand. For me that's what I would buy, mind you my kingston SSDNow is still running great.
It would help to post your PSU, but I take it since it ran a 670, it's good to go. The 770 would be an upgrade for sure but I would get a 4Gb version. The 970 would be great, however a 770 would do the trick. In fact, depending on the game, a 970 might be bottlenecked by your I5. If you're looking for the best bang for your buck and buying new, the 1050 ti is around the same performance (looks like about 8% weaker) as your 670, for $150.

 

[WeatherMan]

Hi there. I'll give my take on the situation, and you can take it or leave it up to you.
If your heatsink is too large for the RAM, it might be put on the wrong way. If you REALLY want more RAM in there, you could remove the processor, insert the RAM, then return the processor to the board.
As for solid state drive, instead of searching the web for you at this point I'll just say that Samsung is what I was told is the highest quality brand. For me that's what I would buy, mind you my kingston SSDNow is still running great.
It would help to post your PSU, but I take it since it ran a 670, it's good to go. The 770 would be an upgrade for sure but I would get a 4Gb version. The 970 would be great, however a 770 would do the trick. In fact, depending on the game, a 970 might be bottlenecked by your I5. If you're looking for the best bang for your buck and buying new, the 1050 ti is around the same performance (looks like about 8% weaker) as your 670, for $150.

Hey Linkin thanks for the reply, with my board being M-ITX whatever way round I mount the heatsink it ends up blocking something, one way it blocks the RAM, the other it blocks the PCI-E slot, so for that reason I've got a 2GB stick of low profile DDR3 in slot 1 and my original 4GB Patriot stick in slot 2. I could swap out the RAM entirely for low profile sticks and take myself back up to 8GB, but with the system being quite outdated I'm hesitant to plow any cash into it with parts that aren't suitable for a full system upgrade (DDR3/DDR4 etc)

Samsung seems to be a good bet for the SSD, I had one of their original 530 Series IIRC before upgrading to a larger drive, I'll have to take a look at the prices of their 240GB+ drives

My PSU is a OCZ 550W ZT, and seems to have handled everything I've thrown at it so far, I'm pretty confident it's working perfectly but cannot be sure until I get a new GPU plugged in to load it up.

For the graphics card I like the sound of the 1050ti, again need to check the prices, is there an AMD equivalent that may be cheaper?

I'm not sure yet whether to go for a mid range card just to do me good for the time being, or splash the cash and get a better card, but as you say my CPU may bottleneck the card. I'm swaying more to mid range, get a bit of use out of it and selling on when I upgrade, as I'm unsure when I'm going to do the platform upgrade.

Cheers

 

[lincsman]

Cool. Glad I helped you sort it out. A computer expert once told me that for optimal performance, with an intel processor and an nvidia chipset, Nvidia will work better with it. Whereas if you have an AMD chip like my old computer, an AMD video card would be better. So I recommend going with Nvidia. Yes your system is better off just staying at its level and then getting a whole new computer. I myself wouldn't sink much money into it. If you are looking to build anytime soon, then that would be a whole nother discussion. My new build in my signature is really great, but maybe you don't want to go that high end. It's really what your budget is and how long you want it to last. My computer will need more RAM and a better video card in say 3-4 years, but other than that the rest is set for a long time. However here in Canada where prices are higher, I got major deals but it still ran me up $1500 and I still plan to get a 4TB HD and keep a 1TB HDD.

 

[Deadpool]

Sadly, I would upgrade everything. AMD equivalent for the 1050TI? Go for a RX470. About the same level (a bit better) and has Crossfire support, may be useful in a future build. If you can stretch it a little bit, get a 1060. Good SSDs for that cash:

PNY CS1311
Crucial MX300
Corsair Force LE

Those are pretty cheap you can probably get the 500Gb version for that money (check, I'm not sure).

 

[Darren]

Cool. Glad I helped you sort it out. A computer expert once told me that for optimal performance, with an intel processor and an nvidia chipset, Nvidia will work better with it. Whereas if you have an AMD chip like my old computer, an AMD video card would be better. So I recommend going with Nvidia. Yes your system is better off just staying at its level and then getting a whole new computer. I myself wouldn't sink much money into it. If you are looking to build anytime soon, then that would be a whole nother discussion. My new build in my signature is really great, but maybe you don't want to go that high end. It's really what your budget is and how long you want it to last. My computer will need more RAM and a better video card in say 3-4 years, but other than that the rest is set for a long time. However here in Canada where prices are higher, I got major deals but it still ran me up $1500 and I still plan to get a 4TB HD and keep a 1TB HDD.

This isn't really true anymore, and even when this was a common thing to hear it didn't matter that much.

 

[lincsman]

a 1060 6GB would be way overkill but would be able to do well in a new system. Could use it now and then transfer it when you buy a new one.

 

[Deadpool]

a 1060 6GB would be way overkill but would be able to do well in a new system. Could use it now and then transfer it when you buy a new one.

Yeah that I5 can't handle the 1060. Just thinking ahead or in case he replaces everything.

 

[WeatherMan]

Thanks for all the replies so far, I went ahead and bought an SSD, (it was a late christmas present, so didn't want to go overboard price wise) I opted for the Hynix SL308 250GB as it showed good performance and didn't break the bank.

Did a bit of research before the purchase over the cons of TLC based SSD's, both performance and endurance wise, the price for me was the clincher and I installed Windows 10 on it today, seems to be on par with my old 128GB Samsung 830 EVO and my 240GB Sandisk PLUS.

Not yet decided on a graphics card, but still leaning towards a 1050Ti.

Need some advice about a new case too, my almost 5 year old Corsair Carbide 300R is showing its age and I'm looking to downsize to a mid tower, was hoping to find something from a reputable brand with good cable management for around £50.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Deadpool]

Thanks for all the replies so far, I went ahead and bought an SSD, (it was a late christmas present, so didn't want to go overboard price wise) I opted for the Hynix SL308 250GB as it showed good performance and didn't break the bank.

Did a bit of research before the purchase over the cons of TLC based SSD's, both performance and endurance wise, the price for me was the clincher and I installed Windows 10 on it today, seems to be on par with my old 128GB Samsung 830 EVO and my 240GB Sandisk PLUS.

Not yet decided on a graphics card, but still leaning towards a 1050Ti.

Need some advice about a new case too, my almost 5 year old Corsair Carbide 300R is showing its age and I'm looking to downsize to a mid tower, was hoping to find something from a reputable brand with good cable management for around £50.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

I´d get a 470: http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti-vs-AMD-RX-470/3649vs3640

NZXT makes cool cases.