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quatra
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join:2003-06-22
Matthews, NC

quatra to Scilicet

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to Scilicet

Re: Best grapic card for World of Warcraft

said by Scilicet:

You may be right about that. 1gb isn't all that much. I am sure it's a FIFO deal to keep the video memory updated. I do notice that the data rate of the SSD is twice that of a standard HD. 6gb/s vs. 3gb/s respectively. Even with a large processor cache you are still dependent on the bus rate from the DMA.

More important than the data transfer rate is the seek time - SSD basically has zero seek time, versus the old school spinning platter that is physically moving the head all over the place because things are so rarely sequentially stored. My old drive benchmarked over 100MB/sec, my SSD benchmarks over 500MB/sec, but the difference is much greater than 5x faster feel it's night and day - it FEELS 100x faster (I suppose the seek time is much more than 100x faster).

I've used the OCZ vertex II which crashed after about a year, and I've been using the crucial M4 128 for over a year now and so far so good. You can find the crucial M4's for $1/gig on sale. Your motherboard might bottleneck them though (500MB/sec = over 4gbit) but you'll still benefit from the instant seek time.
Scilicet (banned)
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Aurora, CO

Scilicet (banned)

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Yes, I agree. I have been looking into these SSD's. They're not cheap; $60 for a 60GB and up to $700 for a Samsung 512GB. The Crucial M4 512GB is indeed on sale right now for $400. Unfortunately, it is already sold out at my local Microcenter. However, you can get it at Amazon or Newegg for that price. Very tempting at this price if I don't say so myself.
Scilicet

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to quatra
Well, I bought the 512GB Crucial M4 SSD. 3 year warranty. I'll be installing it this weekend.

Immer
Gentleman
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join:2010-01-07
Evans, GA

Immer

Premium Member

/envy

Goldheart
join:2002-06-09
Las Cruces, NM

Goldheart

Member

said by Immer:

/envy

Ditto!

Mine are 80 and 60GB only :-(
Scilicet (banned)
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Aurora, CO

1 edit

Scilicet (banned)

Member

I'll be sure to let you know how well these SSD's improve things.

BTW look what I found:

»www.sevenforums.com/tuto ··· tem.html
Scilicet

Scilicet (banned) to Immer

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to Immer
said by Immer:

/envy

Well, there is a good reason why Crucial sells their M4 512GB SSD so cheaply. I bought it for $400 vs. the Samsung model that goes for $700. The Crucial device is a piece of crap. Wasted an entire day on it. I used Windows 7 Disk Management, TRIM, and I even bought the Paragon Migrate OS from HDD to SSD program for $20. Nothing that I could do could get this piece of crap bootable. What a disappointment. I would recommend avoiding Crucial products and their Support people suck as well.

Goldheart
join:2002-06-09
Las Cruces, NM

Goldheart

Member

said by Scilicet:

said by Immer:

/envy

Well, there is a good reason why Crucial sells their M4 512GB SSD so cheaply. I bought it for $400 vs. the Samsung model that goes for $700. The Crucial device is a piece of crap. Wasted an entire day on it. I used Windows 7 Disk Management, TRIM, and I even bought the Paragon Migrate OS from HDD to SSD program for $20. Nothing that I could do could get this piece of crap bootable. What a disappointment. I would recommend avoiding Crucial products and their Support people suck as well.

Did you physically connect it to the primary SATA port on your motherboard? There are limitations as to which drive and port you can boot from.

Swap cables with your primary boot drive and check the boot order in the BIOS.

quatra
Premium Member
join:2003-06-22
Matthews, NC

quatra to Scilicet

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to Scilicet
Is your PC not seeing the new drive? Sorry to hear it hasn't gone smoothly for you. I've only used 2 SSDs, OCZ and Crucial and they both behaved just like a regular drive for me. I did fresh OS installs on them never attempted to transfer an existing install. Have you checked to see if you have the latest firmware on the drive?
Scilicet (banned)
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to Goldheart
Yes, I tried all that. The first warning that something was not right was when I first brought up the machine with the new SSD. The system failed to give that "New Hardware Found" message. Disk Management could assign a logical id and name to the drive, but it would just vanish again after a while. TRIM could see the drive, the BIOS could see the drive, I could read and write to it as long as it was in the device list, but the system couldn't find it at boot time. No, I have a bad unit. Couldn't verify that I had the right firmware either and Crucial tech support was useless. So, it goes back via UPS Monday for a swap out.

Goldheart
join:2002-06-09
Las Cruces, NM

Goldheart

Member

said by Scilicet:

Yes, I tried all that. The first warning that something was not right was when I first brought up the machine with the new SSD. The system failed to give that "New Hardware Found" message. Disk Management could assign a logical id and name to the drive, but it would just vanish again after a while. TRIM could see the drive, the BIOS could see the drive, I could read and write to it as long as it was in the device list, but the system couldn't find it at boot time. No, I have a bad unit. Couldn't verify that I had the right firmware either and Crucial tech support was useless. So, it goes back via UPS Monday for a swap out.

You might need a BIOS update if your motherboard is older. Some can't handle larger drives.
Scilicet (banned)
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Aurora, CO

Scilicet (banned)

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The Mobo is only a year old (MSI 785GM-P45) and has the latest BIOS update. Besides, I have a 1TB drive that works fine. I sent all the logs to Paragon Software and I'll let them figure it out. I am still convinced that the firmware is bad and a few reviews on Amazon claim similar problems, although most people have no problems. I just got a lemon, I think. After all, it was made in China; who knows how it was tested - if at all. I have worked my time on the production floor and sometimes you send out known bad devices just to make your quota figuring by the time Field Service or in this case Customer Service gets hold of it you will have a new batch of devices ready to replace the bad.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

I just had one of these mobos blow out on me due to a (suspected) bad PSU. It took out one of the HDDs and ram as well. Had to rebuild everything.

I am not a fan of the el cheapo motherboards that are under $90 or so. I also would never trust the MSI 785GM-P45 again.

Here's my horror story with the board which I admittedly tackled on behalf of a non-technical friend: »Troubleshooting a PSU

navymaverick
join:2011-07-21
Papillion, NE

navymaverick

Member

said by Krisnatharok:

I just had one... blow... me due to a (suspected) bad... ram...

You said it, not me.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member


your mind went there

Snuffbox
nice irl
Premium Member
join:2011-04-15
Milwaukee, WI

Snuffbox to Scilicet

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to Scilicet
Sorry to hear Scilicet.

My SSD's have been plug'nplay however because of the performance gains they provide, I've always used them as the master with the OS installed on it.

Making it your slave will still show benefits, but not as much as if you had OS + WoW on the same SSD.

Phantasee
join:2009-08-27
Hammond, LA

Phantasee

Member

PLUS SLI Voodoo 3's. Overclocked of course for WoW's demands.
Scilicet (banned)
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Aurora, CO

Scilicet (banned) to Krisnatharok

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to Krisnatharok
said by Krisnatharok:

I also would never trust the MSI 785GM-P45 again.

Out of curiosity, the MSI 785GM-P45 is capable of overclocking in increments of 5% up to 20% simply by setting a few switches. Did your friend overclock his board without replacing the stock CPU heatsink with a heat pipe? If that's the case, then the processor would surely burn out.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

Nope, the overclock switches were left alone.
Scilicet (banned)
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said by Krisnatharok:

I also would never trust the MSI 785GM-P45 again.

I am beginning to think that you are absolutely right. It's this cheap F'n board.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

said by Scilicet:

cheap F'n board.

lol exactly my opinion on it as well.
Scilicet (banned)
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Aurora, CO

Scilicet (banned)

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Ya know, it worked well for normal stuff, but... It seems to be severely limited as I push it towards gaming maximums and overclocking. I updated all the drivers and the BIOS. Nevertheless, I need a new Mobo. I hate Intel. Just won't go with them. It's a long story as I hated designing around them back in the days of the 8080 and that has stuck with me. I prefer AMD. I can salvage the I/O boards, the Phenom II x6, the heat pipe, power supply, case, etc. What a pain in the arse this has become.
Scilicet

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to Krisnatharok
said by Krisnatharok:

said by Scilicet:

cheap F'n board.

lol exactly my opinion on it as well.

Cheap is being kind. No problems with the new board. An unbelievable improvement. No freeze ups with the GeForce 450 now. Graphics are much better.

BTW there is a driver update for most GeForce boards: version 301.42 as per the older version - »us.battle.net/support/en ··· tedvideo.

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

I tried the 301 driver not long ago and it was problematic.
Scilicet (banned)
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Aurora, CO

Scilicet (banned)

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How so?

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

it caused system locks

see the thread in the gaming tech forum
kris also had similer issues with a game.
»[BF3] EVGA card freezing? possible fix
Scilicet (banned)
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Scilicet (banned)

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I have only been running v301 on the GTX 450 for a few days. No problems yet. I appreciate the link to the fix.

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

try running the windows experiance index tool
with 301 mine would go to not responding
Scilicet (banned)
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Aurora, CO

Scilicet (banned)

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Ok! Nothing happened. Must be a system specific glitch. After all, we all know how SE houses test the crap out of all their software products now-a-days.

Years ago, the idea of 'updates' was never necessary.