Can you help me choose a desktop pc?

Off-topic Chatter
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Ok here is where I am at. First off I would like to thank everyone who has commented so far. I have ready every single post and taken into account everyone’s Ideas as best I could.

It seems the one thing we all agree on is the SSD performance. This is something I had not even considered so I’m very glad I started this thread.

That said I decided to let go of my hang up on Dell and roll the dice with an HP. Since no one had strong objections to HP I figured I must have just had lame ones in the past.

Here is the PC I have on order as a base.

That gives me the i5 2400 processor 8G of ram the 500g drive win7 from a MS referbisher and a Quadro 2000 graphics card to boot.

So I guess what I need to know now is what SSD will work with this, how to hook it up, and how to do a real back up of everything I need? I’m thinking probly a 240G SSD?

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There you go!
Make sure there is a windows key and preferably install media like DVD/CD

OK the earlier mentioned 240GB SSD seems up to the task
You might need a data cable, so order one when you buy one.

You receive a little package and inside there is a rectangular thingy
You find a spot inside the case (usually below the harddrive, that is a somewhat bigger thing that looks about the same as the SSD, just bigger in all dimensions.)
Hold the SSD ans screw it in place, SSDs are light, if it does not come with a bracket to place it in an space of an HD, you can use just 1 screw to hang it.

There is a power suply and there are some left over connectors, one with a flat plastic connector will have a J or L shaped that precisely fits one of the places with flat copper wires n the SSD, the bigger one.
The smaller one will have also the J or L shaped connection option, but exactly mirrored and smaller. This is where the data cable goes. This calbe, usually red plugs into the motherboard, you see tow others alreaddy connected (the DVD drive and HD)

Remove the data cable from your HD of that cable from the mainboard (whatever is more easy to reach.

Sometimes these cables have a little clip to be pushed before you can remove them and these will also click when inserted correctly.

Since you are going to get a preformance jump anyway, there is not direct need for a SSD, but it is a good idea.

Before you open your pc, make sure the powercord is grounded, but remove it from the pc. If you have a cat, get him/her out of the room and touch ground yourself, then open the pc up.
You have to feel comfortable opening your pc up and doing this, and also you have to not mind installing Windows, this is normally a matter of following instructions on screen, but there are a lot of people who do not like it. Also, you have to update the system and probably have to install drivers before everything works. Be advised, you probably need internet to upgrade and download drivers, so you need to have the drivers for your networkdevice ready in case Windows does not auto detect and installs it.

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I’ll second that. Those are the three best online purchase sources IMO. Another great source is Microcenter, particularly if you have one of the stores near you. I’m fortunate to have one in my area. Great deals and great return policy. Dell or HP is typically your best bet for overall stock build quality and it is definitely not cheaper to build your own anymore. Those days are gone. The computers we use in my office are mostly Dells and a few HPs. We have around a hundred or so in total at my office. I configure 95% of them and maintain them half the time. Mostly CAD workstations but some are just standard office computers. Particularly in Desktops they’ve been very reliable in daily use for years.

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That motherboard will have up to 6 SATA ports, only one of which will be the SATA III (6GB/s) port, and it will probably be a different color. The rest are Sata II, which you would plug your storage HDD’s into. Sata II is plenty fast for those.

As for the windows re-install, there’s several ways to do it… These days the manufacturers don’t give you windows on a DVD like they used to, instead the files are on a separate partition on the HDD. You can probably browse into that drive within ‘mycomputer’ and run the setup.exe installer within windows, or alternatively, you would boot into the bios (restart, repeatedly hit F8 or F2 or ESC at boot) and then in bios you go to the boot tab and change the boot order so that the small partition boots first. Then upon restart it’ll run the W7 setup and through the wizard you can format your new ssd and then install W7 onto it.

My preferred method is to install W7 with a disc (DVD), and then use the COA sticker code on the PC to activiate it. It seems microsoft allows you to get a disc (image) directly from them now if you enter your COA code. This used to not be the case.

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Ok while I don’t do a lot of *Bay shopping for computers that looks like one heck of a deal. Those are solid machines. Solid enough that a refurb wouldn’t scare me much. Any SSD will work but I highly recommend a Samsung EVO. You can get a 250GB or 256GB pretty regularly for around $70-$80 and they are fantastic drives. I’ve been installing them for the last 2 1/2 years on our systems and they have a better track record than other SSDs. They’re faster and more reliable than almost any out there. Plus, the Samsung Magician software that comes with them makes migrating your existing build to your new SSD very easy even for non-IT types. For backup I like the 1TB WD externals. They’re USB3 so data transfer is fast. I haven’t had one fail yet and they run $60-$80 depending on the sale. I keep multiple system images on one and using Acronis I can reimage a problem machine in around 10 minutes based on roughly a 60GB-80GB base image. FYI - WD gives you a free version of Acronis for basic back up image creation and recovery so that’s a freebie with your WD external. You just go to the WD software site and download it free. Works great as long as you have one WD drive plugged into your system even if just a USB external.

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Yea that HP is a good deal eh. Should be pretty smooth with that GPU and an ssd in there.

The reason I wouldn’t buy from Amazon or Newegg is because amazon relies on a sketchy network of “third party shipping providers” and people constantly complain of counterfeit goods coming directly from items “fullfilled by amazon.” Newegg doesn’t seem to have the 850 evo themselves, It is sold through a third party supplier through neweggs “marketplace.” This marketplace nonsense being what ruined newegg since a few years back… B&H has it for a good price.

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Whenever I do a fresh Windows install onto another hard drive, I like to use Double Driver 4.1 to first backup all my drivers and then to Restore them to the new install. Really makes things easy, no hunting online for drivers. Just use the ones you already have installed.
http://www.boozet.org/download.htm

And here is a site for comparing video cards.

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You could probably get away with a 128GB SSD given the workload you described. I do just fine with my 128GB Samsung 840 Pro.

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same drive and size i have, works good, the rapid mode is interesting
I filled it with TV shows i watch, so i could use another 128gb (saves from spinning up the HD)

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Yeah, but right now the 240GB models are in a sweet spot for most GB per 1$

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Ah, good to know, thanks.

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I think I am going to go with the 240G samsung from BH since its only like $15 more for double the space.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1086225-REG/samsung_mz_75e250b_am_851_evo_250gb_2_5.html

Can you guys give me a link for the cable/connector I will need to install this?

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Make sure the motherboard of the computer your buying supports SATA 6 (also known as the 3.0 standard, not to be confused with SATA 3 which is only half the speed)

this cable should do the job, but you can search for smaller/longer SATA 6 cables, straight or 90º degree connectors and so forth

You may need an adapter to convert the power supply for your SSD, depends on how old the computer is and on an older case you may need an adapter to secure the SSD in the case.

You can probably get lower prices elsewhere online and even locally, but these are examples of what i’m talking about

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Sata 6? Sata II (3 Gb/s) and Sata III (6 Gb/s) are relevant in this context. SATA - Wikipedia

I had looked up that motherboards chipset; it should have 1 Sata III port and up to 5 Sata II ports. Sata III devices are backwards compatible with Sata II though so it wouldn’t be a problem if it didn’t have a Sata III port. They use the same cables. The SSD would still perform great compared to an HDD.

I think that power supply should have extra sata leads available, but good call, it may be necessary to get a 4 pin molex to sata power adapter if it doesn’t. That pc isn’t too old really—Circa 2012 or so?

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Its confusing, informally SATA 3 is 300mb/s (Technically known as SATA 2.0) and SATA 6 is 600mb/s (Technically known as SATA 3.0)

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It makes no sense to call Sata II Sata 3 when there’s an actual Sata III to get it confused with… It is less confusing to call sata III sata 6 however, but it’s not really called sata 6, it’s sata III. Sure, its speed is 6 Gb/s, but it’s the Sata III specification.

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I agree, but thats what i have heard it called many times so just warning the OP not to get it confused.

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LOL,
All he really needs to know is that an SSD is stinking fast.

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Very true, HDs suck
However 600MB/S is a lot better then 300MB/S
Otherwise he could buy an outdated clearance SSD that doesn’t output >300MB/s and save some money

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vestureofblood If u don’t mind updating the first post on all the parts u bought ?? I might copy your computer build i need something newer also