CPU/Mobo Which motherboard and SSD to buy for Intel G620

[arvnd]

Hi Guys,

Looking to upgrade my PC. My Processor, Mobo & RAM is very old (Pentium D/LGA 775 Mobo/DDR2 RAM).

Rest of stuff (PSU, HDDs, DVDRW, Monitor etc) are pretty decent.

I've decided to upgrade to Intel G620. I want to get an SSD as well as a suitable motherboard.

Budget - around 12-13K ( for CPU + Mobo + RAM + SSD)

Main points

1) This is primarily a PC for browsing/chatting/movies/music. No gaming, video encoding or any other heavy duty stuff, but I'd like it to be responsive. Quick boot up time and should be responsive hence going for SSD. I have a couple of other 1 TB HDDs for storage.

2) I would like to be able to upgrade to a faster CPU in future ( I guess LGA 1155 is a good option to upgrade to i5 / i7 later).

3) I can spend a bit more on the motherboard (say 4 - 4.5K ) if required for USB 3.0 and SATA 6 GBPs support to keep it a wee bit more future proof if and when I decide to upgrade the CPU

4) Need atleast a 60 GB SSD I guess. I dont have much idea about which are the good ones, so please suggest.

Thanks..

 

[ALPHA17]

Budget - around 12-13K ( for CPU + Mobo + RAM + SSD)

You are cutting it very close, Sire. A SSD itself will set you back by approximately ~6500/- for a decent 60GB model, a good 90GB Corsair Force 3 GT will cost you ~8500/-, here are the prices on offer --> http://www.techencla...ies-3-sata-ssd/.

Now for exploiting these SSD's to the max you will need a SATA III port, again raising the base cost for the motherboard, as the only motherboards that fulfil your criteria are --

Intel DH67-BL ~5400/-

MSi H67MA-E35 ~4800/-

ASUS P8H61-M PLUS ~3500/- is the minimum board you must buy, but it has no extra features like USB 3.0 and SATA III ports which will gain acceptance now that Intel natively supports them with the Ivy-Bridge platform.

Intel Pentium G620 ~3500/-

Corsair ValueRAM 4GB x1 ~1200/-

Hope this helps, Cheers!!

 

[arvnd]

^^ thanks a lot for the suggestions alpha. I think I'll postpone by SSD purchase by a few months and instead go for a better motherboard now.

Both [font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Intel DH67-BL and [/font][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]MSi H67MA-E35 [/font]look good. I think it'll be good to have a mobo with SATA 3 and USB 3 built in even if I dont plan to use SATA3 immediately. It will keep my system a bit more future proof.

What are the chances of SSD prices coming down in the near future? Right now Corsair Force Series 3 60GB looks like a good option.

There is no hard limit on my budget actually...just that I don't want to spend too much on a system which I use just for browsing/movies. What I'll do is...I'll go ahead and upgrade my processor/motherboard/ram now. If I'm not satisfied with the performance after upgrade, I'll get an SSD as well (even if it overshoots my budget).

 

[ALPHA17]

What are the chances of SSD prices coming down in the near future? Right now Corsair Force Series 3 60GB looks like a good option.
Not a lot Sire, they might go down depending on the $ vs. Rs. issue, but as such I don't see prices fluctuating more than ~500/- --> 1500/- [upper as well as lower caps] in the coming year.

There is no hard limit on my budget actually...just that I don't want to spend too much on a system which I use just for browsing/movies. What I'll do is...I'll go ahead and upgrade my processor/motherboard/ram now. If I'm not satisfied with the performance after upgrade, I'll get an SSD as well (even if it overshoots my budget).

I think you will be very satisfied with the overall performance of your PC in day-to day computing. It should hold in good stead for ~2 years. Add a decent graphics card like the AMD HD 6850 / 7770 and you will be able to play the current crop of games easily @medium settings.

Hope this helps, Cheers!!

 

[arvnd]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, ALPHA17. I went ahead and bought pretty much the same config you suggested.

Intel DH67BL + G620 + 4 GB RAM (I didnt check the brand). Bought these locally for about 10.2 K or so.

Also got a Corsair force 3 60GB SSD from primeabgb thru ebay - cost 5,085 after disccount.

It felt like a huge jump in performance compared to my Pentium D (even before adding the SSD).

After adding the SSD, the sytem is just so crazy fast!!

 

[ALPHA17]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, ALPHA17. I went ahead and bought pretty much the same config you suggested.

Intel DH67BL + G620 + 4 GB RAM (I didnt check the brand). Bought these locally for about 10.2 K or so.

Also got a Corsair force 3 60GB SSD from primeabgb thru ebay - cost 5,085 after disccount.

It felt like a huge jump in performance compared to my Pentium D (even before adding the SSD).

After adding the SSD, the sytem is just so crazy fast!!

Happy to know that your RIG is up and running Sire, hope it serves you well in the coming years. Cheers!!

 

[Jarod]

Force 3 uses async NAND which is slow and doesn't meet its advertised speeds.

There aren't many options at your budget. Should have saved up for a better SSD.

Now for exploiting these SSD's to the max you will need a SATA III port, again raising the base cost for the motherboard

I humbly disagree.

The only place SATA III will make a difference is in sustained sequential speeds.

In real life, SSDs are faster only because of the lower latency with random read + writes.

His Force 3 will not even exceed SATA II speeds even under sequential read + write.

 

[arvnd]

Force 3 uses async NAND which is slow and doesn't meet its advertised speeds.

There aren't many options at your budget. Should have saved up for a better SSD.

Even if it's relatively slow by SSD standards, it's still a huge jump for me in performance. Given my limited budget and the fact that I use the PC only for browsing/movies/music, I think it's still pretty good. I personally dont believe in spending too much on PC hardware coz it depreciates so very fast - the very high end stuff you buy today becomes pretty much low end in a couple of years. Relatively low end hardware that will last you for 3-4 years time is good enough for me.

I humbly disagree.

The only place SATA III will make a difference is in sustained sequential speeds.

In real life, SSDs are faster only because of the lower latency with random read + writes.

His Force 3 will not even exceed SATA II speeds even under sequential read + write.

Actually the reason why I bought a motherboard with SATA 3 and USB 3 is for a bit of future proofing. I plan to upgrade to a 2nd hand Core i5/i7 maybe 2-3 years down the line when my G620 runs out of steam. By that time USB3 and SATA 3 will be mainstream and hopefully 2nd hand LGA 1155 i7s will be available for cheap

I could have gone for a low end motherboard with an H61 chipset for 2K less, but anyway for adding USB3 and SATA 3 support in future I would need to buy PCI addon cards later - not worth the trouble.

 

[Jarod]

Any SSD is a good upgrade. Just that there are SSDs which cut corners to be cheap, when saving a bit more tends to give you a more well rounded SSD which will still be good value for money, eg - crucial m4, intel 320 (if the firmware is up to date).

I wouldn't recommend a crippled H61 chipset board and good you got the H67, atleast for USB 3.0 which is much more useful.

I was pointing out that SATA III is not a requirement for exploiting performance from SSDs. Practically all our work is random read/writes which is where SSDs excel, and even for the best drives, the random read/write speeds are still below SATA II speeds.