Prepping for Black Friday/Cyber Monday

[EskimoJoe]

Alright, for the next great debate I'd like to hear about HDDs vs SSDs. What's the big deal? One vs the other, and one vs both? Keep in mind my technical term knowledge is not that great.

That PSU looks wonderful, and the reviews aren't too bad either. You might like to take a look at this one, especially the parts and the conclusion pages: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/SuperNOVA_GS_650/

2, as with anything, enough will be enough. How much that enough is depends on what you're planning to do. For running games 8 GB will suffice, 16 is not overkill. If you plan to do any serious photo or video editing, you might feel that even 32 GB won't suffice. Memory is relatively cheap, so getting 16 GB would not be a bad choice.
- Memory works in pairs for dual channeling, so get pairs. For expandability take 2*8 GB which allows you to get another pair if you feel like it later. Adding another pair will also add to power consumption a little, that's where you need the overhead of your PSU.
- Another thing to consider in RAM sticks is the CAS latency. The lower the faster. Looking at your list I noticed that the G.Skill Ripjaws X DDR3-1600 is available in several CAS versions without adding too much to the price. http://pcpartpicker.com/product/ntzv6h/gskill-memory-f31600c7d16gtx might be a good choice, fast but not too expensive.

Thank you once again Bizman. I've taken the suggestion noted in the article you posted about switching to the slightly better quality G2 from the GS power supply, and also bumped up the RAM as you mentioned, for giggles. This brings my running total to about 1,000 at current pricing, but I intend to save a buck or two should any sales pop up. Looking at the estimated required total wattage, I can see how extras and upgrades can really have an impact and the need for having a little overhead. Your knowledge has made this process much more manageable and I learned a thing or two so far. Looking forward to the day I finalize my parts list and start picking them up!

[Bizman]

HDD vs SSD, now that surely will raise some debate!

Basically both technologies are reliable and the pricing of SSD's has lowered to a reasonable level. So, again, it's up to your needs what to choose. To make the decision even more difficult, there's more than one standard way of connecting an SSD. To get a headache, read http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,380374.0.html.

Anyway, you get a lot more storage for a buck by using a HDD. Your computer will boot and start programs faster using an SSD. Those are the main differences. Also notice that although an SSD starts the games faster, it doesn't improve frame rates at all.

Of course you can get both, a smaller SSD for Windows only and a HDD for your data and programs. If your budget is tight, HDD is the best choice. I know very few people whose schedule doesn't allow waiting for another 30 seconds for the computer to boot.

There's also hybrid disks available, but for what I've learned they aren't worth it.

[Chalenge]

Many your choice should be based upon how you use your computer. Do you make videos? How large is your "My Documents" folder right now? Do you store a lot of pictures on your computer? Do any of your programs create caches in the user folder? Is AH your only game, or do you also have a large Steam library?

I like the SSD as a boot device, because it makes it easier to get back into AH if there is a reboot required after a disconnect. It is really nice to have the system up and running in very few seconds, but like Bizman said that doesn't really do much for you. However, I also run a few programs like 3DS Max that take forever to load from a hard drive. The SSD doesn't really change that, but it is faster.

Either way, if you are downloading videos a lot then you will want to store them on a hard drive rather than an SSD. SSDs are getting better, but it is still not a good idea to write a ton of data to one and then erase it often. So your libraries (My Documents, pictures, videos, and Downloads) should be moved to a hard drive. When you do that Windows 10 (if you use that) will reset those folders to the SSD, so every time there is an update you just move them back.

Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Media Encoder, etc. all create large cache files that are stored in your user folder. You can use the apps preferences to move those caches to a hard drive. It's not hard to do.

Boom! Lightning fast system that should last a long time. Just backup your OS to another hard drive and you're done and ready for rapid restore if you ever need to.

[Vulcan]

If you are really worried about losing stuff then my setup is simple, 240Gb SSD for my gaming PC - and I have a NAS device with two 2Tb hard disks in RAID for keeping my photos documents etc. That NAS device also backs up to the cloud.

I'd wage someone who rants about SSD reliability has very little in the way of any other backup, and imho hard drives can be just as unreliable sometimes.

Just doing anything on HDD seems laborious after SSD.

[Gman]

I'd wage someone who rants about SSD reliability has very little in the way of any other backup, and imho hard drives can be just as unreliable sometimes.

Heh, agreed. I have SSDs from 2012 that have yet to fail or have any problems, but lost a 1tb Caviar Black a couple months ago, my first HW major failure really, and it was one of the most reliable ratings wise HDDs out there. 

I do the same as others, use an SSD/m.2 for boot, SSD for Steam games/DCS/etc, and then spinner hard drives for video, home theater PC videos, pictures, documents, and the like.  I know what the "numbers" say, but in real world experience I haven't noticed a major - if any - improvement in boot/load times with my 950 m.2 over an Evo 850 SSD.  Just my opinion, but not really worth the extra expense.  They are small though, amazing how tiny m.2 are, I couldn't believe the slot and HD when I first opened the MB and m.2 drive were just "that". 

Vulcan, what are you using to run your cloud updates, I'm interested in starting to do this as well, but just haven't bothered due to having many portable external SSD/HDDs which I've used for backup.  I'd like to have a tertiary backup in the cloud as well I think, or maybe just switch over to using cloud backup as my primary and only backup.  Constantly manually updating external HDDS is a pita.

[Vulcan]

Vulcan, what are you using to run your cloud updates, I'm interested in starting to do this as well, but just haven't bothered due to having many portable external SSD/HDDs which I've used for backup.  I'd like to have a tertiary backup in the cloud as well I think, or maybe just switch over to using cloud backup as my primary and only backup.  Constantly manually updating external HDDS is a pita.

I use a Qnap NAS drive, RAIDed, with 2 4Tb drives. I just use the builtin backup to Google Photos app. Though there are lots of apps you can use for backup to cloud.