Originally Posted by
arthurking83
Old hardware wasn't my actual point(apologies) .. even new hardware can have bottlenecks somewhere along the pipeline.
Usually the price of a motherboard is directly proportional to the quality of the item(as well as support) .. that is, even if there is initially an issue(say with a driver) .. a fix is offered pretty quickly.
That Z77 Gigabyte looks to be pretty new in terms of tech.
If it were my money, I'd prefer the GA-Z77X-UD3H instead.
Reasons, I've had prior not so good experience with Realtek connection ports(both gigabit eth, and wireless eth) and having recently switched to an Atheros based chipset on one PC ... well, Realtek are now on my avoid list too.
The 77X-UD3H does seem to have a few extra goodies, but with caveats.. that is, there seem to be 4 extra USB3 ports on this board, but they are controlled via a VIA chipset, and it says in the notes that they seem to have issues with Win7(or something to that effect) .. doesn't mean you can't use them, but you should use the other 4 first, before using these VIA USB3 ports.
Also, and this is what I was referring too about watching what chipsets are used on what devices/connections.
Either of those boards have a multitude of SATA connectors .. I think 8 in total. But only 6 are controlled directly via the Intel Z77 chipset, and that means two SATA ports are controlled by another chip.
Turns out to be a Marvel controller. I can't ever remember having issues with a Marvel chipset of any description, but the point is, you should be careful as to where you connect your SSD too.
If that Marvel chip is one of those dodgy types that don't live up to the expectation of 500 Mb/s, and can only muster 100Mb/s(known to happen) .. then you won't get the real benefit of using the SSD(which should sustain about 300 or so Mb/s.
My fastest drive can achieve just over 100Mb/s over the long haul(ie. not a short burst rate) ... and I've seen 200+ on short transfers.
The difference that this makes on a system(especially for opening large files, is what makes the system 'fast'.
While it's impressive that the OS can start up in only 10sec, as opposed to 30-60sec .. this is only a once off performance issue to deal with.
On my PC I run my slowest drives(HDDs) for OS and programs, and use the fastest drives for the actual work.
I open my programs very rarely, and if I do it's usually for quite some time. Once it has been opened, on Windows, it hibernates in a cache file, so that if accessed again when the PC is still running, the next opening of that program will be naturally quicker anyhow. ie. the way I saw that, is that having the programs on the SSD was of no real benefit anyhow.
On my tablet tho, I turn it on and off regularly, so it's not 'always on' as such like the PC is. The hdd it came with was large(for a micro hdd), but slow as hell(5400rpm). The SSD has made a massive impact in the tablet because of the way the tablet is used(in short bursts).
For your images, I'd recommend a Seagate Barracuda 3Tb HDD. Very fast and tons of space. If you regularly open extremely large files, eg. 2Gb panoramas .. then maybe look at getting 2 SSD drives, one for OS and programs, and one for scratch disk. But I still reckon a very fast mechanical HDD is better value for money in terms of very good speed but tons of space.
Good luck with the build anyhow.