It's time

[Fubar512 1,350]

I have treated my system to a few more upgrades over the course of the last week.

 

First, I added a CyberPower 1500 watt UPS to protect my investment from the numerous brownouts and  power surges that we experience here during bad weather.

 

 

Then, I decided that it was time to upgrade my graphics card and the OS drive:

 

 

Of course, just for grins, I bench marked both against their predecessors.  

 

In the case of the mechanical HDD, I used the non-OS saves drive, a 1 TB, 7200 RPM WD "blue" drive, that was identical to the one that held the OS.  As you can see, it performed exceptionally well for a mechanical drive (benchmark performed with CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2, all settings at software defaults) :

 

 

Now let's compare that score to the Crucial MX300 525 MB SSD. Again, the test was performed with default settings in CrystalDiskMark:

 

 

What benchmarks cannot do, is show one how fast and smooth the system becomes once you've made the switch to an SSD.  My system now goes from initial OS load to a usable desktop in just under 9 seconds.

 

Next, let's compare graphics cards, using FutureMark's Firestrike benchmark.  First up, the tried and true GTX 750ti that served me well for the last two years:

 

 

And hers's the GTX 1070's score:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 17, 2016 by Fubar512

[JediMaster 451]

Yeah, I'd like to get a 1070 but the higher price is annoying me right now.

 

I may need to replace the battery in my UPS again soon. I'm on the 3rd I think. We had some serious power flips the last week or so with the storms and we kept losing power for 1-2 seconds, sometimes 2-3 times an hour.

The display on the front of it said runtime was like 10 minutes, and it used to be close to 30. I think it won't be long now before it will die if I'm in a game when the power flips even for just a few seconds.

[Fubar512 1,350]

Yeah, I'd like to get a 1070 but the higher price is annoying me right now.

 

I may need to replace the battery in my UPS again soon. I'm on the 3rd I think. We had some serious power flips the last week or so with the storms and we kept losing power for 1-2 seconds, sometimes 2-3 times an hour.

The display on the front of it said runtime was like 10 minutes, and it used to be close to 30. I think it won't be long now before it will die if I'm in a game when the power flips even for just a few seconds.

 

Just look at what 970s are still selling for.  I am sure that you recall them being about $325-$360 two years ago.  Back in the day, I picked up a GeForce 3 for about half its original selling price, only 10-12 months after that series was released.

 

Out of curiosity, what sort of lifespan are you getting out of UPS batteries?

[JediMaster 451]

Hmmm. I never thought about it. Let me check my Amazon/New Egg order history and see (since I always get my stuff from those two sources).

 

Looks like just over two years. I ordered this battery in May 2014. I ordered the previous one Jan 2012. I'd say I'm right on track to replace this one. It says expect 3-5 years life, but I've not seen that from this unit.

 

LOL, I just noticed I also bought my G27 wheel for $191 in Sep 2012. It's now going for $599 on Newegg (from 3rd party as it's out of production).

Actually, looking at the order history is like taking a trip down memory lane, seeing when I upgraded this or that...