I was like “wtf is this idiot talking about” and then I read the quote
:doh:
It looks like the Vertex 3’s are already available, but are notably more expensive than the Vertex 2’s…
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706&cm_re=vertex_3--20-227-706--Product
50% more, and youre not going to get 50% faster performance with only a SATA II interface.
Its all up to how much you’re willing to spend. I would lean towards getting at the very least a new processor in addition to this, given your current processor isnt anything amazing. But if you really want to spend some money, you could just build a new system that has a SATA III interface.
Vertex 3:
Max Read: up to 550MB/s
Max Write: up to 500MB/s
Random Write 4KB (Aligned): 60,000 IOPS
Vertex 2:
Max Read: up to 285MB/s
Max Write: up to 275MB/s
Random Write 4KB (Aligned): 50,000 IOPS
You would get 20% faster random IO performance on any SATA interface, which is the most important number. But 285->550MB/s makes ONE Vertex 3 about as fast as TWO Vertex 2’s in RAID, without worry of the controller degrading IO performance and associated reliability issues.
That seems to be what I was finding when I poked around. I think I’ll just buy a current gen intel/corsair/ocsz in ~90GB size. I found the highest end processor upgrade my mobo would support for half of what newegg is selling it for at microcenter, and grabbed some ram. Should be fine for now. When I feel a bit more compelled to build another computer, I’ll get a larger SIII for the desktop and just move this unit to the HTPC (which I’d really appreciate a quicker boot on).
Thanks for the info.