Recently, I assembled a new computer for personal use. With a top-notch CPU and video card installed, and reasonably fast RAM, the hard disk is now the main bottleneck in the system. The 3TB seagate drive, running 7200rpm, is easily brought to 100% workload when stressing the system, and seems to be keeping other components back.
I'm looking to replace this hard disk with a better solution (SSD), but I have no idea how to best do this. I would like to use a PCIe device, due to their speed ratings, but read a lot about people having trouble booting from those. Is it, generally, possible to use a PCIe SSD as windows system drive?
I have 3 PCIe slots on my MB (x16/x8/x16). However, I also have a high end video card (Radeon HD 7990) running. Will the MB PCIe bus be able to handle both the video card AND SSD?
What would be the other problems I need to be aware of?
I visited Asrock's website for my board, but found no clues as to whether it allows PCIe booting.
Roundup of my system hardware
- ASRock X79 Extreme4-M motherboard socket 2011
- 3rd generation intel i7-3930k
- Radeon HD 7990 video card, 6GB GDDR-5 dual GPU
- Seagate ST3000DM001 3TB 7200rpm SATA-600 HDD
- 16GB Corsair vengeance RAM 1600MHz DDR-3
- 730W power source
The SSD I had my eye on is the OCZ Revodrive 3 X2. Unfortunately, I read one buyer review of someone who was unable to use it as boot device. If that is the card or his MB, I don't know.