So I was talking to a buddy of mine and raving about the help I've gotten here, so I said I'd ask his question and see what the people thought.

He is looking at getting the same build that I have thrown together found here:

www.gamersnexus.net/forum/15-hardware-a-...10&start=10#7912

His question was regarding the SSD vs better vid card. For the price difference, the 140 bucks on the SSD could go towards a gtx570 without adding much of a cost (nvidia is the only option he prefers if upgrading the GPU). He is mostly a gamer like me and would play 1 if not more between WoW, SWTOR, D3 (if that ever comes ) and Skyrim. Does some light photography work on the side as well with Lightroom. Basically, we are wondering which would be of more benefit between the SSD and the gtx570 or keep the radeon 6870 and the 90 gb SSD. This kinda runs for me too as I am much the same sans the photography. Looking for thoughts/opinions on this one. I'm probably staying with what I have as I think the SSD seems like it will be very useful but my buddy is still up in the air. Thanks in advance.

I am not the most knowledgeable around here but in my opinion I would get a 570 over a SSD. In my opinion, a sata 6.0 HDD is fast enough compared to the difference between GPU and HDD performance. I think you see more out of a GPU upgrade over SSD. The prices of HDDs are high right now, so now would be the time to jump on a SSD. I will eventually get a SSD, but with the prices dropping like they are I feel if I wait a little longer they will be much more affordable. I just feel you notice the advantage of the GPU right now.

Hey there, Hybridwarhawk (I still think that's an awesome name).

If you're asking about completely removing an SSD in favor of a GTX 570, I would highly recommend that he goes with an SSD + 6870. If you're talking about downgrading the SSD and still getting a GTX 570, that could certainly work.

For things like Lightroom and photography, it'll be nice to have that SSD. Photoshop can be quite slow on spindle drives (especially with the way it handles scratch disk space). The performance gain from an SSD will be more than that of a slightly better GPU. The hard drive is always the bottleneck in gaming PCs

Let me know if I didn't adequately answer your question, I'm always happy to help

Thanks for the reply, I do like my name too After reading the article on ssd and gpus on the site, I think that it was decided to keep the SSD and 6870. Probably a good idea for me too since at some point I need to get my butt a nice camera and Lightroom as well. Thanks again, you guys rock.