medium budget gaming drive? not - ssd

arturski

arturski

arturski

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31 Aug 2011
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Hello,

Hope someone can advise me on this.

At the moment I am running my pc on a 3 x 1TB Raid 5 setup because I use my pc for a lot of things and find it performs much better on this raid and I also like the security it gives me if a drive fails (happened before), however the problem comes in game performance. I don't get actual "in-game" issues however level loads and server lists etc take so much time that its starting to annoy me.

So I thought about migrating my OS drive to a single well performing HDD and just use the RAID for data and backups.

I dont really want to get an SSD because my budget isn't high, about £50-£70 and they still seem a little volatile for my liking.

I have also thought about a hybrid but they are also a little pricey.

So what I am looking for:

- 250GB - 500GB drive
- £50-£70 budget
- Good performance for games

My System:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail

Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard

Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXUKV2)

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black

2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX)

3x1TB Seagates in Raid5

2 x Nvidia 550Ti GFX in SLI
 
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Your RAID5 will likely be quicker on reads than a single mechanical HDD - the only reasonable performance increase will be for an SSD.

I would either stick with what you've got, or increase your budget and get an SSD.

You'll get quicker loading times in games, but most importantly, your whole computer experience will be so much better.
 
Confused said:
Your RAID5 will likely be quicker on reads than a single mechanical HDD - the only reasonable performance increase will be for an SSD.

I would either stick with what you've got, or increase your budget and get an SSD.

You'll get quicker loading times in games, but most importantly, your whole computer experience will be so much better.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this.

This isn't a dig, but if you were happy to spend money on SLi to improve your gaming, then i really wouldn't skimp on improving the overall performance of your system by buying a mechanical drive.
SSD's like any other tech is now much better than it used to be and much cheaper.
I've built rigs using all different makes and size of SSD's, some are garbage some are fantastic.
IMHO up your budget, do your research, make the right SSD purchase.
Serious big diff between that and an HDD, especially as a boot/app drive where reads speeds are the main concern.
 
The Samsung Pro series are really good. Built about 3 rigs with the 256gb models and they fly.
Still using a 120gb Vertex 3 in my work rig and it's been fantastic since day one, which was 2 years ago. Still got 100% life left according to SSDLifePro.
 
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