Benefits of an SSD?

[Kenjiin]

When I build my rig last year I didn't budget for an SSD because, well... Why? They're expensive and small in capacity! That's what I thought at the time. Plus I wasn't on a huge budget.

Now I keep being told to buy one by my friend because apparently his system boots in lightning speed, but mine boots in 19 secs, and I've never found myself in a situation where I've found wanting for a quicker boot time lol.

Seriously though, they are becoming hard to ignore now and I'm looking to pick one up, install windows and commonly played games on it... But how will this effect my gameplay or user experience? Does it really just come down to system speed? Because I've never really considered my comp slow :/

 

[wazza300]

19 seconds

you must have hardly anything installed

all I can say is get one,it improves everything compared to a regular mechanical hdd

games,some not all load faster/maps ect, actual gameplay will be the same,programs/web pages and startup times vastly improve

 

[RJC]

Having used a SSD for a few years I would never go back to a mechanical drive for the operating system.

 

[UnworthyBean]

Speed.

I never really considered mine slow but thought I'd get one anyway. Bought a Samsung 840 EVO. Everything now loads practically instantly and my computer boots up before my monitors turn on even from a full shut down.

 

[TheBeardedYeti]

Superb boot up times, 10 seconds till everything is running. Even purchasing a 120GB just for the OS is highly recommended.

 

[andy_mk3]

Purely for speed.

Yes a fresh install might be quick on a mech drive, but it wont stay that way!

 

[demon8991]

SSD would be one of the first thing son my list for a new system.

They are one of the best improvements to PC's in the last decade.

Super fast boot times and program loading times just makes your system feel so snappy.

Unless you have kept your Windows install vanilla, I very much doubt your system boots up in 19 seconds.

My test is turn button on and time taken to open up internet explorer and view homepage as the becnhmark.

 

[Kenjiin]

Yeah maybe that 19 secs was a fresh install, because I just timed it now and it took 41 seconds to reach desktop lol.

I guess I'll have to picking one up soon. Really unsure on how to go about installing one though. What with installing Windows on it, what do you do with your original install of windows on the HDD? Get a bit nervous when I think about formating etc lol

 

[dholdi]

Personally, I would do a fresh install on a new ssd.

 

[photoshop]

Samsung 120Gb EVO here.

Boot time is 9 seconds.
Photoshop CS6.0 opens within 3 seconds (it was under 2 seconds before I installed NIK Collection plugins)
Shut down is 3 seconds.

I will be sticking to SSD for all future OS installs.

 

[demon8991]

Yeah maybe that 19 secs was a fresh install, because I just timed it now and it took 41 seconds to reach desktop lol.

I guess I'll have to picking one up soon. Really unsure on how to go about installing one though. What with installing Windows on it, what do you do with your original install of windows on the HDD? Get a bit nervous when I think about formating etc lol

Plug your new SSD in and install a fresh copy of Windows 7/8 64bit, copy over anything you want from your old Boot drive and backup the rest.

Then format old Boot drive and restore your documents and files from the backup and use as a storage device.

Then just direct you 'Documents' Folders (e.g Music, Videos, Pictures etc) to the mechanical drive so they are saved there.

 

[Trojan Horse]

You know after a while an Ssd stops 'feeling' fast because you forget hdd speeds..

Regardless you should still get one

 

[Steveocee]

Speed of SSD's is ridiculous.
I have a 256GB Samsung Pro for OS and my "important" programs (Office, Photoshop, Sony movie studio)
and then a 128GB Crucial M$ for my "important" games (BF4, DayZ, Arma 3, Verdun)

Load times are so quick with the SSD.

 

[ts316]

Get an SSD and you'll never look back. I'm slowly phasing out all of my mechanical drives...they seem so ancient in comparison.

 

[Ripshod]

I think you get the idea now.
SSDs are the most powerful upgrade you could ever imagine. Do it!!

 

[bledd]

SSD removes the biggest bottleneck in your system.

 

[setter]

After having owned a few ssd's now, going back to a mechanical drive is such a pain. When my ocz vertex 2e died, i had to use a standard drive to tide me over. It was like going back in time, got another ssd as quickly as possible. Also love the fact that theres no noise.

 

[Deleted member 76686]

You'll find that once you've used a SSD as the primary drive you won't go back, as many here have stated and that is all you need to know.

 

[jjwf]

As has already been said, get a ssd for your boot drive and you will never look back.

 

[bainbridge]

Hmm just purchased a WD black 1tb mechanical, I take it this will be slower than an ssd?