Is it time to go ssd? (reluctantly)

413x

413x

413x

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Having quite possibly just lost my OS raid drive set up i am likely faced with a reinstall

Before i go ahead i was considering switching from RAID 0 velociraptors

I have a few options
I have 5 drives at present and no spare sata ports

1. Buy a new mobo at same time as ssd with more ports, and run os on ssd, games etc on raid velociraptors data on others
2. Buy an ssd and sell a velociraptor, leaves me with ssd for os, velociraptor for games, data on other
3. May be going to build a htpc soon so freeing up 2 drive spaces for ssd, same result as option 1
4. Just reinstall, no ssd

My mobo is only sata 2
I would need at least 128gb, either raid0 64gb or single 128,

I have a lot of startup programs and windows takes minutes to fully boot at last startup
 
Have been looking at the m4s, but being sata 2 is an ssd worth it? If so is 2x64s better than 1x128?
 
I think you already know that going x2 64GB is the answer, though i'm not upto speed about wether the intel raid trim has been released yet tho.
 
If it is in the pipe line i would probably get a pair of intels now.

I guess 2 small drives would be faster with sata 2, shame i dont have sata 3

Controller card will just add more expense, dont think i want to go down that route
 
even at sata 2 ssd's are still really really fast compaired to mechanical drives i have read on another forum that you will hardly notice the difference between s2 and s3 as its the random 4k read that occours most of the time and the diffence between s2 and s3 is negliable (not sure how reliable this is tho)
 
i have read on another forum that you will hardly notice the difference between s2 and s3
Click to expand...

It depends what you are doing tbh, that said my boot time has improoved going from sata2 to sata 3. Overall, I definatly see/feel the difference.
 
Ok so not really a worry over s2 or 3

The crucial m4 seems popular, but i have just been reading about the intel trim pending release, what drive is best to go for? Im looking at a pair or drives each holding 64-128 gb each.

Id like sata 3 speeds as i will be upgrading at some point when ivy comes out.
 
Would it be a wise idea to go for the intel 320 series? They are only sata 2 but i doubt i will go sata 3 for a while tbh, especially if 4k times are most important.

Ive seen these at pretty much 1£/GB for the 128 version, they do not seem popular however
 
Ive decided on a m4 128, will get another one later if i sell one of my velocirators, at £1 per gb exactly i thought id give it a whirl
 
Just want to put in my two cents here. I previously had a SATA-II 7200RPM drive, and upgraded today to a Crucial M4 128Gb drive.

I love it. It's totally worth it. I highly recommend it. It's got great speeds for loading, booting, shutting down, it's just a great drive.

Go with a solid backup storage drive such as a Spinpoint F3 or a Caviar Black, and you'll be golden.

Jack.
 
I know you've already said you're going with a single 128GB drive and I'd say this would probably be better than 2 x 64GB for another reason other than the TRIM issue.
That would be that if you're planning on changing motherboards in the future then you'd have to re-build your RAID array wouldn't you? Thus losing all of your data.
With 1 drive you may choose to do a re-install when you upgrade but you wouldn't be forced into it.
 
I tried numerous sata 2 and sata 3 SSDs on sata 2 and 3 boards. No difference in everyday use apart from benchmarks.

I now use a Intel G2 X25M for os and a M4 for games... If it was me a M4 128GB would get my vote as a os drive..
 
Pohly said:
even at sata 2 ssd's are still really really fast compaired to mechanical drives i have read on another forum that you will hardly notice the difference between s2 and s3 as its the random 4k read that occours most of the time and the diffence between s2 and s3 is negliable (not sure how reliable this is tho)
Click to expand...

can concur, i upgraded to sata 3 mobo which meant i had to upgrade cpu and ram too. difference was negligable.

virtually no noticable difference between sata 2 and 3.

with sata 3 my boot decreased from 60 seconds to 55 seconds[from sata 2], but is that worth £250? I dont think so.
 
Ok thanks guys, yes the m4 is on order, just seems so popular. Also good to ser the sata 2 3 thing is mainly benchmarks.

Looks like i made the right choice, think i will stick some of my games on the ssd and the rest on a velociraptor, sell the remaining velociraptor thereby not needing anymore sata ports
 
good to hear you will love it i got my ssd (corsair force 3) yesterday all install now only in ide mode (because ahci drivers dont seem to work stupid windows). and it is by far the best upgrade i have ever done on my pc it like its on steriods everything is instant!
 
One Of Us. One Of Us. One Of Us.

Depends on how much of a power user/ How patient you are, but if your currently annoyed at your PC taking minutes to start up you sound like an ideal candidate.

I have SSD's in every PC and Laptop I own, as well as my families laptops. I even spent my own money on a 30GB vertex for my PC at work. Using a PC with mechanical drives frustrates the hell out of me now.
 
ive put it off for a while but i think now is a good time to go for it.

My RAID VRs arent really cutting it at start up with all the processes i have.
 
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