Real SSD Benefit

Kosmiche

Kosmiche

Kosmiche

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I was just wondering, I'm beginning to feel the pinch for a upgrade and was thinking a SSD for a windows install and some games would speed up the "feel" of my system.

Which is a...3ghz q6600, 4gb ddr2, amd 6870

I was just wondering, is there a site I can look at that will give me a approximate of the boost a SSD drive will give me?

I upgraded from a 4870 to this 6870 and tbh its not quite the world of difference I was expecting. Its a nice step up, but I don't think its a huge leap in performance.

So...I'm now thinking of adding a ssd which will speed up windows boot, speed up game loading and generally perk up the feel of using my pc on a day to day basis.

But...I don't know what to expect. I can look at comparisons on review sites but they use high end cpu's...my rig is a bit ageing in that area.

What kind of speed increase can I sensibly expect to achieve? I'd be putting my windows 7 install on it, BF3 and other games I play a lot.

Thanks.
 
An SSD is IMO the best upgrade you can make to your PC for day to day use, boot times will be greatly reduced (likely about 30sec from on to usage), programs will open near instantly. As for games, you won't see performance boosts as such but level load times etc will be improved.

I say do it, wouldnt think of building a rig these days without.

Hawker
 
I haven't noticed a reduction in boot time going from a raptor with 8Gb Readyboost in IDE mode to SSD in ACHI mode. The startup sequence takes just as long as the Windows loading animation. ACHI seems take take longer than IDE to detect drives.

The main advantage I've noticed is it's so much quieter. The raptor was very loud and could be heard downstairs rattling away.
 
I've found the biggest bottleneck after you've installed an SSD is your Antivirus, especially when programs you launch have to process lots of DLL or EXE files. For example, DirectX installation can be very slow (especially when STEAM insists on installing it for every damn game). Try running GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program with and without your Antivirus active. You'll also find it slows graphics driver installation down by a huge amount, not to mention the loading of Windows (after the boot screen).
 
I was similarly sceptical about the benefits of an SSD. The extra speed and smoothness of everything you do within Windows just blew me away though. You don't realise the amount of time your PC spends waiting for the HDD to catch up :)
 
It's painful using a computer that is using a HDD as its OS drive now.

My Force 3 is so quick at doing the tasks I do that anything but another SSD just feels like I've booted up a Pentium 4 PC and it's not even the CPU that's changed.
 
I bought a Force GT last week - best thing I've done for a while. Everything is pretty much instant now, and I can't wait for prices to come down a little bit so I can get a larger one for games.

As far as I know, there's not really any sites that tell you about the benefits as such - the fact is that this is modern technology and feels like it.
 
Boot times to windows are greatly reduced, many applications load near instantly, installing applications and patches is much faster, and generally browsing around windows is also much snappier. Games benefit too, and I'm not just talking about level load times, but often minimum fps as well. Many games stream data from the hard drive as you're playing, textures, general terrain detail, etc. So having an SSD there speeds this process up and eliminates any stuttering you might see.

It also helps eliminate the issue of HDD intensive background processes interfering with games. I had a scheduled AV scan run on my machine recently while I was playing a game, and I didn't even notice it was running until I saw a "scan complete" message pop up. Its a great upgrade.
 
Had my Vertex 2E since Sep 2010. Love it - made my PC feel how it should. Fast!. Access times and 4k speeds are what helps most.
 
Damn you i hate reading your sig now !! :)

It really is the best upgrade i have ever made in 15 years of building PCs
The difference is night and day.
15 seconds to load to a usable windows 7 desktop - My email client software loads faster than my NIC connecting.

BF3 if you are into Flying Jets you can practically almost guarantee spawning into one to put it in "real world" terms. ( experiences may vary and is not 100% accurate)

im looking to get a 120gb one now
 
Eames said:
I was just wondering, I'm beginning to feel the pinch for a upgrade and was thinking a SSD for a windows install and some games would speed up the "feel" of my system.

Which is a...3ghz q6600, 4gb ddr2, amd 6870

I was just wondering, is there a site I can look at that will give me a approximate of the boost a SSD drive will give me?

I upgraded from a 4870 to this 6870 and tbh its not quite the world of difference I was expecting. Its a nice step up, but I don't think its a huge leap in performance.

So...I'm now thinking of adding a ssd which will speed up windows boot, speed up game loading and generally perk up the feel of using my pc on a day to day basis.

But...I don't know what to expect. I can look at comparisons on review sites but they use high end cpu's...my rig is a bit ageing in that area.

What kind of speed increase can I sensibly expect to achieve? I'd be putting my windows 7 install on it, BF3 and other games I play a lot.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

lots of posts about weather to get a ssd or not - I think if you spend a little $ on your system a ssd would be wise ...

Ive been slowly upgrading my comp over the past year and the SSD was a recent addition (5-6 months now). And ya Im glad I did it - did I need it? no ... but Im a computer nut like most here so ya ...

Im wondering what some of these hybrid drives will be like in the future but who knows. As of right now a decent SSD will give you a nice boost and increase some productivity :)
 
I'm currently in the same dilemma. Upgrade my Phenom 2 which runs at 4.1ghz to an i5 2500k or buy a 256gb SSD. Prices are around the same for either upgrade it's just knowing what will have the best and most longing effect. Trying to tell myself to buy the SSD now and wait till ivy bridge comes out before moving to Intel.
 
Ive just ordered a Crucial M4. I currently have a Velociraptor 150gb which boots up in 25-30 seconds from pressing the power button

I have SATA2 not 3 so SSD will be a bit slower but I will see how it goes
 
Guest2 said:
Ive just ordered a Crucial M4. I currently have a Velociraptor 150gb which boots up in 25-30 seconds from pressing the power button

I have SATA2 not 3 so SSD will be a bit slower but I will see how it goes
Click to expand...

I've seen benchmarks of real world tests between SSD's on sata 3 vs 2 and there is little to no difference. In benchmarks sata 3 mainly helps sequential reads.
 
Spenty said:
I've seen benchmarks of real world tests between SSD's on sata 3 vs 2 and there is little to no difference. In benchmarks sata 3 mainly helps sequential reads.
Click to expand...

So read speed wouldnt be that much better than I have now?

I cancelled my order anyway (had problems with my card then had a re-think)
 
Guest2 said:
So read speed wouldnt be that much better than I have now?

I cancelled my order anyway (had problems with my card then had a re-think)
Click to expand...

No, the speeds will be much better than your HDD. I'm saying the difference between SATA 2 AND 3 for real world SSD performance is minimal.
 
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