SSD choice dilemma

para08

para08

para08

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Joined
1 Aug 2008
Posts
211
Hello people,

So as per title, I have a bit of a problem choosing a new SSD.

At the moment i've got 80GB intel x-25m (around 6 months old) that i'm using for windows 7 and some apps, this has around 30 GB taken(50 free). All my games are on Samsung F1's raid0.

I'm going to be upgrading my system and what i'd like to have is all my games on a SSD also.

Now here's the problem.. my games currently take up around 65GB on normal HD's, and i'd need a little extra room for a couple of new games. So there's no chance of me fitting those on the spare 50GB space on the Intel SSD. But at the same time I don't want to waste the space.

So my first thought was i'll have to get another Intel x-25m to bring total space to 120GB. Enough for OS and games. Also this could be raid0 for more gain.

However i've just looked at the great OCZ vertex 60GB and that has a much better spec than the intel and nice price right now. but 60GB isn't enough, and I can't raid the intel and OCZ.

So i'm hoping you guys can help me sort this out. What do you think would be the best combo?

So far this is what i've come up with:

1)

80GB intel SSD: windows
other??? SSD: games

2)

60GB OCZ vertex SSD: windows
80GB Intel SSD: games

the problem i see with this is the windows drive will be faster than the games

3)

80GB intel SSD: windows
80GB OCZ vertex SSD: games

Wasted space on Intel :(

4)

x2 80GB intel SSD raid 0: windows/games.

easiest setup but slower than OCZ's still and correct me if i'm wrong, you lose TRIM in RAID?. Though I don't know if this matters?

5)

Lose the Intel on Ebay and get 2 80GB OCZ vertex SSD's in raid0. OR a single 120GB vertex



As you can see I haven't got very far :o ,so it would be great if you could help point me in the right direction. Please helpp :D
 
Last edited:
x2 80GB intel SSD raid 0: windows/games.

easiest setup but slower than OCZ's still and correct me if i'm wrong, you lose TRIM in RAID?. Though I don't know if this matters?
Click to expand...

This is my setup, works well for me.
Even without TRIM, RAID0 is much faster than single drives. Plus having a single storage pool makes things much simpler.

Vertex speeds are heavily dependant on compression, most game files are already as compressed as they'll get, in which case performance is actually worse than an Intel or C300's brute force approach.
Not that this really matters, in practice it'd be next to impossible to tell the difference between any of the current generation of SSD's. Even my RAID0 array which technically decimates any single drive you care to name doesn't feel significantly different to use. It shaves a few seconds off long game loads, but for the most part even a single SSD has removed any IO bottlenecks you're likely to encounter.
 
thanks for the reply, your post was very useful.

If i did decide to go for another 80gb intel would it matter that my current one is around half a year old? i mean have they been improved or anything?.

I just noticed in intel ssd toolbox my drive ends in G2GC where as OCUK's end's in G2R5. Would this affect anything?
 
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