SSD for Games

baron02 · 2 Mar 2010 at 19:08

I'm looking for to get a SSD for Installing some of my games that I tend to play the most like NFS Shift, Company of Heros etc.

However at the moment I do have a Intel x25-v 40gig drive as my OS which has around 18.1 gig free and I really dont want to install any games on this drive.

Before I go ahead and buy either of these

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-006-PA&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=910

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-007-KS&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=910

and lastly

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-004-IN&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=910

Would I see a benefit from having a SSD as a games drive or should I stick with my WD Caviar Black 640gb drive.

Regards

cmndr_andi · 2 Mar 2010 at 19:32

I'm pretty sure the only difference in games will be loading times and the time it takes to install the games.

Rroff · 2 Mar 2010 at 19:35

The Patriot has some issues - but they are cheap and v. good for loading just games from.

I have a 32gig one dedicated just to a couple of games (split partition and used filesystem links from the steam folder to the drive root) and its atleast 3x quicker loading games like Modern Warfare 2 than my mechanical RAID5 - and the RAID5 is not slow (multiple seagate 7200.12s with 500GB platter).

johnny sublime · 2 Mar 2010 at 21:30

intel x25 v value 40gb

is this a decent ssd and would it hold windows 7 home premium

baron02 · 2 Mar 2010 at 22:05

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium on my Intel x25-v and it is such a leap forward compared to a mechanical drive, Still getting used to the snapiness when opening Office 2010 etc.

With all my essential applications I'm using 18.4gb leaving me 18.4 free.

I think I will order a Patroit SSD and use that for my Games that I use the most, Unless advise otherwise.

Rroff · 2 Mar 2010 at 22:39

I would NOT use a patriot for an OS drive, the writes are slower and performance degrades faster than any other SSD.

For loading games/applications from tho with minimal writes it works a treat, much faster loading than a mechanical HDD and much smoother in games i.e. when entering a new area that has to swap in/out new textures or whatever its very smooth instead of a few little hitches.

DirtyJester · 2 Mar 2010 at 22:48

Ive found my Crucial 64gb had me into Bad Company 2 Beta fast ! I was dropping landmines on the enemy road before they had dropped in !

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 2 Mar 2010 at 23:07

I play WOW almost exclusively. I recently moved to a SSD and its noticeable how much faster everything loads in, WOW has millions of different texture combinations for player gear and in busy places with my raptor I would see shadows as it loaded all these different textures not the actual textures. With the SSD they are all there, instantly.

So for levels etc will be great, especially if its games that have massive files that will require random stuff to be read in.

baron02 · 3 Mar 2010 at 09:38

Arh.. Confused

So recap. Patroit is a poorly designed drive which will degrade over time. Will there be a firmware update for it ?

Is it ok to have a mixed SSD in your system ?

Bane · 3 Mar 2010 at 12:33

I'd like one, but with games like Napoleon: Total War taking up 21 GB I'd need a more substantal size than what's affordable.

Rroff · 3 Mar 2010 at 13:16

baron02 said:
Arh.. Confused So recap. Patroit is a poorly designed drive which will degrade over time. Will there be a firmware update for it ?

Is it ok to have a mixed SSD in your system ?

The patriot PS-100 ones have decent enough read speeds, but write speeds and write access times are very high, the current internal configuration also means that performance will degrade very quickly compared to other drives if written to frequently compounded by a lack of TRIM support. Supposedly theres a firmware update to fix this out in a week or so but no guarantees. They are good value for money tho at the current prices IMO if your using them for something that more read intensive than write - I have some of my games installed to the 32gig PS-100 and its very good for that.

Theres no problem mixing SSDs - tho if your using multiple ones in the same RAID configuration it would be a good idea to have matching ones.

baron02 · 3 Mar 2010 at 14:32

Just ordered the patroit ps-100 64gb drive as my games drive well the select few anyway.

Well drive been sent should be with me tommorow, However I do have a few concerns after reading the Patroit forum about these ps-100 drives.