SSD HELP

Rambo2683 · 27 Sep 2009 at 15:18

Hi,
I'm looking at getting a SSD in the 64gb-80gb range to compliment my upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released.
Can anyone tell me what would be best when my PC is primarily used for gaming. The Intel x-25m g2 looks good, but I'm unsure how much the write speed will effect me. Once I have my games and apps installed will it become a non issue?
I'm willing to spend up to the price of the Intel, but not a penny more, so the higher disk space SSDs are out.

Are the cheaper 64gb SSDs worth the savings taking into consideration you are losing out on 16gb of space?

Thanks for any help.

95thrifles · 27 Sep 2009 at 15:45

Id go for the Intel, just went for the 160gig version myself, havent installed yet as am gonna wait til w7 is out proper rather than install RC1 now and reinstall in a few weeks. the intels are generally regarded as the best all round, and the new G2 is going to get TRIM in firmware update so all good

doggles · 27 Sep 2009 at 17:30

95thrifles said:
Id go for the Intel, just went for the 160gig version myself, havent installed yet as am gonna wait til w7 is out proper rather than install RC1 now and reinstall in a few weeks. the intels are generally regarded as the best all round, and the new G2 is going to get TRIM in firmware update so all good

Hi i don't really know anything atall about SS HD's

can you delete from them? i.e if i bought one today and installed vista on it, then got a copy of windows 7 when it's out then formatted and installed that onto it would it cause an issue with the SSD??

95thrifles · 27 Sep 2009 at 17:36

Hi, yeah you can delete, doing what you say isnt a problem, however theres other things you should be aware of, SSDs have a limited life span in that they can only be written to X number of times, however to be fair this number is massive and youre not likely to reach it, its kinda like worrying about your plasma TV burning out, aint gonna happen anytime soon and by the time it does the tech will be so old youll of probably replaced it several times over. Anyway the 2nd thing is block re-write penalty, when you delete things from a SSD, at resent, they dont actually delete they just mark it for deletion, so when you come to write over that sector, it then has to read the page file, see whats marked for deletion and whats valid, then rewrite the page file with the new data and any old data not marked for deletion. Its complex, lol
This is what TRIM addresses though
I suggest you head over to both anandtech and techreport and read their roundups on SSD, theyre very in depth but if you read through them all youll have a much greater understanding, and it is quite an investment

dr4g0nf1y · 27 Sep 2009 at 17:49

writing is only when you're installing something but when it's an ssd even the kingston would be faster than a standard RAID 0 setup. It's hardly ever that you'll write to it for games so the only real importance is down to read which I'd say the crucial 128GB is the best about for the speed (read/write) and price

doggles · 27 Sep 2009 at 17:57

excellent, thanks a lot.

So the general idea would be to use a ssd for the o/s and a game/s that you play a lot,

keep the rest of your jazz on a normal HD -

so you reckon best bet would be to wait for win7 rather then farting around installing vista then channging and also wait for this TRIM thing? would TRIM be somnthing which comes with new SSD's or could i install it on an existing one?

dr4g0nf1y · 27 Sep 2009 at 18:06

Trims not really something to worry about for now. it's being implemented into new SSD's and the process is included in win 7 itself. I won't bother with installing vista on it.

SSD's are quicker at reading and writing and are most noticeable in the startup times. Due to price it's preferred to be used for the os. For storage it's still spindle that's best as it's price to capacity is better.

for most it will contain os and most used programs

doggles · 27 Sep 2009 at 19:22

cheers.

Phunky Phish · 28 Sep 2009 at 16:14

I got a P128 on win7 RC (wanted to make sure all my old printer drivers worked etc) and I must say its awsome!
I have 2 drives in Raid 0 that I use for game installs and video editing, and have win7 and all other apps on the SSD. Only used 30gb so far!
I tried installing a game on the SSD and to be honest only noticed a small increase in load speeds, and I mean noticed! But the trade off against space used, especially with 1.2GB patch files loaded locally to the SSD it did use a lot of space.
I normally pla CoD5 and Company of Heros, but with Modern warfare 2 and Operation Flashpoint about to be released am happy all my games are going on the raid!