SSD Vs. HDD

rangor gubbins · 17 Sep 2009 at 13:27

Hi,

could someone please direct me to some good reviews/benchmarks comparing SSDs to HDDs.
I'm trying to work out whether its really is worth upgrading to an SSD (and i get a feeling lots of you will tell it is). I don't really game anymore, but would like a snappier start up of OS and programs. Not yet convinced its really worth the extra cash though. They are rather steep.

Zarf · 17 Sep 2009 at 14:14

It's difficult, becasue a lot of it is about "snappyness" which is subjective and hard to measure. I upgraded and am very happy I did, most of my game load times have halved and Windows7 is usable in 15s from POST.
You get the most benefits if you multitask, It was quite liberating when I realised that I diddn't have to wait for my Installations or virus/ anti sypware scans to finish any more, I can carry on using my comp and don't even notice it going on in the background. Same with copying large files around, before I had to wait out the copy as trying to use any other programs or games would be painfully sluggish.

It's kinda like when I first upgraded to a dual core CPU, only even more profound.

It's other little things like opening folders with lots of pictures - it opens instantly and all the thumbnails generate instantly, whereas there was always a delay on my mechanical drive.

Best idea of overall performance I can give you are PCMark benches here - http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631&p=23

In terms you might be able to relate to, where a Velocirator gets 1000 more points than a 5400rpm laptop hdd, a SSD gets around 7000 more.

If you don't game any more, get a crucial 64GB drive, They are pretty inexpensive nowadays and should be big enough for windows+apps. Just save space by keep your media files on a mechanical drive.
I needed a bit more room for a few games and couldn't afford a 128GB drive, so I got the Intel 80GB.

rangor gubbins · 18 Sep 2009 at 11:29

cheers for the info and the link. (haven't read the link yet, as i'm at work on IE7 and for some reason that page keeps causing my browser to crash).
Getting the 64GB makes good sense for my purposes and i've also read the crucial is the one to go for at the moment.
I guess the page file being on the SSD will speed things up as well.

Stonedofmoo · 18 Sep 2009 at 12:36

If you can afford it and don't mind the limited space then get an SSD as they are simply better in every way other than capacity and cost.

But if you don't want to spend a lot you can get a top performing RAID 0 array using Samsung F3 drives for £80, and for nearly all purposes it will give you a LOT of performance.

My take on it