thinking about upgrading to SSD

nicnac1 · 12 Aug 2009 at 12:47

friend of mine was raving about SSDs yesterday!
will i see an improvement in games/ general usage over my hitachi 7600rpm drive?
also, this may seem like a daft question but how would i swap all my programs and OS to the new drive?
Thanks

erolz · 12 Aug 2009 at 13:05

nicnac1 said:
will i see an improvement in games/ general usage over my hitachi 7600rpm drive?

Yes you will see an improvment, but as to if it is worth the cost thats a different matter. Anyway to give you a small idea going from a raid 0 velociraptors to raid 0 intel ssds on a game like empire total war, start time to load the game went from around 19 seconds to around 12 seconds. Continuing campaign from around 20 seconds to 14 seconds.

However every game is different. On some games the benefit will be less and on others possibly more.

nicnac1 said:
also, this may seem like a daft question but how would i swap all my programs and OS to the new drive?
Thanks

In simple terms you use disk cloning software of some kind. However SSDs are an emerging technology and there can be issues with cloning your old drive to a new ssd depending on how you do it. Do it one way (like say with acronis ptrue image software) and it will work but it will do it in a manner that does not give you the best potential from the ssd.

nicnac1 · 12 Aug 2009 at 13:20

Sounds like an awesome piece of kit

erolz said:
Yes you will see an improvment, but as to if it is worth the cost thats a different matter.

would it be worth me waiting until the prices have come down/compatability is sorted out?

Paul11 · 12 Aug 2009 at 13:23

tis suggested that if you move to an SSD that you do a fresh install

windows 7 is perfect for SSD's and if i were you i would get one in time to load a fresh new copy of win7 on it.

erolz · 12 Aug 2009 at 13:25

nicnac1 said:
would it be worth me waiting until the prices have come down/compatability is sorted out?

I really can not answer that for you. Certainly the prices will come down and most of the lingering 'new tech' issues will disapear as well over time. As to when is the right time to make the move only you can really say.