Jump to content

Solid state drives help


Tinker

Recommended Posts

Thumbs and toes right now over these.

Have been highly recommended the OCZ RevoDrive 120GB PCI-Express Internal Solid State Drive

However, I see that this 1 seems a touch cheaper and pretty much the same in performance: OCZ Vertex 3 Series SATA III 2.5-inch Solid State Drive 120GB

What is the overall advantage of have a pcie card over the hard drive? If there is 1.

Next issue:

We put all the main operating system and essential stuff on the SSD. To use the advantage of the SSD, we need to install any programs or games that really need the boost? I see 120GB filling up quick. Original plan was to do this and install a 500GB HD for other things. Is it worth intalling 2 of these SSD drives and the other drive? 1 for essential stuff, 1 for games that need this. The other for lesser intense games, programs.

So if I had a SSD with OS stuff, and all my games on another drive, it would be of no advantage? The SSD drive would only be able to read the other drive at the other drive speed?

:wacko:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have an Intel 160gb SATA drive and it's blazingly fast compared to a standard hard drive. You can drive yourself crazy looking for the fastest, bestest SSD out there, but at the end of the day any one of them is going to put your old hard drive to shame. Find something big and affordable. I would just make sure to get something with full TRIM support - most drives these days have that. 160gb is enough for my purposes - I don't tend to keep games installed unless I'm actively playing them. I have a server in the basement with a RAID array of regular HDDs that I use to store everything else. And I back up the SSD to that same server every night.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is the overall advantage of have a pcie card over the hard drive? If there is 1.

on paper, Speed

PCI express slot = 8 Gbit/s

SATA 3 = 6 Gbit/s

But in reality, current home PC hardware limitations mean other parts of your system will probably bottleneck you before the PCIe SSD can reach the full PCIE speed potential

for now most recommendations are to save the PCI express slot for graphics card that can and do make use if it

Next issue:

We put all the main operating system and essential stuff on the SSD. To use the advantage of the SSD, we need to install any programs or games that really need the boost? I see 120GB filling up quick. Original plan was to do this and install a 500GB HD for other things. Is it worth intalling 2 of these SSD drives and the other drive? 1 for essential stuff, 1 for games that need this. The other for lesser intense games, programs.

Windows 7 should only take up about 20 Gb, so on a 120Gb drive, will still have plenty of space for applications and half-dozen key games (if can afford it they do a 240 Gb SSD)

Sure, not everything needs to be installed on the SSD, can put some apps and lesser used stuff and data on the older mechanical drive

If you can afford 2x SSD's then yes that would be a way to go, with an old TB mechanical drive retained for slower file storage

all games will get some advantage from an SSD but not all games will make the best use of it

most older game will initially load up a few seconds faster but then once game is "in memory" will not make any great use of SSD, so could still live on an older mechanical drive

Whereas some newer games (EG Arma 2) will be constantly streaming data from the drive while you play

So if I had a SSD with OS stuff, and all my games on another drive, it would be of no advantage?

Not for the games, not really

Windows would boot up in seconds and run much faster though

you might get a tiny performance improvement where the system was reading the O/S from the SSD instead of also using the other drive, but not much

Really need to also put the handful of core games (particularly most recent released big titles) on the SSD too

The SSD drive would only be able to read the other drive at the other drive speed?
Yes, only files on the SSD would get a read/save advantage
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...