The SSD and you.

[The Desert Fox]

So I have decided that my next upgrade to my rig is going to be a Solid State Drive, I want some opinions/advice from people who already have em. I am a fairly tech savy guy( I work at best buy, gota be right? :D) but I am a littler nervous about jacking it up so a tutorial/tips would be nice. Also what brands/sizes to look at and such. I'l post the specs of my machine when I get home I just figured I would post this now. I am TRYING to stay under $160, but there is a legitimate size/performance increase for another 30-40 bucks it would be worth it. Thanks for yals help!

[Goku]

I for the crucial m4 128gb. If you want to spend more go with the Samsung 830 or intel 520. I doubt you will notice the difference between any of them. I tend to avoid OCZ but on sickdeals there was a vertex 3 for $110 after Mir that maybe worthWhile if it's available still.

[The Desert Fox]

Ya right now OCZ has an agility 3 120G for $99 after MIR and thats a pretty solid deal. Just want to know if I would see a substantial increase in performance with a different brand.

[Goku]

I wouldn't recommend an Agility, Vertex possibly given that price. I would still go for the Crucial M4 unless you want to save some money.

[The Desert Fox]

On newegg there is a crucial m4 for 159 and one for 147, they look the same, whats the difference?

[CyclesMcHurtz]

There are a few new SSD drives that are being advertised as accelerators - which is a great idea, since it give you a big boost (over time, they're adaptive) without suffering storage size problems. I found them on the website below, and I'm not endorsing any of them - I'm looking at them all myself for my next upgrade.

http://www.storagereview.com/crucial_adrenaline_caching_ssd_review
http://www.storagereview.com/ocz_synapse_cache_ssd_review
http://www.storagereview.com/corsair_accelerator_series_caching_ssd_review

This looks better than the older hybrid drive system because you can actually add this to an existing system!

[Goku]

On newegg there is a crucial m4 for 159 e and one for 147, they look the same, whats the difference?

The regular version is fine for $147, other one has a transfer kit I think.

There are a few new SSD drives that are being advertised as accelerators - which is a great idea, since it give you a big boost (over time, they're adaptive) without suffering storage size problems. I found them on the website below, and I'm not endorsing any of them - I'm looking at them all myself for my next upgrade.

http://www.storagereview.com/crucial_adrenaline_caching_ssd_review
http://www.storagereview.com/ocz_synapse_cache_ssd_review
http://www.storagereview.com/corsair_accelerator_series_caching_ssd_review

This looks better than the older hybrid drive system because you can actually add this to an existing system!

This is similar to Intel's SRT system. Interesting technology, but most people I have seen aren't hugely impressed by it. I haven't used it myself, but I think a regular SSD with a OS installed on it with a 1TB HDD for storage is the way to go.

[SurgeonX]

I bought my RevoDrive a couple of years ago now and it is without doubt the best purchase I've made for years.
Win 7 loads fast, but for games it is an absolute Godsend.

I've got the SSD as a primary boot for Windows and all my games.
Then a couple of SATA drives and external USB drives for everything else.
This ensure that you aren't constantly clogging the drive with stuff that you save and delete all the time.

I was a bit nervous too, but it is really no different from doing a fresh install of Windows on any other drive.
There's just a few extra settings to go through pre-install, and once it is setup, to make sure the SSD is sorted, and protected as much as possible.

This isn't the exact one I used, but it contains everything you need:

The SSD Optimisation Guide

http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/

[kaffis]

This is similar to Intel's SRT system. Interesting technology, but most people I have seen aren't hugely impressed by it. I haven't used it myself, but I think a regular SSD with a OS installed on it with a 1TB HDD for storage is the way to go.
I'm pretty pleased with my SRT rig. It's a compromise between performance and maintenance.

I'll take a modest hit to the performance increase if it means I don't have to micromanage what I install to where.

And given that I typically play multiple games in cycles, trying to keep the system drive's used space under control would be a lot of micromanagement. With SRT (or a similar system), it'll dynamically adjust what it's relocated to the cached drive to keep up with my play cycles.

[Goku]

Well there you go. Thanks for the feedback. Just depends on what you are looking for.

[TerminatorUK]

I bought a Crucial M4 512GB recently and it was an awesome purchase - my whole system feels far more responsive and a pleasure to use.

I've only got a LGA1156 motherboard that supports SATA2 only but it already has made a big difference even limited to approximately half speed.

I'll look forward to seeing another leap in performance when I switch to an Ivy Bridge platform that supports SATA3.

[Dudster]

I don't know why people are so afraid of these things. Here's mine i have windows XP home 32 bit on it and use it exclusively for Planetside. No anti-virus no extra programs (okay a few other games) but i never hop onto IE or Mozilla with it and Planetside blazes, atleast compared to Windows 7.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z268/Gyshikii/IMG_20120410_170947.jpg

[The Desert Fox]

okay so if I go with the M4, what else do I need to buy, and how do I install it lol

[duomaxwl]

I bought 2 M4's last time they were on sale. I honestly think it's the best thing I could have done for my computer. Just makes the day to day use much more pleasant, and games load up pretty damn fast. Couldn't recommend them more.

[MonsterBone]

I got a fast 128 Gig Crucial SSD SATA drive for C and for D I have a 1 TB normal hard drive. I install everything to D except things I want to run fast.

For instance I learned how to mklink /J "D:\Steam\steamapps\common\call of duty black ops" "C:\call of duty black ops" certain files from D to C.

Mklinking is funny. It makes the OPERATING SYSTEM think a file is on D drive when its really on C drive.

The link above makes my COD kick fucking ass. With my black ops on SSD I load my maps in a second and enter the map first every time.

However, Windows performs better on a SSD and reboot time on my machine is a flat 7 seconds.

So yes do it!

And by the way you ought to be a Devil Dog!

[kaffis]

Well there you go. Thanks for the feedback. Just depends on what you are looking for.
Yup, that definitely should be the takeaway message. :)

[duomaxwl]

For instance I learned how to mklink /J "D:Steamsteamappscommoncall of duty black ops" "C:call of duty black ops" certain files from D to C.


There's a program called SteamTool that does that for you. Not that mklinking is hard, it just helps those more inclined to be lazy (like me) and makes a decent GUI out of it.

[Nick]

SSDs are one of the biggest hardware upgrades in the modern days for gaming. Yes, it makes that much of a difference.

[Baneblade]

Not to divert the topic, but has anyone tried RAID configurations with SSDs? Do they perform significantly faster? Are SSDs more reliable than HDDs?

[Rbstr]

I don't know why anyone would be afraid, but I don't want or need one.
Current SSDs mean one thing to me: Extra work for extreme benefit in 1% of total time spent on a computer.

In general usage, I seen negligible benefit:
I don't start up/shut down my system more than a couple times a week at most, encompassing, perhaps 5 minutes of total time out of several dozen hours of operation.
The browser is always open...Even if it's not Chrome takes, perhaps, a second to load.
Video players (and this actually goes hand-in-hand with some gaming issues, below), Office programs, little utilities, whatever, all of those load times are negligible.
It doesn't help frame rates. So I get shorter load times but that is, again, a negligible part of the experience already.

What I really gain with an SSD is a whole host of annoyance:
Instead of just stuffing low use/archival/large stuff on the secondary or external drive, I've got to actively manage what's installed on the primary "fast" drive or see no benefit what so ever.
With a 120gb some SSD, I could have, maybe, 5-6 modern 10-20gb (and they're only getting larger) games when you include all the space a system needs. That means I've got to move shit around all the time.

Or I could stick with a drive that's an order of magnitude larger and not deal with any of it outside of full-system upgrade time scales.

Now this isn't to say I discount them outright. I'd love one in a notebook and if I could get the same size for 2x or even 3x the cost of a spinner I'd go for it. But right now it's added cost and hassle for marginal benefit.

[Goku]

Rbstr I don't agree with that at all. I almost cannot stand even using my secondary computer that doesn't have a SSD. It just feels that much faster having one in your computer. Have you even tried one yet? I wasn't ever expecting to notice the difference that much.

My lowly netbook with a AMD E-350 got a huge breath of life into with the upgrade to a SSD. Its so much faster and smoother now its ridiculous. It had a WD Black 320GB Scorpio in it previously and that isn't a slow laptop hdd either.

[Natir]

For myself, I love my SSD. I have my OS and my primary games/programs on it. Everything else is on my secondary. And any game that does not need the extra speed, I just stick on the other drive, like some RTS games, single player, etc. Look to Youtube for some raid SSD info. They have a few good videos.

[Rbstr]

Rbstr I don't agree with that at all. I almost cannot stand even using my secondary computer that doesn't have a SSD. It just feels that much faster having one in your computer. Have you even tried one yet? I wasn't ever expecting to notice the difference that much.

My lowly netbook with a AMD E-350 got a huge breath of life into with the upgrade to a SSD. Its so much faster and smoother now its ridiculous. It had a WD Black 320GB Scorpio in it previously and that isn't a slow laptop hdd either.

It is better, but it's not night and day in the least. In my eyes, the SSD suffers from "good enough" syndrome plus added annoyance. If there is one thing I'm not going to do, that's add annoyance to something that serves me very well already.

It's like...DVD vs Blu-ray. The difference is fairly large, but DVDs are pretty damn ok already. People aren't that excited about them. Only to complete the analogy, the blu-ray now has to be rewound or you've got to swap disks in the middle of a movie.

Give me $150 to add to the cost of my computer and I'll upgrade basically anything else before I step up to the SSD.

[Goku]

Like I said have you used one before?

This annoyance you speak of doesn't even effect me. I only put the main games I play on my 120GB. It still isn't even close to full.

[CyclesMcHurtz]

Not to divert the topic, but has anyone tried RAID configurations with SSDs? Do they perform significantly faster? Are SSDs more reliable than HDDs?

Suddenly, I'm reminded of what R.A.I.D. actually stands for ...

[Saieno]

Suddenly, I'm reminded of what R.A.I.D. actually stands for ...

I think thats why they changed it haha. I believe you're referring to Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, which was then changed to Redundant Array of Independent Disks. Still, I completely agree with ya on your unstated sentiment haha.

[Baneblade]

Suddenly, I'm reminded of what R.A.I.D. actually stands for ...

smartass ;)

[Hermes]

The speed is addictive. I acquired a work laptop with a replaced ssd. It's got around 230gigs usable, can't remember the read/write speeds I was getting the other day when i checked but it's fun times.

It blue screens in the most horrific way from time to time, but after an initial rage + cold sweat I still haven't motivated myself to change it. Because it's amusingly fast.


In fact I bought one for my new desktop.

EDIT: 400MB/sec Which is pretty useful.

[duomaxwl]

Not to divert the topic, but has anyone tried RAID configurations with SSDs? Do they perform significantly faster? Are SSDs more reliable than HDDs?

If you're referring to RAID0, than yes, I tried it when I got the M4's. The benchmarks were doubled, but I didn't notice a difference in load times. Plus, as of right now, most SSD's can't take advantage of TRIM when in RAID0, so it's kind of pointless. I un-zero'd them, and haven't looked back.



It blue screens in the most horrific way from time to time, but after an initial rage + cold sweat I still haven't motivated myself to change it


What kind do you have? I have yet to have any issues whatsoever with the M4s with the exception of Windows 7 not wanting to detect them for an install at first.

[Baneblade]

If you're referring to RAID0, than yes, I tried it when I got the M4's. The benchmarks were doubled, but I didn't notice a difference in load times. Plus, as of right now, most SSD's can't take advantage of TRIM when in RAID0, so it's kind of pointless. I un-zero'd them, and haven't looked back.

That jives with what I've been reading about it. Thanks.

[Rbstr]

Like I said have you used one before?
I have. I guess I'm just a lot more patient than the rest of you, but I don't find these to be a good benefit-per-dollar proposition in a desktop.

Honestly I hadn't really read up on the cache drives yet, though. It eliminates my primary issue, which is the lack of a large volume.
Sounds like a prime candidate for when win8 comes out and I go to a fresh disk. $300 for 2tb with lots of the performance of a $150 128gb SSD?

[The Desert Fox]

Okay what about a SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25? it's on sale for $120 but the sale ends today.

[Goku]

You could give this a shot http://slickdeals.net/f/4196360-128-GB-Crucial-m4-SSD-DRIVE-W-DATA-TRNSFR-KIT-For-120-TAX-or-less

I just tend to avoid SF based SSDs due to the numerous issues that have been on going ever, since their release.

[Rbstr]

OK, I got bit by the bug. I'm going to get the crucial caching drive (it helped that I still had a good bit of Amazon gift$ sitting around).

Should be here Saturday. I'll post impressions.

[Goku]

Let us know how it goes. What size you get?

[Rbstr]

It only comes in 50gb

[Vancha]

So there seems to be two reviews for it that popped up today. Is it a new release?

Apparently it takes a while for the speed to kick in, as it learns which programs to "speed up". It sounds like a pretty nifty piece of kit...perhaps not as fast as a dedicated SSD, but it certainly sounds like the difference should be more than noticeable (at least once things get going, anyway).

[Baneblade]

So its basically a ReadyBoost drive?

[Rbstr]

Yeah, to some extent. All of these seem to use NVELO's Dataplex software. And yes, it's a fairly new release.

I think the best part is that it's continually learning. So as I cycle through games, it'll keep cycling what it's caching.

I wonder if I can keep it from caching my music, which really has no reason to be accelerated.

[Goku]

I wouldn't be shocked that it knows to avoid caching that sort of stuff tbh.

[Rbstr]

Well. It's installed. Pretty easy, hook it up turn it on, download the software, install. Dataplex runs completely in the background with no indication it's running at all, unless you go into the start menu and run "Dataplex status" which is just a command line thingy. There are no configuration options.
That's my kind of utility software. No bullshit, just does what it's supposed to.
There's a new process running "NVELO Desktop notification utility" not quite sure what that does, takes 1.3mb of memory, no biggy.

For now, all it's done is slow things down...when it boots, pre-windows startup, my computer is having to think about something with the infamous blinking "_". Probably just need to make sure it's pointed at the right drive. It did this after the disk install but before the software install, so I'm pretty sure it's my problem not the drive/technology's.

Going to reboot a couple times to get it cached and see how much time I save.

EDIT:
Ok, so going from "Windows Starting" to fully usable computer takes under 30secs now (after only one restart past the one that you do after the install". A portion of that is typing in my password. A substantial improvement. But the whole boot takes 1:30+ now. Which saves some time, but that blinking "_" is really ruining things. I tried rearranging the boot priority but that doesn't seem to fix it. Need to fiddle some now.

[Goku]

Have you noticed any major differences yet?

[Rbstr]

Yeah, there are differences. Once I open something up a couple of times loading speeds are way down in many cases. But, if the program doesn't use a lot of data multiple times you don't see benefit.
Media Player Classic boots up like it always does, because the bottleneck is from the video file which isn't going to be cached.
BF3 always loads faster but maps you haven't played will be noticeably slower than the others.
My monster set of firefox tabs comes up much faster after a reboot - from password to usable computer is incredibly quick. But, like I've said, I don't reboot much.

I'm pretty happy with it and it works as expected. But, I still stand by my original position. It's an amazing bit of hardware in 1% of computer usage time. I still wouldn't want a full SSD. At the $100 I spent a 64gb drive would be way too little space and just make me annoyed. To get the space I'd want/need I'd be spending too much. I'd say the point where I'd make the jump to full SSD is about 1tb for $200. As it stands, this cache + >1tb of a spinner is ~$250 (or better, WD green or those 5900rpm Seagates make a much more attractive case when paired with a cache drive IMO) .
I would put a 128, or even 64 in my work laptop that doesn't need big volumes of storage.

[Goku]

Glad it's working at least. I don't plan on getting another til at least 500gbs for 200ish. My current setup pulls around that so it will be plenty for me.

[Tuomio]

I had XP 32 and HDD, went to Win7 64 and 128gb SSD, difference is huge! Also i am now able to do RAM upgrade (4->8gb) to get rid of the swapping for good.

It mostly impacts the responsiveness of application use and load times. No other component you can buy off the shelf that has as great impact on those. It might also get rid of any texture loading times you might experience during gaming.

Its nothing you cannot live without, but if you can afford the extra 150-200$ go for it. There are certain issues if you plan on using XP with SSD, Win7 is much better prepped for it, going from 32-bit to 64-bit helped to open my wallet for that.

[The Desert Fox]

Thanks to everyone for the opinions and help! I ended up using the money to get my gf a nook tablet for our anniversery lol

[Goku]

Lame! Who does that? ;)

I hope she makes use of it. I got my mother one last year and she never touches the damn thing.

[MBRicochet]

Crucial M4 128gb. At first I nearly laughed my self off my chair when I saw the prices on SSDs. Now that I have one I feel justified in my purchase.

Nothing like loading a map and being all "Ok, lets hit objective A, I'll grab this tank hop in!" and your buddies going "WAIT WAIT WAIT!!! WE AREN'T IN YET! WAIT!"

[The Desert Fox]

I lied, I traded that thing in for a kindle fire and she absolutely LOVES IT. Honestly I am a little jealous lol. It was especially good because her laptop just broked.

[CrystalViolet]

Well, after one of my 7 year old raptors failed last night and borked my raid partition, I decided to go ahead and take the plunge. Went with a 60GB crucial m4 (thanks for not including screws in the box guys), and I'm quite impressed with how snappy this thing is. Easy install, and I was kind of surprised that these things are lighter weight than the box they come in.