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SSD Dilemma

Discussion in 'Techno-Magic' started by Splunge, May 7, 2011.

  1. Splunge

    Splunge Bhaal’s financial advisor Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    As some of you might know, I’m in the market to replace my 7 year old PC. I have most of it more or less decided upon (it will be Core i7-2500K, with either a Radeon 6870 or 6950 GPU). It will be used mainly for Internet and gaming, with some light MS Office use, and I plan to keep it for probably 5-6 years (maybe more). I’m generally a couple of years behind on games, and I enjoy the occasional FPS game.

    One of the things I’m inclined not to get is a SSD. It’s ~20X more expensive on a per-GB-basis than a 7200rpm SATA3 hard drive, and I’m not sure the cost is worth it (not to mention that I'm not sure how many GB's I'd need). My understanding is that the main benefit of a SSD is in reducing boot times and application load times, with little benefit within an application (mainly games for me). In the case of boot time, I don’t mind powering the PC up and then doing something else for a couple of minutes while everything loads, and for game launching, reducing the time it takes to load a game by a few seconds hardly seems worth the extra cost. So for me, it boils down to whether there would be any benefit in-game with regards to reducing transition times between areas or reloading previously saved games, or anything else I’m not considering.

    Comments?
     
  2. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    I'm sure there would be... saving and loading games (and maps, areas, etc.), definitely, if nothing else.

    The problem is, if you want to buy an SSD large enough to hold your OS + any potential games and apps you'll want to install, it'll have to be quite big considering the crazy large installation sizes of most games today. Many more complex apps and suites go over 1GB in no time as well.

    So I guess the real question is how many games and apps do you expect to have installed at the same time alongside the OS. That's the way to determine the SSD size you'd need. I'd start with 100GB minimum.
     
  3. Death Rabbit

    Death Rabbit Straight, no chaser Adored Veteran Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I went through this same song and dance with Ragusa a while back. IMO, a SSD simply isn't a good choice unless money is no object. Wait until the technology is a little further along. You can get a very fast terabyte drive now for around $80. Why would you spend 5 times that amount for 1/10th of the disc space only to save a few seconds every time you need to load?
     
  4. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Well, for many gamers money pretty much isn't an object when it comes to their gaming rigs. For the record, I'm not one of those gamers. I wouldn't buy an SSD now either simply because I can live without one until the prices become more reasonable for larger drive sizes. But the benefits of an SSD are undeniable. So it all boils down to whether you're willing to pay a few hundred bucks extra for the speed increase and bragging rights. It's not really much of a dilemma. If you're a penny pincher or a best deal seeker, SSD is out. If you're willing to pay extra, you'll get it.
     
  5. Ragusa

    Ragusa Eternal Halfling Paladin Veteran

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    I find, having used an SSD for a year plus, as my OS drive, that they are a worthwhile investment. I am not up to date with current models, but the loading times for the system generally have decreased substantially. Newer drives are most certainly even better. I load Open Office from double click to the full screen in less than two seconds. That's nice to have. Boot up time also is way shorter. I am a satisfied user. So satisfied that it itches me to get another one (I'm pondering a 120GB Intel 320 series).

    As an early adopter I had some firmware issues initially, but that's been fixed. The technology is mature by now.

    I use the Intel X-25M G.2 80GB. Rules is: The larger ones are faster. The newer ones even more so (there is G.3 out). As for drives of other brands, they are reportedly good as well. Mind you that there are some SATA 6GBit out by now and they are a world apart from conventional drives.

    So I disagree with DR. While the price/size ratio for new HDD is unmatched, and new HDD are pretty good and impressive things, size isn't everything. Speed matters too. I have an SSD for my OS and two HDD for storage and back-up.
     
  6. Taza

    Taza Weird Modmaker Veteran

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    Unless you can fit everything you need to load fast onto the SSD, a good RAID card and four regular hard drives in a RAID10 (or two in a RAID0 or RAID1) will provide speeds of roughly 2/3rds of what the SSD can do, for a fraction of the price per gigabyte.

    SSDs are fast, yes, but if you're willing to wait a few minutes when the system starts up, you've pretty much eliminated the edge of a system SSD, and the game performance increase only applies when the games are actually installed on the SSD - and with me having ~400gb of games, that just ain't happening - that's why I have a SpinPoint for a games drive instead.
     
  7. The Great Snook Gems: 31/31
    Latest gem: Rogue Stone


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    I agree with the name of this thread. It is a dilemma. I am not in the market for a new machine at the moment, but I find myself fascinated by the concept of SSD and fast boot times. I keep on waiting for the cost/storage ratio to improve and the actual size to increase. I think the largest SSD I've seen is a 200G. I think they need to hit 500G before I'd consider it (and god knows what that would cost).
     
  8. Ragusa

    Ragusa Eternal Halfling Paladin Veteran

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    Snook, you do get 1 TB ones, but they are still prohibitively costly. For my OS drive, the 80GB I have are almost a little too small. 120GB for the OS drive (I install my games on one of the larger HDDs, in an attempt to decouple loading and spread workload) should do, when you have secondary storage HDDs.
    Code:
                    
                             |------>  [640GB HDD Storage]
    [80 GB SSD OS Drive]  ---|
                             |------>  [640GB HDD Backup]
    Everything else goes to external HDDs.

    I have my Intel 9450 quadcore with 8GB, all in SATA 3GBit, and an SSD is the most sensible and actually the cheapest way to get that two year old box a quite noticeable performance boost.
     
  9. Chandos the Red

    Chandos the Red This Wheel's on Fire

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  10. Darion

    Darion Resident Dissident Veteran BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    But, an SSD can never top a HDD in terms of space...can it?
     
  11. Ragusa

    Ragusa Eternal Halfling Paladin Veteran

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    Of course it can. It's just too expensive atm. The largest mainline HDDs are 2TB currently. The OCZ Colossus is iirc a 2nd generation SSD and is available in 1TB already. It's just a question of time until they offer one in 2TB and until the prices go down.
     
  12. Chandos the Red

    Chandos the Red This Wheel's on Fire

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    Never say "never," especially when it comes to technology. ;) They are at 1TB atm.
     
  13. Taza

    Taza Weird Modmaker Veteran

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    They sell a fair amount of 3tb HDDs already.
     
  14. Merlanni

    Merlanni Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    As a SSD user, I must say that it just speeds everything up. It really give windows that kick in the ass forward.

    The silence of not having the blasted thing spin unless I want it to do something is golden. Startup is fast, shutdown is fast.

    I use a 60 gb ssd, ocz vertex. The drivers and the Os are on it, nothing more.

    Make tripple sure that no games are installed on it.

    linky: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ance,2880.html


    BTW 3 terabyte HDD are hard to install the OS on.
     
  15. Ragusa

    Ragusa Eternal Halfling Paladin Veteran

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    Taza,
    that is to indicate how much I am not entirely up to date atm :) Last time I looked, 2TB was as big as it got.
     
  16. Taza

    Taza Weird Modmaker Veteran

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    Yeah, I agree with the general point - the chances are pretty high SSDs will trump HDDs in every way ten years from now.
     
  17. Splunge

    Splunge Bhaal’s financial advisor Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Thanks for the feedback, everyone. You've pretty much confirmed what I thought were the benefits (and costs) of a SSD, and I think that, for me, the cost outweighs the benefit right now. Although I reserve the right to change my mind before I actually place the order for the PC. :)
     
  18. rg58 Gems: 5/31
    Latest gem: Andar


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    Hitachi has 6tb hdds available now





    Thanks for catching that darion!
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2011
  19. Darion

    Darion Resident Dissident Veteran BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    You surely mean TB, don't you?

    Oh, what's the HDD limit for win 7 and Co?
     
  20. Merlanni

    Merlanni Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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