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SSD Dilemma

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

Page 2 of 2
  1. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder 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!)

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    Blackthorne TA, May 11, 2011
    #21
  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 spotted a discussion on SSDs over at RPGWatch which is pretty interesting... since I intend to replace my system in the near future I'm somewhat torn on SSDs still... larger sizes continue to be prohibitively expensive and I definitely don't want to have the stuff I'd normally have on C: split over more than one drive because I'd run out of space (this has happened to me now and it's highly annoying). So a 160GB drive would be the absolute minimum for me. The cheapest one I can find here is an 160GB Intel 320 at €275. And that's outdated SSD tech at this point - reliable, but much slower than the new generation. I'm still considering it as a long-term investment though, despite the crazy price.

    Common sense says WAIT, however... I expect I'd get an SSD double that size for the same price in a year's time. The problem is, as I'd want this as my primary drive I'd have to reinstall the OS and everything else all over again which I absolutely hate as it takes forever to reinstall everything all over and set up all the programs again. And I'm pretty certain that I wouldn't want to do it again in a year's time. Damn...
     
    Taluntain, Jul 5, 2011
    #22
  3. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder 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!)

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    Get an SSD with 64GB or less, a Z68 chipset MB, and then use Smart Response Technology (SRT) to have the larger regular HDD cached to the SSD (as the link I posted two posts above described).
     
    Blackthorne TA, Jul 6, 2011
    #23
  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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    I come to the same issue of having a fragmented C: with that though. If apps and games installed fully on any drive you pointed, it wouldn't be an issue... but I learned the hard way that a number of Adobe apps for instance and practically all of the games today, even when installed on another drive letter, will still install parts on C:. Similar with some games, and savegames all wind up on C: in Windows 7+ too. It all ends up being a big mess.

    It'd make more sense to go with just a Z68 then... that article's a bit too long and complex for me so if you've read it, can you sum it up in a few sentences? Does it work with any hard drive?

    Edit: oh, wait, does Z68 just use the whole SSD drive for caching? I assumed it just had a small SSD module on the board...
     
    Taluntain, Jul 6, 2011
    #24
  5. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder 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!)

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    SRT will use "up to" 64GB of any SSD you have installed to cache your larger regular HDD. In the results they claim that running games and applications were just about as fast as a SSD alone.

    Apparently they will only enable SRT with the Z68.
     
    Blackthorne TA, Jul 6, 2011
    #25
  6. 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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    Hm... sounds good in theory, but when a cache that can hold your whole OS plus a number of apps/games at the same time crashes, I imagine the consequences are pretty dire?
     
    Taluntain, Jul 6, 2011
    #26
  7. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder 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!)

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    Depends on the mode and how risky you want to be. The SRT can be operated in "enhanced mode" which is like a write-through cache (meaning your HDD is always in sync so if the SSD crashes there's no loss of data) or in "maximized mode" which is like a write-back cache (meaning there is a period of time after a write where the HDD is not synced with the SSD so if the SSD crashed at the wrong time, some data could be lost).
     
    Blackthorne TA, Jul 6, 2011
    #27
  8. 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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    Clever... well, this sounds quite promising.
     
    Taluntain, Jul 6, 2011
    #28
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