8 replies to this topic

[Morgoth]

Like I mentioned on the price drop thread, I'm looking into an SSD soon, been following the tech, reliability and which brands/models are better or worse, or what NAND I want for performance etc etc. I think I've settled on an Intel 520 120 or 240 soon for my main SSD, reports are looking good and seems to be the strongest drive on the SF2281 Controller. However, I think I want a boot drive that is seperate, I'd like my games etc on the Intel 520, and a smaller say 60G for just windows and some fluff. Reason being, SSDs can be slower with the windows overhead, not sure how noticably, but I like the idea of a boot only SSD and a everything else SSD, and maybe a Hybrid later for Steam. Also I like the idea that the Intel 520 would have less unwanted use or wear if it's just a games drive instead of being the boot drive too, I can let windows scratch up a cheaper 60G SSD. My question is, what would be the best 60G for windows? I wouldn't spend over $100 for a boot only drive, but I don't want one of those crummy 150/90 r/w ones, I want something proper, maybe: OCZ Agility 3? OCZ Vertex 3? Both 60's are pretty cheap.. Unless someone has some other ideas? Note: I was pretty set on the Corsair performance pro for the non OS drive before the 520 was released, I am slightly less wary of a sandy controller if the giant that is Intel is onboard. Sounds tacky? I don't think so, it's HUGE that sandforce can get onboard with them, certainly the controller at this point must be alright. Cheers.

[smakme7757]

I don't think there is much point to buy a 2nd 60GB SSD just for windows. I've got an old force drive with a write and read of about 285MB/270MB and it's still super snappy even though it has windows and most of my applications on it. The Intel 510 is twice as quick as my drive and has about 2 years more technology and research in it so I'd say buy the largest SSD you can and have a nice quick HDD next to it. I've got a single 1.5TB WD Black drive which i keep downloads, software install files, photos, video and all that sort of stuff. SSDs don't need all this love and care people think they need. My old Corsair 120 that i had in my laptop a few years back required a bit of love, but my latest Intel 320 doesn't need any special treatment. Don't worry about wearing out the drive either. Desktop use would take years to wear out a modern SSD, it's just not a factor for consumers any more. Server environments are where SSDs will burn out, not a gaming rig. Buy the biggest SSD you can afford and load it up with all things holy - move all storage related stuff to a 2nd HDD (photos, video, downloads, music ect...).

[Morgoth]

I've got 3x1Tb 32mb cache WD Blacks, they're almost faster than my raid0 74g raptors =[ You're probably right, but it is true that SSDs are faster when not being the boot drive, they can be ~30% slower I believe when gaming on the SSD the OS is on

[smakme7757]

I've got 3x1Tb 32mb cache WD Blacks, they're almost faster than my raid0 74g raptors =[

You're probably right, but it is true that SSDs are faster when not being the boot drive, they can be ~30% slower I believe when gaming on the SSD the OS is on

I don't know man, 30% is a big percentage of the available performance, that must be worse case scenario? If my drives were running 30% slower I'd sure notice it.

Of course a single SSD dedicated to the OS and another for apps will yield an increase seeing as you're not doing anything else on the app SSD instead of loading apps, but we're really talking about loading times and shaving off a second or two doesn't seems like a world of difference to me. But 60GB SSDs aren't that expensive so why not, if you're dead set on it it can't hurt :).

[aliali]

http://www.ocztechno...ii-2-5-ssd.html
Then no need to reinstall windows or anything. Not as fast booting as an SSD boot drive but makes a hell of a difference to any apps installed to the boot spinner drive.
other advantage is you can install away on the spinner drive without worrying about the limited size of the SSD.

Do note it won't boost any programmes installed to other HDDs, caching only works with boot spinner drive, but it does seem to work across all partitions on that drive.
Drop round sometime if you want to check out my setup (phone me first though).

[omega]

SSD Party at aliali's place. :P

[AIMBOT]

I'm in a similar boat. I have a 120GB Samsung SSD, about two years old now, for Windows 7 and Steam. It's still pretty snappy for the OS, but it crawls to a standstill on big sequential read/writes (mostly game related). I was thinking I'd RAID 0 two 60GB SSDs for Steam and leave the Samsung SSD as the OS drive. They're around $100 each so it's not terribly expensive, but I know very little about which SSDs would work best for this. I'd just be using on-board RAID (Z68 motherboard).

Edited by AIMBOT, 20 March 2012 - 03:32 PM.

[aliali]

See Corsair have now got caching SSDs
http://www.corsair.c...che-drives.html
Not terribly brilliant performance though.
Interface: SATA 3Gb/s •Max Sequential Read/Write (using ATTO Disk Benchmark): Up to 280 MB/s sequential read — 260 MB/s sequential write.

[blackmancer]

get 2 x Intel 520 120G drives and RAID0 them. you'll cream your pants. one of the fastest drive out there and 5yr warranty to boot, its Intel so you know quality is good.