SSD = wow

quarryman

Picked up one of these as my OS drive.

Incredible boost in performance opening programs, loading in games etc. No more disk thrashing. Chrome, picasa, itunes open almost instantly.

Recommended!

Here's a vid I found on youtube to demonstrate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VYEwu00j3U

Tar.Aldarion

I really want one of those

Just waiting til they are cheaper.

KilOit

Yeah the're sick, got a Ocz Vertex 2 last year just for the OS to go on it, pity Steam doesn't fit on it

Elmidena

Eyed them up when building my new pc but no way in hell could I justify the cost of one, and the amount of memory for the price is ridiculous.....yeah I'm just jealous OP

Tar.Aldarion

KilOit wrote: »

Yeah the're sick, got a Ocz Vertex 2 last year just for the OS to go on it, pity Steam doesn't fit on it

exactly, I'm waiting til I won't even need normal hdds any more, as I will have a huge ssd

Monotype

Yeah, they're great. None of this waiting for programs to open nonsense of the past, or going off to make a sandwich while your PC boots. You get used to it pretty quickly and you notice it more going back to a HDD PC rather than upgrading!

Scorpion venom

cant wait to get myself 1 too

el dude

I used t put my pc into sleep or hibernate when i was away from it, now i just turn it off as it boots so quick.

Just wish i had spent a bit more and got a 64gb model, as 32gb doesn't really give you that much wiggle room once windows 7 is on there.

el dude

el dude wrote: »

I used t put my pc into sleep or hibernate when i was away from it, now i just turn it off as it boots so quick.

Just wish i had spent a bit more and got a 64gb model, as 32gb doesn't really give you that much wiggle room once windows 7 is on there.

How much space does windows 7 take up, did u use 32bit?
Mate wants to upgrade his pc and looking at using a 32gb ssd for just the operating system and programs and a regular hd for music etc.

quarryman

Ernesto Wide Garter wrote: »

How much space does windows 7 take up, did u use 32bit?
Mate wants to upgrade his pc and looking at using a 32gb ssd for just the operating system and programs and a regular hd for music etc.

22GB with Windows 7 64bit.

Fluffy88

I have just done a bit of googling and it seems the minimum recommended drive size is 20Gb for a clean install of Win7. I would be careful getting a drive that small as your main OS drive + applications/games because it will fill very quickly and it's not good to fill up an SSD as you lose performance. And when Windows starts installing updates and things it will eat up drive space.

See if he could afford a 60Gb SSD, it would be a much safer and more comfortable option. You can find 60Gb SSD's for less than €100 now.
http://www.dabs.ie/products/ocz-technology-60gb-vertex-2-sataii-2-5--solid-state-drive--oczssd2-2vtxe60g--72K9.html?refs=41580000-4294946440-361720000-52750000


There is ways to make your Windows 7 install size alot smaller, simple things like removing hibernation gives back a few Gigs and then there are some more advanced things that will reduce the size if you really wanted to do it.

Apperantly 16gb is the minimum size for 32 bit installation.

I would think 32gb would be ok because the only applications that would be installed would probably be office and itunes.Its just used for web browsing and music, no games etc.

I presume if it did fill up there would be no problems installing the applications on the secondary hd?

quarryman

Yep, I have Steam installed on my 2nd drive and it works fine.

ShadowHearth

So people got ssd drive as main for os, then games on your second drive? Would it still improve gaming performance?

Moon54

ShadowHearth wrote: »

So people got ssd drive as main for os, then games on your second drive? Would it still improve gaming performance?

Yeah, that's what I have. A 60GB SSD and Samsung F4 for Steam and storage.
Works well for me.

Btw, I'd recommend anyone thinking of getting an SSD to get a 60/64GB one, at the very least.
My default Windows 7 install, with basic programs added, takes up just over half of my 60GB OCZ vertex 2 SSD.:eek:

Monotype

+1 ^^

64GB is enough for OS and essentials. The 32/40GB ones must be very tight. With 64GB, you still have to be careful not to install random junk or clog up your desktop.

quarryman

ShadowHearth wrote: »

So people got ssd drive as main for os, then games on your second drive? Would it still improve gaming performance?

I have a few select games on my SSD. The few that would benefit from it, Oblivion, GTA, stuff that is always background loading. RTS don't really gain anything since most data is preloaded.

Oblivion is extremely quick loading areas off the SSD.

Komplett-Tech: Ryan

16GB-25GB is the typical size of a win7 os install these days. But dont forget you will need to install a few more programs like Java, Flash etc etc. 40GB would really be the smallest you should use for a OS drive. I'd love another SSD to fit just my steam games on, but a 512GB SSD is just slightly out of my price range.

quarryman

Komplett-Tech: Ryan wrote: »

a 512GB SSD is just slightly out of my price range.

you could buy a complete gaming PC for the price of a 512GB SSD HDD! :eek:

M.J.M.C

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs

marco_polo

Komplett-Tech: Ryan wrote: »

16GB-25GB is the typical size of a win7 os install these days. But dont forget you will need to install a few more programs like Java, Flash etc etc. 40GB would really be the smallest you should use for a OS drive. I'd love another SSD to fit just my steam games on, but a 512GB SSD is just slightly out of my price range.

Having seen the sort of kit you treat yourself with from time to time I'd say only very slightly :pac:

God Father

Picked up my first SSD last week. An OCZ Agility 3 60GB.

Have it in my Acer 7540 laptop. The thing flies! Happy out.

I might throw up a video of the boot when I get a chance. Seriously fast

The laptop is only sata II so doesn't exploit the full potential of the Agility which is rated at: Read speed up to 525MB/sec, Write speed up to 475MB/sec.

However there wasn't much difference between this getting a sata 2 SSD and my thinking was that if I find the 60GB to be too small I will get a 120GB and chuck this in the main rig so I can then take use of the sata III.

So yeah, SSD FTW!!:):D

Tar.Aldarion

how much and where? I like the sound of getting one of those...or waiting til the 120 is cheaper

God Father

I got mine from MemoryC.com for €115 with free shipping

That was last week though when it was at a special of €120 and I used the code: PPL811 to get a further 5% off.

You could get it for €127-5% = €120 with free shipping from them now.

also

Dabs.ie have it for €107.50 and free shipping...But "Ordered upon request"

ScumLord

quarryman wrote: »

Picked up one of these as my OS drive.

Incredible boost in performance opening programs, loading in games etc. No more disk thrashing. Chrome, picasa, itunes open almost instantly.

Recommended!

Here's a vid I found on youtube to demonstrate.

It's great until you go into work the next day and find it's ruined your patients for ordinary computers. No matter how high speced the PC is your working with if it hasn't got a SSD it seems sluggish.

Sunshine! wrote: »

Eyed them up when building my new pc but no way in hell could I justify the cost of one, and the amount of memory for the price is ridiculous.....yeah I'm just jealous OP

I think you can justify if you see it just as a place to keep your operating system. Don't think of it as a hard drive.

It's a pain in the hole getting programs to stop using the C drive, updates for those programs is another pain as they don't want to go anywhere but the C drive, you have to leave a few GB free at all times for unforeseen things like that.

dazberry

I put a 60GB SSD in my MSI Wind (which only had an 80gb 5400) last year (and doubled the RAM) and it gave a new lease of life to the machine, it wasn't one of the top notch SSDs either, got mixed reviews but a reasonable price at the time.

My last build was a mini itx (Antec ISK 100, AMD Zacate E350), so I put in a hybrid Seagate Momentus XT 500gb, which incorporates a 4GB SSD. Doubt it would be as good as the video posted, but definitely no complaints here

D.

Komplett-Tech: Ryan

marco_polo wrote: »

Having seen the sort of kit you treat yourself with from time to time I'd say only very slightly :pac:

Hah i wish. I don't even know how to start to explain to the boss (The missus) that i wan't to spend that type of money on a SSD. Still, my Birthday is coming up soon

ScumLord

Komplett-Tech: Ryan wrote: »

Hah i wish. I don't even know how to start to explain to the boss (The missus) that i wan't to spend that type of money on a SSD. Still, my Birthday is coming up soon

Opening up your present.... Is it an SSD???? No, socks and a novelty tie. Thanks. :mad:

Komplett-Tech: Ryan

Oh how that reminds me of my childhood.

TheDoc

My order from Overclockers should be here today.

Was grabbing myself 8Gb of ram and making the upgrade to 64bit Windows, and thought while I'm installing a new OS, why not onto a SSD

Got this RAM
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-183-OC

Anf this SDD
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-075-OC

Read write speeds seem high, storage isnt alot but I will just be lobbing on my OS, WoW and Starcrft 2, from checking folder sizes I should have space to boot.

Fingers crossed its a noticable and consistent performance boost.

Was told it will help my WoW game to run smoother and just better all around which seems confirmed, I'm just hoping applications and programmes are snappier and open quicker.

My machine is pretty good and quick as it is, so figured I'd just take the plunge see wha tthe fuss is about

Will keep yas posted ~Should be there when I get home today

quarryman

Enjoy!

Applications will definitely feel faster, as will your Windows boot time. I have a dual-boot of Windows, one off my SSD and one off my HDD and I can easily tell which is booting by the amount of time i have to wait before I get a usable desktop.

Monotype

OCZ don't make RAM any more - most places haven't stocked it for quite a while and it didn't have a great track record. I hope that you don't run into any problems.

indough

I just installed a vertex 3 120gb today, 21 gig partition for the os and the rest for steam and a few choice apps. never realised it would be this fast tbh, but then again up till today i was using a POS cannibalised from an external hdd i bought years ago

Alanstrainor

Hmmm I'm tempted to get one seeing the performance increase!

I had always said that I would wait until the capacity of ssds increased and the cost came down before taking the plunge. 100Quid for 60GB sounds pretty alright to me! I've been making far too many impulse buys these days though!

ScumLord

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Hmmm I'm tempted to get one seeing the performance increase!

I had always said that I would wait until the capacity of ssds increased and the cost came down before taking the plunge. 100Quid for 60GB sounds pretty alright to me! I've been making far too many impulse buys these days though!

Do it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6ALySsPXt0

Tar.Aldarion

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Hmmm I'm tempted to get one seeing the performance increase!

I had always said that I would wait until the capacity of ssds increased and the cost came down before taking the plunge. 100Quid for 60GB sounds pretty alright to me! I've been making far too many impulse buys these days though!

same, I want a 128gb though, am waiting

Skerries

come to the fast side!

i find your lack of speed disturbing!

Tar.Aldarion

dunno how much i would need it, games start in 1 second, and win 7 boots fast!

I have a 60GB Vertex 2 in my laptop, very happy with it. Makes me feel like you really need a SSD to run Windows 7 properly. I could never go back to running an OS off a hard disk now.

I've built a few machines with Vertex 3s recently and they're unreal. One of them had two Vertex 3s, was so tempted to stripe them!

Trevor451

I would love to get a sold state drive but I can't justify the price just for a shorter loading times.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218031/IBM_announces_computer_memory_breakthrough

Hopefully this sort of tech will go into SSD in the future

Alanstrainor

So should I get the vertex 2 or 3? I only have SATA 2 connections on my pc so would I see the benefit of the vertex 3?

Monotype

If prices are not too far apart, get the V3:

• While you won't avail of the full potential, you should generally experience a positive increase
• You may upgrade your PC, giving your drive a longer life
• The V3 will have better resale value, at least for a while
• The V2 is actually 5GB less than advertised

Alanstrainor

Alright lads, what do yee think of the below:

Crucial M4 64GB 97euro
OCZ Vertex 2 60GB 90.44euro
OCZ Agility 3 60GB 106euro

Running a SATA 2 system atm. This will be a boot drive (obviously) windows 7 Ultimate 64bit with 6GB of RAM.

This is a complete impulse buy, so i'd like to keep the cost down! Haha

Tar.Aldarion

I'd go with the m4 there

Monotype

Probably the M4, given the issues with the sandforce drives and general OCZ dodginess. The write speeds are weak but most of what you will be doing is reading and your read speeds will be limited at the SATA II maximum anyway. Plus you get 4GB more than the V3 and ~9GB more than the V2.

shizz

So is it ok to install your OS on one hard drive and then install your games on a separate hard drive? Is it not too messy? Do most games not have to install files into numerous parts of windows? Like would there be a big problem with re installing windows?

Tar.Aldarion

It's not a big deal at all, jsut choose the install location. win7 is a fast easy install.

shizz

But say you re install windows and your games, installed primarily on a second HDD but had installed parts into the previous windows. You would need to re install the games also no?
Is there a way around it?

Monotype

shizz wrote: »

So is it ok to install your OS on one hard drive and then install your games on a separate hard drive? Is it not too messy? Do most games not have to install files into numerous parts of windows? Like would there be a big problem with re installing windows?

Most games keep stuff in one place, but you often have to reinstall the games with a windows reinstall as the registry is cleared. This wouldn't be the case with say, a steam install, as steam will fix itself up after a windows reinstall and check the game files itself.

One thing to be careful about is that some games will throw saves and settings into the my documents folder.

Leman

Monotype wrote: »

One thing to be careful about is that some games will throw saves and settings into the my documents folder.

You can easily move the documents folder via the Properties menu, so do that :P

Alanstrainor

I went with the crucial in the end...

Damn you guys!:p