SSD v HDD

MarkAnthony

I've said this before but its worth saying again for anyone upgrading/building new. I've got a good deal (thanks bargain alerter!) on a new SSD and the old one shifted quickly - thanks Adverts buyer - so I cloned the drive on to an old HDD I have so I can keep 'working' until Monday when the new drive arrives.

Bloody hell is it sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.

knoggs

Have a new SSD waiting for when I (hopefully) get my x51 working in new case. Do you install games on SSD or just Windows and apps?

MarkAnthony

knoggs wrote: »

Have a new SSD waiting for when I (hopefully) get my x51 working in new case. Do you install games on SSD or just Windows and apps?

It depends on the size of SSD you have and the game.

Newer games like Fallout 4 are better on the SSD. Some games like the Totalwar series have always been better off on an SSD, others hardly benefit.

A quick google/youtube will usually show you a comparison. What I tended to do was always install new games on the SSD then pop them onto a HDD once I wasn't playing them as much.

knoggs

Yeah - probably gonna install new ones on SSD initially and migrate later when finished or if performance not improved

Have a 240 GB drive

K.O.Kiki

Just be aware that not all SSDs are equal; e.g. Crucial MX200 BX200 is junk.

*edit* corrected, thanks Serephucus

Serephucus

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Just be aware that not all SSDs are equal; e.g. Crucial MX200 is junk.

Are you sure you don't mean the BX200? The MX is among the top performers, IIRC.

But really, unless you're going purely off benchmarks, I challenge anyone to notice the different in day-to-day use (outside of really heavy-duty stuff).

Anecdote: I have an old drive - An 830, I think - running off a SATA 2 controller for over a year. Never noticed a thing, even switching to SATA 3.

MarkAnthony

The other thing I'd suggest is even a junk SSD is better than a HDD. I'm just about to load Warhammer:Totalwar see you in three hours.

scamalert

seeing recent bargain alerts where ssd prices would be almost 0.35c per gb its no brainer these days to use crappy hdd drives,since ssd on any old pc brings some new life into it,with read write speeds and whole loading times.

Only reason i see some are discouraged to buy smaller ones 120gb,but if sticking to right brand even small ones can become handy when doing raid setups.and while price is still factor,i for myself at least know if i really need smth occupying my space or just delete game/movies after im done.

ED E

Civ5+DLC is an absolute whore to load but my current 830 120GB is a bit too small to move games onto. Soon.

When Star Citizen goes full release (Late this year) it'll be getting an SSD all for itself due to its unholy estimated size.

Serephucus

What is the estimated install size for that game anyway?

I'm really glad I've moved entirely* to SSD. Never looking back.


*On my desktop. Sadly the server is still on spinners. 40TB of SSD would... not be cheap.

ED E

Talking 100GB, maybe more. They broke the cry engine to double the max possible size, leaves lots of room for assets galore.

All SSD for OS drives, but still using companion mechanicals for the mo. Though considering HDD prices arent moving downwards much they won't be lasting too much longer.

MarkAnthony

Moved my games off the mechanical, best thing ever :pac:

salamanca22

Been using a 120gb samsung 830 pro for the past 3-4 years and it knackered itself out a month or so ago, was using a mechanical for a while and it was hell. Now I am using a 1tb samsung 850 pro m.2 and it's in a whole different ball game. Writes which exceed 1GB/s and reads hundreds of MB/s more, it's like from hdd->ssd all over again except it's ssd->ssd! I only mention the capacity as speeds increase the denser the chips are.

Its dead Jim

Planning on getting one soon. Looking into a new build eventually so thinking about picking up a few parts now that will work in the current PC.

Want to get a 2 TB but £500 is a bit much. Will have to settle for 250-500GB. Is it simple enough to have a steam folder split over a SSD and HDD?

salamanca22

Its dead Jim wrote: »

Planning on getting one soon. Looking into a new build eventually so thinking about picking up a few parts now that will work in the current PC.

Want to get a 2 TB but £500 is a bit much. Will have to settle for 250-500GB. Is it simple enough to have a steam folder split over a SSD and HDD?

Yep when you are installing a game you can choose the directory.

MarkAnthony

Its dead Jim wrote: »

Planning on getting one soon. Looking into a new build eventually so thinking about picking up a few parts now that will work in the current PC.

Want to get a 2 TB but £500 is a bit much. Will have to settle for 250-500GB. Is it simple enough to have a steam folder split over a SSD and HDD?

Steam now supports multiple libraries. So you just create a new folder through steam.

..Brian..

And can you easily move the game from SSD to HDD later or would you need to uninstall and reinstall it?

Digital Solitude

..Brian.. wrote: »

And can you easily move the game from SSD to HDD later or would you need to uninstall and reinstall it?

Backup the game and then restore from backup is probably the best way

MarkAnthony

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Backup the game and then restore from backup is probably the best way

I've never got Steam back up to work. Any guides you know of?

Digital Solitude

Nope, worked for me with some games, not with others. I was backing up 5 games at a time though so that may have affected it

MarkAnthony

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Nope, worked for me with some games, not with others. I was backing up 5 games at a time though so that may have affected it

I like hammering Sky's bandwidth anyway, makes me feel I'm getting value for money :P

Its dead Jim

Well then. I guess it's time to start refreshing bargain alerts every 5 mins until a SSD pops up.

Digital Solitude

Its dead Jim wrote: »

Well then. I guess it's time to start refreshing bargain alerts every 5 mins until a SSD pops up.

Camelcamelcamel.com

Save the carpel tunnel

Moon54

While we're talking about games, I use a great app called Steam Mover to transfer games from my
main steam library on a mechanical drive, to my SSD whenever I'm currently playing them.
http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

Very easy to use, it just makes a symbolic link and moves files.
Very easy to transfer back too using the app.

Its dead Jim

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Camelcamelcamel.com

Save the carpel tunnel

Oh what have you done. I'll spend days browsing amazon for stuff to add to my watchlist.

the_syco

Its dead Jim wrote: »

Is it simple enough to have a steam folder split over a SSD and HDD?

Yup. Last PC had two Steam games on my main 120GB SSD, and the rest were on my newer 500GB SSD.

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Camelcamelcamel.com

Save the carpel tunnel

Just signed up. Shall be interesting! How does the site profit from my searching?

Luck100

..Brian.. wrote: »

And can you easily move the game from SSD to HDD later or would you need to uninstall and reinstall it?

Just copy from Steam folder on SSD to other Steam folder on HD. Then uninstall, and immediately re-install to HD. Steam will "discover" the files you already copied over and won't need to download anything.