SSD Harddrive

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goose
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SSD Harddrive

Post by goose »

Just got my first SSD. Let me tell you, if you haven't got one yet, it is so great. My boot up time used to be a minute or so now, after it goes through bios its up in literally 5 seconds. Best of all, While playing BF3 I went from having map changes take almost he whole setup time , (30-40 Seconds) to just under 5 seconds for most maps.

I must say this has been a huge improvement to my gaming already.

If you don't own one, I highly recommend one. The size is small (60gigs) but it is well worth it for loads times on games you play or just windows in general. Still need to tweak the drive with the tips Stephen has floating on these forums.
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by madmattd »

Larger drives are way faster than the 60GB ones too if you can swing the cost.

SSD's are great indeed. And the price/GB is slowly dropping.

Which one did you get Goose?
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by Marcus »

I still dream for the day that I will finally run a computer with a SSD :cry:
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by goose »

Got an OCZ Agility 3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227725

Yes Sandvich, I put BF3 on the SSD.
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by Tahko »

Does the program have to be stored on the SSD to get the better load time? For example if you had BF3 on a SATA Drive and your OS on the SSD, would the load time still be the same?
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by madmattd »

The OS should ALWAYS be on the SSD. Otherwise everything in the background won't be running faster...and yes the program has to be on the SSD to benefit, as that is where the files are stored/written to.
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by Marcus »

I finally invested in a SSD drive for my laptop, got an Intel 520 Series 120GB for 160$.

Boot used to take 1-2 minutes (newly reformated HDD about 4 months ago), now it's down to 30 seconds flat with steam loaded and logged on.

I will never go back to HDD for booting or frequently used programs.
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by madmattd »

Marcus wrote:I finally invested in a SSD drive for my laptop, got an Intel 520 Series 120GB for 160$.

Boot used to take 1-2 minutes (newly reformated HDD about 4 months ago), now it's down to 30 seconds flat with steam loaded and logged on.

I will never go back to HDD for booting or frequently used programs.
Enjoy! One thing about the 520, it uses that same Sandforce controller as the Vertex 3 and co. that has had a famous history of issues since release last year. Intel seems to have dealt with many (not all) of the issues with that controller though, so that's good! It's darn fast too.
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by Murbuto »

Got an OCZ agility 3 120 gig for my new compy. It was pricy, but it was probably one of the most useful pieces of technology I've bought. Besides, with the whole HDD price raise, the difference between hard drives and SSDs aren't that much if you're in the market.
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by VAUXHALL »

I'm building a new comp soon. Is it a safe investment to get a small SSD for the OS and frequently used programs/games and then a large SATA for everything else? The main reason I ask is that I'm concerned about the life of the SSD's. I know they generally don't last as long and I don't want to buy a new one every year or two, especially at their current prices.
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by madmattd »

VAUXHALL wrote:I'm building a new comp soon. Is it a safe investment to get a small SSD for the OS and frequently used programs/games and then a large SATA for everything else? The main reason I ask is that I'm concerned about the life of the SSD's. I know they generally don't last as long and I don't want to buy a new one every year or two, especially at their current prices.
This is a myth to an extent. Most users will find 10 years of usage (or more) on an SSD. People on tech forums have been running tests and are finding they will take hundreds and hundreds of terrabytes of writes without a problem. And really, the use issue would become more exaggerated with a smaller drive. The problem is that flash memory can only be written to a certain number of times. If you have a larger drive with more free space, the wear will be spread out. I'd suggest a drive around 2x the size of the amount you plan to put on it right now. This allows for growth while spreading wear out. But again, the wear is less of an issue than some make it out to be, AS LONG AS YOU TURN OFF DEFRAG!!!

Linky: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... nm-Vs-34nm

Let's put this in perspective: say you write 20GB of data a day to an SSD (which is a massive amount that most people don't approach aside from the initial OS installs and occaisonal large program install days). In one year that is 51.1 TB. Most SSDs will go 5 years at this rate before the MWI (media wear out indicator) reaches 0. They continue to run beyond this point mind you. How much further varies. But honestly, how many of us can HONESTLY say we write on average 20TB/day to our OS drives? I sure don't.
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by Molimo »

Vauxhall

Like Matt said, Most SSDs nowadays will last you more than 5 years. It's only the Write sequence that's limited (Cells or Blocks can only be rewritten a certain amount of time).

And if you look at your PC, 90%+ is Reading the data. Loading OS, Loading Games. Most of it is reading and transferring to Ram. Speaking of Ram, it's is the same way, it's limited on how many times you can write to a cell. And no one ever considered this to be a problem. And ram cells are rewritten way more frequently then HDDs.

I find it a waste if you only plan to use the OS on it. Is the 1-2 minute Boot time really worth it? I mean you only boot what 1-2 times a day at the most.
It's when you put your Software (Games/Office/etc..) onto it that you can really see the difference.
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by Stephen »

Sandwich u should be running in ahci ide mode is old and slow
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by madmattd »

SandvichSpy wrote:I love my ssd, although it doesn't quite reach the read/write rates it should :\, so I'm still messing around with it. Anyone know if running your computer AHCI mode will greatly improve read/write speeds?
An SSD should NEVER be run in IDE mode. It cripples not just the sequential speeds, but the random read/write which are what is largely the best thing about SSDs. The user experiences little difference between different SSDs, but between an SSD in IDE versus AHCI, BIG DIFFERENCE! The advertised spec's for SSDs are also assuming you are running in AHCI mode. IDE is purely still around for legacy stuff, any modern (as in the last 5 years, maybe even older) system won't need IDE controller mode.

Sandvich, check this link for an easy way to get your system into AHCI mode from IDE (don't just switch it in BIOS, your system will NOT be able to boot properly in AHCI unless you do the things in this link - note it doesn't kill your system if you don't do this, the system will still work if restored to IDE):
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976 wrote:enable the AHCI driver in the registry before you change the SATA mode of the boot drive. To do this, follow these steps:

Exit all Windows-based programs.
Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV
In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.
Then you reboot into BIOS and change the controller to AHCI (or RAID mode, it will do the same thing if your SSD is not part of a RAID array - my desktop runs the controller in RAID mode due to my HDD RAID array - the SSD is stand-alone).
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Re: SSD Harddrive

Post by madmattd »

Many boards do have multiple controllers. Since you have a 1155 board, one will be the Intel 6GBps ports (2, often white, your SSD should go on the INTEL 6GBps ports only), one is the Intel 3GBps ports (SATA 2 if you insist), and one will be for the Marvell 6GBps ports, which never work at full speed on Sata 6GBps with SSDs for some reason. Use your manual to find which BIOS setting controls the port/controller your SSD is on.
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