Everything is fast at sequential transfer speeds. What matters is random transfer speeds. That's where hard drives are slow, and good SSDs are fast. For example:
Originally posted by travdoty Do you really need to spend hundreds of dollars to get your computer to boot up an extra couple of seconds faster? To get your zones to load a few seconds faster? Didn't think so. Don't buy into the gimmick that the rest of these guys have bought into and just wait for the technology to get better and cheaper. -waits for flame for being rational-
I think it's a better way to spend "hundreds of dollars" just so you can turn on another level of useless FSAA, or see an increase from 62 to 123 FPS. SSD's impact more than just gaming, unlike a video card. To be honest, I'd spend more on the SSD than the CPU - because the mass storage is the single biggest bottleneck in any system regardless of CPU/GPU make and model, and the more you can do to help that, the better off your entire system is.
Originally posted by drbaltazar if you trully need ssd i suggest a hybrid hhd most of the time they got regular hhd and on that there is also a 4 or 8 gb ssd ps:ms make recommandation on how to select the microsd card for their smartphone it isnt directly related but still apply to ssd so i suggest you find an article about it and read it cause ms knoqw their stuff and they recommand to go at it differently to select microsd card then other corp like android this is why it took forever to get ms certified microsd card
Hybrid drives are a decent compromise for laptops, where you would like SSD-type speeds but also need lots of storage space.
However, a Hybrid drive only gets about 30% of the performance that a full SSD will - if you have the physical room (such as in any desktop), and SSD + HDD combo nets you the best of both worlds for about the same price. The only drawback being that you need to manually copy data back and forth.
Originally posted by drbaltazar op:no necessary just lower paging file to 250 and your good i hear if you put it off there is still a paging file dont know how this work so just leave it at 250 and you ll be ok (make sure you got 4 gb of ram at least(i suggest 6 gb)and your good speedwise it wont speed up the hhd speed tho so if you got a lot of file needed on you hhd it will take slightly longer
This is not such a good idea.
Page file is used in a couple of different ways.
The first way is the common sense: You run out of physical RAM, so your system will use the hard drive as RAM. This is extremely slow, and your system, even with an SSD, will slow to a halt. The solution to this is simply to install more RAM or close programs you aren't using.
The second way isn't so obvious. When programs load they access a lot of various files (usually DLLs). They don't constantly use these files though. Windows is smart enough to know which are commonly used, and which are just rarely accessed. It will swap the rare ones out to the swap file to make room in your physical memory for more commonly used stuff. This effectively increases your amount of available RAM without seriously impacting performance. If you shrink the swap file too small, or disable it completely, you limit the capability of Windows to do this, and all of a sudden all of your programs will eat a lot more memory than they would otherwise.
I've got 3 SSDS in my PC now and I will only use a regular HDD for storage from this point forward. It made a huge difference IMO in loading times for Vanguard, LOTRO and AOC as well as Windows and other programs.
I'd question why you need 500 GB of SSD capacity, rather than going the small SSD plus large hard drive route if you need a lot of capacity.
Amen. A 60 GB SSD amd a 1 TB SATA media drive is cheaper and works as well. The only exception is if power consumption or heat needs to be kept really low, which is common in laptops. There the large SSD is still the best solution.
Maybe i'm not understanding something right, and i apologize if im sounding stupid lol! What would a small SSd and my large HD do for me? Are you saying "Take your most played games, put THOSE on SSD with windows" or is there a way for my games to swap out on the SSD? EDIT: what im troubled over is installing/uninstalling whatever game i'm wanting to play at the time- uninstalling from the SSD deletes data, so my saves would be lost....Seems the'hassle-free' way of doing it is just to get a big enough one to put all my games on? am i mistaken in something?
a 120G SSD (one of the more popular sizes) can hold Windows 7 (about 40G), and still have about 60G left over for games. That's 3-5 extremely large AAA MMO's, around 35-50 F2P MMO's, around 10 AAA single player games, or for emulators a lot of emulated games (depending on the system, the files vary greatly in size).
Now if you play every single game on your computer every single day - it could be a lot of copying. Most people don't do that, they play 2-3 games at a time depending on their mood, and every couple of weeks one of those games gets swapped out for another as they beat it or get tired of it or something else new (or nostalgia old) comes along.
Most games just let you copy straight over - all you need to do is update the shortcut. A more sophisticated way would be to use Symlinks, then you wouldn't even need to update your shortcuts, and would work even for programs would would require a reinstall. There is a guide here, which is meant for steam, but would work for anything:
There is a program that does this just for Symlinking Steam games over with one click and a nice lil GUI, I installed Steam on my HDD (the slower one), and let games install to there by default. WHen I want to seriously play a game on the SSD, it's just as easy as clicking a button and it copies over, and then Steam doesn't know any difference; it just runs off the SSD. I apologize I don't have the name of it as its on my other computer but can look it up if anyone is interested - it really only applies to steam though.
If you can afford an SSD then you'll likely be happy if you buy an SSD.
The only real con would by life but I upgrade so often I doubt any of the SSD's I currently have (three total .. 2 in desktop and 1 in laptop) will go bad or die before I upgrade them.
Using an SSD for your OS is not just about windows booting faster. If you play on a spindle drive and the game is actually hitting the data files very often... try to multi task and watch what happens. Your HD is already the slowest component (by far) in your hardware setup. Why do you think people used to try and do away with the need for virtual memory...
An SSD will handle multi tasking with intensive applications (and games) in ways a spindle drive could only dream of.
The only problem you will have is that you definitely notice when the network is slow once you go to an SSD... because instead of data load times... you're waiting for the network.
If you can't afford an SSD or just don't like the idea I can totally relate.. its not a bad thing and everyone has a right to use or not use what hardware they want. Personally I can't wait or the tech to advance to the point we get capacity up and prices down enough... to do bulk storage on SSD's for a more easy to take price. That said for gaming places like Newegg have sales quite often...
Only real advice I have.. if you are thinking about buying an SSD educate yourself. Pretty much I always suggest anandtech's storage forum because they have a very nice SSD thread that is updated.. on what drives/controllers to buy and stay away from along with firmware alerts.
There are definitely SSD's you don't want to buy...
Comments
Everything is fast at sequential transfer speeds. What matters is random transfer speeds. That's where hard drives are slow, and good SSDs are fast. For example:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3681/oczs-vertex-2-special-sauce-sf1200-reviewed/6
I think it's a better way to spend "hundreds of dollars" just so you can turn on another level of useless FSAA, or see an increase from 62 to 123 FPS. SSD's impact more than just gaming, unlike a video card. To be honest, I'd spend more on the SSD than the CPU - because the mass storage is the single biggest bottleneck in any system regardless of CPU/GPU make and model, and the more you can do to help that, the better off your entire system is.
Hybrid drives are a decent compromise for laptops, where you would like SSD-type speeds but also need lots of storage space.
However, a Hybrid drive only gets about 30% of the performance that a full SSD will - if you have the physical room (such as in any desktop), and SSD + HDD combo nets you the best of both worlds for about the same price. The only drawback being that you need to manually copy data back and forth.
This is not such a good idea.
Page file is used in a couple of different ways.
The first way is the common sense: You run out of physical RAM, so your system will use the hard drive as RAM. This is extremely slow, and your system, even with an SSD, will slow to a halt. The solution to this is simply to install more RAM or close programs you aren't using.
The second way isn't so obvious. When programs load they access a lot of various files (usually DLLs). They don't constantly use these files though. Windows is smart enough to know which are commonly used, and which are just rarely accessed. It will swap the rare ones out to the swap file to make room in your physical memory for more commonly used stuff. This effectively increases your amount of available RAM without seriously impacting performance. If you shrink the swap file too small, or disable it completely, you limit the capability of Windows to do this, and all of a sudden all of your programs will eat a lot more memory than they would otherwise.
I've got 3 SSDS in my PC now and I will only use a regular HDD for storage from this point forward. It made a huge difference IMO in loading times for Vanguard, LOTRO and AOC as well as Windows and other programs.
a 120G SSD (one of the more popular sizes) can hold Windows 7 (about 40G), and still have about 60G left over for games. That's 3-5 extremely large AAA MMO's, around 35-50 F2P MMO's, around 10 AAA single player games, or for emulators a lot of emulated games (depending on the system, the files vary greatly in size).
Now if you play every single game on your computer every single day - it could be a lot of copying. Most people don't do that, they play 2-3 games at a time depending on their mood, and every couple of weeks one of those games gets swapped out for another as they beat it or get tired of it or something else new (or nostalgia old) comes along.
Most games just let you copy straight over - all you need to do is update the shortcut.
A more sophisticated way would be to use Symlinks, then you wouldn't even need to update your shortcuts, and would work even for programs would would require a reinstall. There is a guide here, which is meant for steam, but would work for anything:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262456-32-guide-transfer-steam-games
There is a program that does this just for Symlinking Steam games over with one click and a nice lil GUI, I installed Steam on my HDD (the slower one), and let games install to there by default. WHen I want to seriously play a game on the SSD, it's just as easy as clicking a button and it copies over, and then Steam doesn't know any difference; it just runs off the SSD. I apologize I don't have the name of it as its on my other computer but can look it up if anyone is interested - it really only applies to steam though.
The way I look at the SSD thing is...
If you can afford an SSD then you'll likely be happy if you buy an SSD.
The only real con would by life but I upgrade so often I doubt any of the SSD's I currently have (three total .. 2 in desktop and 1 in laptop) will go bad or die before I upgrade them.
Using an SSD for your OS is not just about windows booting faster. If you play on a spindle drive and the game is actually hitting the data files very often... try to multi task and watch what happens. Your HD is already the slowest component (by far) in your hardware setup. Why do you think people used to try and do away with the need for virtual memory...
An SSD will handle multi tasking with intensive applications (and games) in ways a spindle drive could only dream of.
The only problem you will have is that you definitely notice when the network is slow once you go to an SSD... because instead of data load times... you're waiting for the network.
If you can't afford an SSD or just don't like the idea I can totally relate.. its not a bad thing and everyone has a right to use or not use what hardware they want. Personally I can't wait or the tech to advance to the point we get capacity up and prices down enough... to do bulk storage on SSD's for a more easy to take price. That said for gaming places like Newegg have sales quite often...
Only real advice I have.. if you are thinking about buying an SSD educate yourself. Pretty much I always suggest anandtech's storage forum because they have a very nice SSD thread that is updated.. on what drives/controllers to buy and stay away from along with firmware alerts.
There are definitely SSD's you don't want to buy...