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SSD + Blu-Ray ROM = God-like Read/Write Speeds
I've read all over the Internet that installing your OS to a SSD and storing/installing your other data to a seperate partition can greatly increase performance.
Well, I am confirming this. I just installed a 60GB SSD which I am using as my Windows 7 partition. I have a WD 500GB HDD that I store my program files, user libraries and data, and other large files.
Additionally, I purchased a Blu-Ray ROM for ~60 USD, which I used while installing Windows 7.
For an example of how fast this setup is: After installing the hardware and booting up for the first time (and setting boot priorities), I placed the Windows 7 install disk into my new Blu-Ray ROM. The install prompts loaded very quickly. After going through the setup wizard for Windows 7, and finally clicking the "Install" button, I went outside for a cigarrete. I would say it takes me 3-4 minutes to smoke a cig.
After my cigarette, I came back inside to see that the installation had already finished and I was greeted with "setup user name and password" stuff you get immediately after a fresh install of Windows. It took 3-4 minutes to fully install Windows 7 (from the time I pressed the "Install button" to the time the installation was complete). I wish I had a stopwatch at the time. This is astounding to me. I've been installing various versions of Windows on various types of hardware for the past 14 years. I've never seen anything so fast.
Opening applications, saving data, reading data, transfering data, everything is fast! I have never been able to run EQ2 on MAX / ULTRA settings without a substantial decrease in performance. Now, it's smooth as butter. MAXED / ULTRA settings in EQ2 was something I thought was impossible. The Read/Write speeds of SSD and using multiple partitions has made it possible. This was an incredible purchase, SSD is the way to go. If you haven't yet, buy a SSD, you won't regret it.
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Comments
If your hard drive performance is impacting how well your games run then your problem is most likely low ram than anything else. It sounds like your ram was bottlenecking your pc as a result of constantly loading and reloading textures. Instead of increasing storage space for the textures you've just made the loading of them faster.
I'm not saying SSD drives aren't super fast. I just don't think most people's gaming performance is going to increase that much from using one. Maybe, I'm just biased because SSDs have lower rewrite uses per bit meaning they will die more quickly than your average name brand hard drive.
This kind of reminds me of a situation a long time ago where my friend had an 8xCDROM for Diablo and I was using 4x. He thought it was awesome that he loaded into each new zone about 4 seconds before I did. Sure the performance is better, but it's not really bottlenecking your gameplay performance.
It's not the read/write speeds what make ssd so much faster. The nonexistent access times and performance in random operations is what makes the difference.
You could have as well install the windows from normal memory stick.
whatever the reason one thing is sure ssd are fast.especially the second generation from intel are very speedy
by the ty for the added info !
Intels are not on the top in speed charts, indilinx, sandforce and internal raided disks go head.
SSD seems like the future in allowing a lot more reading-heavy applications (open ended worlds/environments I'm looking at you), but they're still a LONG way to go in value per GB of data.
The best thing we could do right now is purchasing a small one to use as a partition for Windows and very important applications, but you need to be very careful about what you install so you don't start the cycle of install/deleting things like one could do (for example, me) when managing data on current HDDs..
I realize SSD is flash memory. Don't ask me why though, because I don't have an answer, but my performance has substantially increased.
Previously my primary HDD was the bottleneck. My RAM is sufficient. 4GB of DDR2 800, dual channel (I know I could probably use an upgrade, but upgrading the RAM means getting a new mobo, which I just don't care to do atm, my current mobo is maxed at DDR2 800.) Also my GPU could be upgraded, but seeing as EQ2 isn't entirely dependant on the GPU, it seems like a mixture of all hardware resources.
Anyway, here's my useless Windows performance score. at least give syou an idea that my RAM isn't the bottelneck.
I'm just making observations of my own hardware upgrades and performance.
You can't use the tools if you don't know they exist...
http://www.ic3.gov - Internet Crime Complaint Center - Report cyber crimes to the FBI.
http://www.spamcop.net - SpamCop.net - Report spam and scam emails.
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/ - Network Solutions WHOIS - Investigate and reveal suspcious websites.
Yep there fast and no I have not taken the plunge yet. But I will
"side note cookie": LSI sampling 1500 MB/s PCIe solid state drive Mostly for servers and live streaming to the masses.
www.tcmagazine.com/comments.php <<<<now this is fast !!!
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Yea, that's the trouble with using more than one partition. Gotta manage the space usage. I was able to set my second (larger) partition as the default drive for storing all data, even set it as the default Program Files / Program Files (x86) location, and most of my User directories to the secondary partition.
However, when setting up the secondary partition as default for program files in registry, I started getting all kinds of errors from default Windows processes. I wish Windows would act more like Linux where we can specifically set every single environment / system directory to specific partitions. That's one of my favorite parts of Linux.
You can't use the tools if you don't know they exist...
http://www.ic3.gov - Internet Crime Complaint Center - Report cyber crimes to the FBI.
http://www.spamcop.net - SpamCop.net - Report spam and scam emails.
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/ - Network Solutions WHOIS - Investigate and reveal suspcious websites.
It's not a big secret that hdd is the biggest bottleneck in modern computer.
Yes that's something I've read about. I'm by no means a hardware pro, but I'm not a noob either. The hardware aspect of computers is more of a hobby for me. I just got hired as a systems analyst for commercial printing firm. I previously wrote software for their shipping department about 3 years ago, and then they asked me to head up a new web to print project they're migrating to.
Long story short, I get to work from home, and figured I would do some upgrades to my home/work/gaming rig to increase productivity. I still haven't compiled any software yet with this new setup, but I anticipate a huge performance increase compared to my previous setup. What will be interesting is to see how fast UDirect exports an 8-page InDesign file to a campaign package.
Additionally, aside from HDD being a bottleneck, the current technology for networking needs an upgrade. A town that borders the one I live in is trying to get Google to test the new high-speed technology they're developing: kstp.com/article/stories/S1460224.shtml
Anyway, for reference the items I just upgraded I got from NewEgg, here's the links:
ASUS Blu-Ray ROM: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
OCZ SSD: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
The SSD was on discount a week or so ago, I got it for 159.99. The price went back up
You can't use the tools if you don't know they exist...
http://www.ic3.gov - Internet Crime Complaint Center - Report cyber crimes to the FBI.
http://www.spamcop.net - SpamCop.net - Report spam and scam emails.
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/ - Network Solutions WHOIS - Investigate and reveal suspcious websites.
Yes that's something I've read about. I'm by no means a hardware pro, but I'm not a noob either. The hardware aspect of computers is more of a hobby for me. I just got hired as a systems analyst for commercial printing firm. I previously wrote software for their shipping department about 3 years ago, and then they asked me to head up a new web to print project they're migrating to.
Long story short, I get to work from home, and figured I would do some upgrades to my home/work/gaming rig to increase productivity. I still haven't compiled any software yet with this new setup, but I anticipate a huge performance increase compared to my previous setup. What will be interesting is to see how fast UDirect exports an 8-page InDesign file to a campaign package.
Additionally, aside from HDD being a bottleneck, the current technology for networking needs an upgrade. A town that borders the one I live in is trying to get Google to test the new high-speed technology they're developing: kstp.com/article/stories/S1460224.shtml
Anyway, for reference the items I just upgraded I got from NewEgg, here's the links:
ASUS Blu-Ray ROM: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
OCZ SSD: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
The SSD was on discount a week or so ago, I got it for 159.99. The price went back up
and see thats why ive held out on buying im cheap way cheap and ill wait