Should I put an SSD in my game machine?

[uninformedpcgamer]

Here's what I have:

Intel i2500 3.3 ghz quadcore cpu
a radeon hd 6850
8 gigs ram
a 600w corsair gs600 psu
windows 7 64bit ultimate

The reason I would get one is so games like Skyrim, Fallout: NV, the Stalker games (with the Complete mods), Crysis, GTA IV and other similar larger open world games have better performance in terms of loading times (like when new areas are entered).

with my current HDD (a four year old drive I salvaged from a broken laptop) certain games have a lot of stuttering most notably the ones listed above and even some older ones like the original witcher and the original Far Cry. whereas more recent games like Dead Space and Bioshock run silky.

My windows experience index (if its anything to go on) lists my hard disk performance at 4.8 and everything else is 7.5 (processor) to 7.8 (graphics and gaming graphics)

space isn't much of an issue as most my library is on steam so i can replace games i've finished as long as i can wait a couple hours.

my main interest is just in getting a new hard drive, but I read a couple places that maybe SSD was the way to go. I also read some places that it won't really matter. it's a matter of some controversy apparently

i don't think my current build can handle SATA III so i wanted to get a reasonably sized, reasonably priced SATA II SSD like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171545

I'm not looking to spend more than 150 and like i said space isn't too much of an issue nor am i looking for the most professional level of SSD.

Should i get one? SHould I get the Sandisk?
Do you think it will be a big improvement over my dinky laptop drive that I had to reformat and repair?

 

[azathoth]

Should i get one? Should I get the Sandisk?
Do you think it will be a big improvement over my dinky laptop drive that I had to reformat and repair?

I highly recommend that you buy a SSD to replace that refurbished laptop drive!

If you re-install your OS onto the SSD you will get the extra benifit of high responsiveness and boot speeds, whilst games that stream in textures or levels will have less stuttering then if you were using that hard drive. However if you install games that pre-load all the textures such as Dead Space, you will simply be wasting space on it for a few seconds less loading.

I recommend that you buy the SSD and re-install your OS onto it along with the games you play most frequently, and use your hard drive for media and other games.

P.S. I own a SSD myself, just a small 60Gb one that I picked up a year ago and I regret nothing. Windows is VASTLY more responsive now then with my previous Hard Drive.

 

[kitsunestarwind]

I have a 60gb SSD (my old boot SSD) as a games drive and I can't live without it, Big games that load a lot of data at the start get into game so much quicker especially battlefield3

 

[uninformedpcgamer]

Best answer selected by uninformedpcgamer.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr