Ssd for gaming system?

[pnico]

hi guys,

I've got what I think is a pretty high end gaming system. A friend of mine suggested to top it off, I should upgrade the hard drive to ssd from what I currently have a 7200rpm sata 1tb drive..

other than loading and booting will this effect gaming at all? is it a worthwhile investment?

so far ive got
i7 950
12 gig ram
dual 5970
asus pt6 deluxe v2 board..

 

[builderbobftw]

No, It will not effect you're frames in games. It is NOT WORTH IT.

You will get a small benifit in boot times, and opening large applications, but not worth it for gaming.

EDIT: Awesome build there, Wow, 2 5970s.
😍 😍 😍 😍 😍 😍 😍 😍 😍 😍

 

[pnico]

thanks guys, and thanks builderbobftw I like it

 

[pnico]

I told my friend, I was like how does r/w hd access effect fps in a game..it doesnt..
I priced them out and for the size they are expensive..

 

[builderbobftw]

Yep. SSD's are new tech, and like all new tech, It is very expensive and still has some flaws.

The SSD's are only good for shaving a few seconds of boot times, and at the price they arn't worth it.

 

[jstnkim]

I wasn't aware that SSD's are considered new tech.
I guess I'm too young to realize 1978 is considered recent.

maybe we're talking about something else.
I was talking about SSD (solid state drives) that's been out since 1978, actually early-mid 1970's but 1978 is when they had it officially introduced as the modern type of drive we use today 😱

 

[builderbobftw]

Fast SSD's with decent capacity's, that cost less than the annual budget of a small counties are new, bleeding edge tech.

 

[jryan388]

It depends on the game. For most its not worth it, but if you play Oblivion (or any game with frequent loading times) its worth it hands down.

 

[builderbobftw]

It depends on the game. For most its not worth it, but if you play Oblivion (or any game with frequent loading times) its worth it hands down.

I have Oblivion, the loading isn't bad at all.

 

[Pailin]

I decided to wait for the 4th Qtr next gen SSD's which should be bigger faster and cheaper per GB

 

[builderbobftw]

Still fail for gaming.

 

[Pailin]

I'd still grab one for gaming from the point of view of reducing lvl load times etc
But I figure you need a 160GB + size drive with new games easy being 5 - 18GB
+ my work stuff on my PC - I love to keep lots of stuff installed I use.
So check how much space you'd need before buying one. Is why I am waiting for the bigger next gen.

FarCry 2 takes Way Too Long to load game saves for example!!!
and I have a half decent Seagate 7200.11 500GB 7,200rpm drive + 4GB RAM

am sure we all have games that make you hang about here and there, kinda reduces the whole imersion factor wating for things to happen like that.

 

[notty22]

I'm in favor of adding a ssd. Even if you only add a 40g(what i did). I have the Kingston 40(same as the intel40~controller) and it rocks. It speeds up loading in your whole system, even when loading apps,games from your secondary disk. Most times apps/games need ,dlls ,dx system files from your windows folder, or config files. And thats where ssd are super fast. Random reading. With a 40 gig ssd and a 2g page file on it , there is 24 gigs available for games/apps. So rotate your favorite 3 games to the ssd. Either that, save up 200 vs 100 for a 80 gig. Not many people tell you after buying a ssd , that it was a mistake.

 

[builderbobftw]

I'd still grab one for gaming from the point of view of reducing lvl load times etc
But I figure you need a 160GB + size drive with new games easy being 5 - 18GB
+ my work stuff on my PC - I love to keep lots of stuff installed I use.
So check how much space you'd need before buying one. Is why I am waiting for the bigger next gen.

FarCry 2 takes Way Too Long to load game saves for example!!!
and I have a half decent Seagate 7200.11 500GB 7,200rpm drive + 4GB RAM

am sure we all have games that make you hang about here and there, kinda reduces the whole imersion factor wating for things to happen like that.

Ohh, I RMA'd my 7200.8, and they sent me a 7200.11.

Is it any good?

 

[Pailin]

hiya,

have heard that the 7200.12 is recomended as being better - not sure what the differences are though...?

Anyway, HD Tune 2.54:
my drive is 70% full.

Transfer Rate
Max 103.2 MB/s
Avg 77.4 MB/s
Min 29.4 MB/s

Access Time:

15.2ms

Am pretty happy with it, but newer drives like the Samsung F3 SpinPoint 7,200rpm is:

F3 1TB £65 or $100 (£55 or $85 on Special):
Warranty 3 Years
PCMark Vantage Overall 5193
IOMeter Streaming Reads benchmark pattern 142.4
IOMeter Streaming Writes benchmark pattern 142.1
Surface Temp 41c
dB(A) idle 44.6
dB(A) DB IOs 49.6
Idle PWR Consumption 4.9watts
WorkStation IO PWR Consumption 6.7watts

I have just bought one of these. Though is not connected yet...

 

[Pailin]

just dug up some HD Tune Pro 4 results on the F3 Spinpoint 1TB:
(from a quick look around other HD Tune versions give very similar results)

Transfer Rate
Max 145.9 MB/s
Avg 119.4 MB/s
Min 73.5 MB/s

Access Time:
15ms (other tests showed as low as 13ms)

and another result on a fresher one of the 7200.11 500GB drive on HD Tune 2.54:

Transfer Rate
Max 105.6 MB/s
Avg 83.8 MB/s
Min 48.0 MB/s

Access Time:
12.6ms

Which is closer to how I remember my drive being when it was newer 😉

 

[builderbobftw]

All. Right, I'm gonna install the 7200.8 in the little mod I constructed in my case today.

(Case only had 2 spots for HDD, had to repurpose a Optical drive bay with the use of a drill)

 

[seerwan]

pnico, ssds are only useful for faster loading times. i wouldn't normally erecommned it.

However, you seem to have enough $$$$$, so i say screw it, bro, top it off with an ssd.

80 - 160 GB should b fine, u wont spend that much.

If u arent as deep-pocketed as i assume, then it aint worth it.

Peace.

 

[jesmoke]

Not really worth it. Yes you would get faster loading times but while gaming it will not boost frame rates. Not worth the money but if you have the extra cash to blow then go for it.

 

[builderbobftw]

If you have massive impatience and can't wait for Q4, and 25nm, go for it, but only if you have a shitload of cash to piss away.

 

[RazberyBandit]

If performance is truly what you're after, and if your PC supports it, you could RAID-5 three 1TB HDDs for the roughly same cost an almost endless number of 60-128GB SSDs. Not only would you increase I/O times, but you get redundancy and a MASSIVE amount of storage in comparison. If you can't RAID-5, consider a 2-disk RAID-0 or RAID-1 setup instead. Both increase read times, with RAID-0 the faster of the two.

I am of the opinion that SSD's are still ridiculously overpriced.

 

[blackhawk1928]

Yep. SSD's are new tech, and like all new tech, It is very expensive and still has some flaws.

The SSD's are only good for shaving a few seconds of boot times, and at the price they arn't worth it.

Hey I agree SSD's don't help in gaming, but what flaws are you talking about?
And a few seconds off boot time..? LOL X25-M boots windows 7 in 7.5 seconds...thats the OS boot+loading my account if i remove password for it. I think a couple seconds is an exageration.

 

[builderbobftw]

By flaws, after a few years of usage, the SSD is limited to a read only state.

So you have a 400$ paperweight.

Oh, and the price, a decent SSD with a 160GB will run you 400$+.

 

[notty22]

lol
SSD's have no moving parts. They are rated at 2 million MTBF (mean time between failures) most come with 3 year warranties. Platter hard drives http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive

The mean time between failures (MTBF) of SATA drives is usually about 600,000 hours (some drives such as Western Digital Raptor have rated 1.2 million hours MTBF), while SCSI drives are rated for upwards of 1.5 million hours

The memory doe have finite write cycles, its not imperfect. Only something from a science fiction movie would be 'perfect'. But average use , above average use. You would never brick a ssd. It the same as expecting 20 years use from a platter hard drive. Someday everything stops working.

 

[builderbobftw]

I've seen some platters go for 15+ years.