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..

 

[blackhawk1928]

@Blackhawk. Those are some crazy read speeds. MyOCZ is definetly faster than my regular drives, but at the same time, not nearly as fast as yours, but it's rated just as fast. Is there a way to check if there's a bottleneck between it? I'm running an ASUS m3a79-t delux with a phenom II 965, 8GB DDR2.

Well not every single SSD despite being the same model is the same, it can vary a little bit. Sometimes during tests my SSD can get to 275mbps...
However to make sure you get the full potential out of it, make sure its connected through SATA II (3GB) at least. Make sure your motherboard supports that. And make sure in bios your connection mode is set to AHCI, not IDE. Thats all i can think of...before when i didn't know about the IDE/AHCi stuff, my reads were about 190...after switching it, it shot up to 270mbps on average.

And either way, if you cant fix it, don't worry about it really, the most important part of speed is access time, and that can't change no matter what.

 

[builderbobftw]

hahha Whers my 2560x1600 24inch OLED 40w screen?

But I wasnt kidding about the 4Gb 5970 its already pictured by Sapphire.

XFX Launching Radeon HD 5970 4GB Black Edition Eyefinity6 http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/video/xfx-launching-radeon-hd-5970-4gb-black-edition-eyefinity6/ , haha 12 monitors with Crossfire 5970 lol oups my electricity bill is $%^%$&

Gonna fail hard the same way the 4890 2gb was an EPIC FAIL.

 

[RazberyBandit]

That XFX 5970 4GB will only support 6 monitors via 6 display ports.

The card also includes 6 mini-DisplayPort connectors to support six physical displays through Eyefinity6.

 

[Guest]

well yes extra memory wont give a boost but Not in big resolutions Im sure you will see diff between the 2Gb vs 4Gb @ 2560x1600 not a big diff but an extra 5 fps why not if the same price.

Of course its dp lol you expect 6 Dvi lol? I think you would need 3 Slot card to put 6 dvis lol

 

[builderbobftw]

well yes extra memory wont give a boost but Not in big resolutions Im sure you will see diff between the 2Gb vs 4Gb @ 2560x1600 not a big diff but an extra 5 fps why not if the same price.

Of course its dp lol you expect 6 Dvi lol? I think you would need 3 Slot card to put 6 dvis lol

Untill we get to the point of playing at 2 million pixels x 1.5 mil, you won't see a change. period.

 

[microterf]

@blackhawk again. I read about the AHCI, but when I switched it in my bios, then rebooted, windows wouldn't boot up, got an error saying it pretty much couldn't find the drive. any ideas?? will I have to reformat and install windows on that drive?

 

[blackhawk1928]

microterf...yes, BSOD is expected. When windows is installed with AHCI already enabled, it will automatically configure itself for it. If its installed in the IDE mode it fixes itself for that. There is a very easy registry tweak to fix this
Here are the instructions:
1)Reboot and re-enter your BIOS in order to set the drive mode back to IDE so you are able to boot up again.
2)Next once booted, run the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
3)Navigate to Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
4)Set the "Start" value to 0 (zero)
5)Next, after doing that edit, exit out of everything and restart...BUT BEFORE you go into windows, make sure to go into BIOS to enable AHCI.
6)Windows should boot now successfully and will install some drivers and will work fine.
7) Enjoy
8) If you have any questions just send me a private message.

 

[builderbobftw]

@blackhawk again. I read about the AHCI, but when I switched it in my bios, then rebooted, windows wouldn't boot up, got an error saying it pretty much couldn't find the drive. any ideas?? will I have to reformat and install windows on that drive?

Wait, I thought SSDs were Invincible, and never had any problems?

 

[blackhawk1928]

thats not the SSD. thats the operating system/bios smart one. And its not a flaw its just part of it.

The fact the SSD is a 2.5'' and requires a mounting bracket to fit into a desktop is also a flaw using your thinking...

If you crash your car and it "breaks"...is that what you consider a flaw...i see your mentality.

Nothing is perfect, even if everything you would consider a flaw which i see is everything, it still outweighs itself when compared to a HDD by a ridiculous ratio.

 

[builderbobftw]

Can't debate with you, you have buyer's guilt and feel the need to justify you're purchase.

 

[notty22]

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

Is it any good?

I guess this ruins the '15 year' statement. Oh wait, was it 20 ?
edited :

 

[builderbobftw]

I guess this ruins the '15 year' statement. Oh wait, was it 20 ?
edited :

Notice I said some, not all.

And in addition, I killed that drive through improper use, it didn't fail due to some horrific flaw with platter drives.

(I had the thing in a floppy drive bay, and it overheated)

 

[blackhawk1928]

Can't debate with you, you have buyer's guilt and feel the need to justify you're purchase.

First off i don't feel the need for it, because you are just jelous you don't have one so you are trying make me seem like the guy who's sorry for the purchase...nice trick! An SSD was the best investment i made my PC IMO
Secondly even if i did, i justified it very well and beat all your arguments against SSD's...
Oh and when you said your platter drive failed due to overheating...well that wouldn't happened to an SSD!why? Because they don't produce nearly as much as HDD's do You set yourself up for that one.
And the fact that the operating system/bios/motherboard needs an extra fix to make the drivers work right is thier problem. A more advanced OS/bios/motherboard can potentially solve that so its not the drive itself's problem.

Anything else?

 

[builderbobftw]

Dude, If you did what I did to my platter to an SSD, It would still fail.

I had in a little metal cocoon.

 

[blackhawk1928]

SSD's can handle much higher temperature. And even if it by chance did die...it would live longer in any case (lower power consumption/lower heat...etc)
X25-M Can endure if i am not mistaken temps of 70C...maybe even higher without damage. An HDD on the other hand has a warning not to go above 55C i think. Thats 15C difference. thats 59F....59 Farenheit is a massive difference.

 

[z06psi]

Ordered a Intel P55GB Pro to fix my slow interface issue.

 

[microterf]

builderbobftw, Why are you so bitter?? Everything about SSDs are not perfect. They are VERY expensive (I paid $4/GB) but they are also a LOT faster than HDDs. The access times are just stupid fast. I can tell a huge difference between my Win7 OSes with the HDDs and the SSD Win7 parition.

Is it worth the price?? That depends. The arguements are very clear here. If you want to spend a premium, get a SSD and you will be rewarded. If you want to save $$, a good 7200 RPM drive is no slouch. Either way, you will be happy as long as you made the correct decision for yourself.

 

[builderbobftw]

For any gamer playing with anything less than a 5970 Quadfire, there is no way in hell he should even consider an SSD.

 

[BradyT88]

I have to disagree. As has already been stated several times, an SSD has little to no benefit in FPS, but the faster boot time and app load time are what make SSD's valuable.

 

[builderbobftw]

Allright Brady.

IF you're a gamer, running on a 2k$ budget, and you spec out you're system except for the GPU, and you have 650$ left, do you go for

A. A Intell X-25M reatial 160gb SSD, and a 5770.

Or

B. A Radeon 5890.

 

[blackhawk1928]

If my monitor is 2560x1600...obviosly the 5890. If my monitor is 1366x768 or 1680x1050...even a 5770 or a 5850 will be extremely good.

 

[builderbobftw]

Assuming you have a 1920x1200 moniter.

(Hint, the 5770 is NOT good enough at that res, only the 5970 can max it with high aa)

 

[blackhawk1928]

You are funny
A 5850 can dominate crysis and COH...both of which extremely graphically demanding at very good FPS with 4xAA, 16xAF and 1920x1200...and i am talking about crysis...not just any game. If a 5850 isn't enough a 5870 would rape...and a 5970 would be overkill. I can show you links but to lazy. There are benchmarks on toms, anand, techpowerup...etc.

 

[builderbobftw]

You are funny
A 5850 can dominate crysis and COH...both of which extremely graphically demanding at very good FPS with 4xAA, 16xAF and 1920x1200...and i am talking about crysis...not just any game. If a 5850 isn't enough a 5870 would rape...and a 5970 would be overkill. I can show you links but to lazy. There are benchmarks on toms, anand, techpowerup...etc.

Bullcrap, Prove it.

And Nobody want's to play at 4xaa, I want 16aa and 16af before i call it "Excellent" .

4xaa is "Ok"

 

[blackhawk1928]

Different games have different AA max's...some have 4xAA some have up to 16...you didn't specify. If you are talking 16aa/16af...then at 1920x1200 i'd probably go for the 5970 because the 5870 might struggle with playable fps.

"And Nobody want's to play at 4xaa"

Bullcrap, Prove it.