SSD or Caviar Black for gaming machine?

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bw85

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Jun 5, 2012
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Hey everyone, I was wondering if someone could tell me if it'd be a good idea to incorporate a 256gb M4 SSD or a Caviar Black HDD for a gaming machine.
 
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fudoka711
I honestly think that going with a 256gb ssd and a 500gb hdd (WD Black) is your best bet.

In many cases, it doesn't really matter if your games are on your ssd or hdd as there is a negligible difference in performance. I would say that for games like Civ V and Simcity, putting those on your ssd will give you the best increase in load times.
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Depends, do you typically use a lot of storage, or do you just use up a little? The SSD will obviously be faster but have less capacity so if you don't use much space that might be the way to go. If you do use a lot of space then the caviar black is a good choice, although it's slower. Would the SSD be your only drive or would you use a regular hdd too?
 
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Well, I'm in the process of researching and customizing a rig. The main purpose would be a gaming rig with Diablo 3, perhaps StarCraft 2, Civilization V, the new SimCity when it releases, and maybe a few others. So I am fairly certain I'd have. Oth an SSD and a HDD. I know the black is fastest of the Caviar line, but how is the Velociraptor. I just heard of that one. If it is faster than Black, would I benefit more with just a single Velociraptor HDD? I know SSDs are getting more and more common in gaming rigs, and to be honest it will still be 3 months or do before Incan even purchase, so maybe by then the price of SSDs will drop a bit.
 
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I'm researching it now and it's all going to come down to the amount of performance you want vs. the amount of space you want. A 600 GB velociraptor is $215.99 USD on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136555

whereas a 256 GB crucial M4

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148443

is $214.99 USD on newegg. If you think 256 GB will be enough you could get much faster performance for the same price. You could always add a 500 gb blue drive for 75$ later on.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769

Bear in mind that the M4 is not the only option for the ssd, it's just a reputable one.

In the end, you're going to have to make the decision based on your projected uses of the system. Best of luck! If you have any more questions feel free to reply to this post.

Elias
 
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Thanks for the post! I really think I may stick with my original idea and get a 256 SSD and a 500HHD Black. I just can't really ignore the idea of smart technology and I really think 256gb for programs will be plenty for me.
 
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I honestly think that going with a 256gb ssd and a 500gb hdd (WD Black) is your best bet.

In many cases, it doesn't really matter if your games are on your ssd or hdd as there is a negligible difference in performance. I would say that for games like Civ V and Simcity, putting those on your ssd will give you the best increase in load times.
 
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I say get the SSD first then get a HDD later on if you need it. Or use the HDD for backups. I have a 1 TB hardrive and I haven't even filled half of it in the 4 years I've had it. So I think the m4 will be plenty of space for OS and games. If you have music and stuff then put that on a mechanical HDD. I think the price of SSD will continue getting cheaper these next few months because the new ones are all coming out.
 
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I'm wondering if I should get a Black or a Blue to compliment a 256gb SSD. I'm pretty sure the HDD will just be for storage, but am not sure if the speed difference between the 2 is really that noticeable. Also, in the off-chance that the SSD gets full with programs, and I have to use the HDD for future installations, I'd like to be able to have them load as quickly as the HDD will allow me. Should I still consider Black, or save some money and go with Blue?
 
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You could go with two smaller SSDs. One for the OS and drivers at 80 or 120GB and one 80GB or larger SSD for your commonly-used apps. This would maximize speed, but you have options.

Keeping the OS/drivers isolated to their own drive has made it easy for me to upgrade from an SATA 2 to an SATA 3 without requiring me to get a larger drive as I add apps. I just clone from one to the next.

I started with all of my apps running off a separate caviar black, but have since moved my most-used apps to a second SSD (BF3 and Diablo 3). I keep less used apps on one black drive and another black drive houses no apps and only data files.

A good combo to start with would be a good 120GB+ SSD and a Caviar Black 500GB+. You really don't sacrifice much at all using a good fast HDD for your apps. Your load times are a little slower, but not bad at all. But like I said, keeping the OS separate is good when you want to move to the next best tech (ie SATA rev 4.0). Also, when prices come down on the larger SSDs you'll have more options for upgrading incrementally.
 
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I also have another setup I am toying with. Right now, I can budget a 256gb SSD, a 500gb HDD Black, and a GTX 670. Would I have a better gaming rig if I downgrade to a 64gb SSD for the OS, upgrade to a 1tb HDD Black, and upgrade to a GTX 680?
 
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Sounds good! I know it is impossible to tell exactly, but roughly how many games, plus the OS, will I be able to fit onto the SSD? I haven't owned a computer in years, and this is my first custom-designed one. Games I would be interested in playing a Diablo 3, Civ 5 plus all of the expansions, perhaps Star Craft 2, maybe WoW (even though I am a little reluctant to get back into Pay to Play games), and in the future SimCity and perhaps Final Fantasy 14.
 
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Very well, I moved the question to a separate thread. Sorry.
 
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Every game you named would fit with the OS on the 256GB drive, but ask yourself which you play the most and put them on the SSD. If you get a Steam account and start adding to your library, you may want to install Steam on the HDD as the library will grow. Really the faster SSD is all about the load times. It's not going to affect your game play. I came to the realization that I play 2 games 95% of the time and those are games I put on the SSD. The others can go to the HDD.
 
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What size of SSD do you have? If I have 2 or 3 games that I play more than the others, I can put those onto the SSD and everything else to the HDD, which will allow me to downgrade to the 128gb and save some money. And I'm actually the type of person that would rather have physical copies of my games, so I'd imagine I wouldn't have to worry about Steam files or anything.
 
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They're in my signature. I use a SATA 3.0 120GB just for the OS, hardware utilities and drivers. It is overkill, but is fast. I use my SATA 2.0 80GB for BF3 and Diablo 3. These are the two games I play 95% of the time.

Some games can take up to 15 GB these days, but most use around 5GB at the most. Depends on the games. If you got a 128GB, count on the OS, hardware utilities and drivers using 25-40GB. Worst case, you have three games on there using 15GB a piece that would put you at 85GB used. You can get away with the 128GB.
 
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1) DO NOT recommend a 60/64 gig SSD for a OS + Program drive. Two reasons - 1. Too small, 2) some redundancy error correction is disabled.

2) Recommend 120/128 gig SSD (My prefernce is the Curcial M4 or the Samsung 830 - which ever is cheapest). On all my systems windows + programs (NO GAMES) take up approx 35 Gigs - So Add to that the amount of space needed for Games. If you come up around 90 gigs, GO For the 256 gig SSD.

3) HDD, YES!!!. But I'd probably go with the Samsung F3. Samsung F3 is a sata II HDD, The Sata III HDD, is marketing hype as a HDD does NOT max out a sata II port on sustained throughput, The ONLY advantage Of a SATA III HDD on sata III port is in that SHORT Burst speed, Waste of a good SATA III port. My Normal HDD of choice is the: 1st Samsung F3, 2nd choice WD Blacks, - DO NOT recommend the WD blues, or Green models. Just Bought two Samsung 1 TB F3 drives off of newegg last week $80 a piece on sale ofcoarse. I've not had a failure on my F3, but have had 2 WD blacks fail.

 
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They're the same thing. Just different notations. One refers to SATA 3.0's data transfer rate of 6Gb/s while the other refers to it by the name of the standard's name SATA 3. Either way, a HDD is not even fast enough to reach the limit of SATA 1 or SATA 2, so it doesn't matter how they market it.

Check the warranties for each.
 
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Warranties for Black is great, except Not that important as warrantee period is based on Many factors, of which reliability is often not the leading factor. Normally for the longer warrantee you just pay extra.

1)..When I was in TV repair, I could buy a CRT, sales man placed ON desk, cost increased with warrantee I wanted to pass on - EXACT same CRT - How long it would really last HAD nothing to do with the period of time increasing the warrantee period WOULD NOT increase how long it lasted.

2) Newegg ratings:
... Samsung 1 TB F3. 2056 Responses: 15% 1/2 egg ratings vs 81% 4/5 ratings. (Winner)
... WD Black Sata III (6) 1738 Responses: 19% 1/2 egg ratings vs 73 % 4/5 ratings.

3) F3 seems to be more often the recommend choice between F3 & WD blacks. I was looking around and found that Anandteck used the F3 as the recommended drive in their mainstream High end Build: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5196/holiday-2011-mainstream-high-end-buyers-guide/3

4) Not really sure which one has the Highest performance (ubercake is Correct - SATA III (6) is just a marketing tool), But probably so close that the user will not tell the diff in real lif usage.

4) Back to warrantee. When one of my drives fail, I do Not send back, I take a Hammer to it - Have data on it and if I can not ensure data can NOT be retrieved, It is NOT going anywheres. It's always a hassle to RMA a drive, so I tend to pick which I THINK has the least likehood of failing.

WD blacks use to be my drive of Choice, emphases on PAST tense.

PS: Curcial M4 is an excellent choice. NOTE: I have 2 128 gig M4s, two 128 gig 830's and two 120 gig Agillity IIIs
 
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