What is an SSD?

[Woody1999]

Okay, the title is a bit misleading. I know exactly what an SSD is, how it works and its basic advantages over a hard drive. However, I'm building a new PC soon, and I keep adding and removing and adding and removing an SSD to my list, I'm still undecided.

I feel like I really need to understand the full advantages of an SSD before I waste a precious £50 out of my £600 budget. I understand that they have much faster write and read speeds compared to an HDD. I understand that they reduce load times massively...but this alone won't convince me to buy one. Can someone with a bit of knowledge on these things really describe one to me? I've been told that there is so much more to it than what I know but they are hesitant to describe it to me.

Here is the link to my current build list:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/BLjzGX

Thanks in advance,

Woody

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://ocz.com/consumer/ssd-guide/ssd-vs-hdd

 

[jimthenagual]

Your understanding of SSDs is correct.

Is this for gaming?

Assuming it is, I don't think you need an SSD in that build. For your budget, you'd be MUCH better off spending that money on upgrading your CPU. As you said, having an SSD only helps load times, doesn't help with FPS at all, unless you are using a slower HDD, which you are not. I know you didn't ask for help with components, but for what it's worth, this will outperform the system you linked above in most games, particularly ones that are more CPU reliant.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£130.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£60.77 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£56.57 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 290 4GB DirectCU II Video Card (£215.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 Window ATX Mid Tower Case (£34.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 750W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£59.77 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£9.58 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £623.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-04 00:51 GMT+0000

Note, I upgraded your PSU to a higher quality one than the one you were looking at in order to match the quality of the GPU you want to use. I selected it for its quality, you don't need 750W, but it was such a great price, it made the most sense.

 

[RookieOfTheYear]

It stands for "solid state drive". It's basically the new technology of hard drives. A solid state drive doesn't have any moving parts though, and is significantly faster than any hard drive on the market. After having one, I will never go without one.

Blackbird posted a link to a very nice, in-depth explanation of the difference between a hard drive and a solid state drive.

EDIT: Sorry. I just read the rest of your post.

 

[Woody1999]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£130.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£60.77 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£56.57 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 290 4GB DirectCU II Video Card (£215.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 Window ATX Mid Tower Case (£34.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 750W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£59.77 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£9.58 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £623.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-04 00:51 GMT+0000

Thank you for the amazing reply!

The only reason I will stick with the FX-6300 is because my friend has an MSI 970 Gaming motherboard going spare and he's offered to sell it to me for £30, I simply can't refuse an offer like that. Plus in the future I will go water-cooling and OC that wonderful CPU to 5.0GHz.

I'll get rid of the SSD and follow your advice, getting a better quality PSU and potentially a Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Vapor-X instead of Asus' stock version. Thank you again.

Woody

 

[Woody1999]

How about this?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£74.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS10X OPTIMA CPU Cooler (£19.16 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: MSI 970 GAMING ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£72.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£56.57 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Vapor-X Video Card (£245.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 Window ATX Mid Tower Case (£34.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 750W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£59.77 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHDS118-04 DVD/CD Drive (£9.58 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £629.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-04 01:18 GMT+0000

 

[jimthenagual]

Good system built around a basically free motherboard. I'm sure that'll be a fun system to game with. Enjoy!

 

[Woody1999]

Thanks very much!

Woody