Which 1TB SSD is affordable but still good and do I need one or a 2nd HDD

[zzmurray]

My son wants a 1TB SSD added to his computer. I seem to make bad choices on things I am unfamiliar with. So can anyone suggest a 1TB SSD that is on the less expensive side? And any I should stay away from. I was hoping for no more than $350 +-. I saw some of the cheapest two were Transcend and Mushkin Reactor.

He uses his desktop for extreme gaming and making games. He wanted to put all of his Steam games on the SSD, and that will pretty much fill it up, since they load slower than the rest of his games and his HDD is almost full now.

He said a SSD would speed up things loading, but do they speed up that much faster than a HDD?

My setup:

I am replacing the motherboard with an Asus Z97-A or Pro Gamer, haven't decided which.

Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor

Memory Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked ACX Video Card

NZXT Phantom 410 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case

Raidmax 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

AOC e2752Vh 60Hz 27.0" Monitor

BenQ RL2455HM 60Hz 24.0" Monitor

 

[Mattios]

If the files he wants to add are games, then yes it will help. Things like photos and documents are useless to add to an SSD.

I don't really have experience with any large capacity drives, but I'd suggest you just go on Amazon and see which ones have good reviews.

 

[chenw]

It will speed up loading if he puts the files on SSD yes, but the actual effect of that speed up heavily depends on the application he will be using it for.

For example:

1. OS will get the greatest benefit because OS tend to load lots and lots of files, and spinning drives are definitely slower at finding those files than SSD.
2. Games will greatly depend on the game. If the game goes into loading screen a lot, it will help. But once the game is loaded, SSD will do little to its performance.
3. Storing Photos and movies will be a waste on a SSD, it will perform almost as well as 1TB harddrive. No currently avaliable format of Movies will even come close to saturating the SATA. Photos may take a little while to load if he has lots of them, but a HDD would do unless he uses those photos on a regular basis.
4. For recording movies, SSD is better for that I believe.

Mushkin's 1TB SSD seems to be one of the better value available:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PAFJJRA

 

[asgard1123]

My son wants a 1TB SSD added to his computer. I seem to make bad choices on things I am unfamiliar with. So can anyone suggest a 1TB SSD that is on the less expensive side? And any I should stay away from. I was hoping for no more than $350 +-. I saw some of the cheapest two were Transcend and Mushkin Reactor.

He uses his desktop for extreme gaming and making games. He wanted to put all of his Steam games on the SSD, and that will pretty much fill it up, since they load slower than the rest of his games and his HDD is almost full now.

He said a SSD would speed up things loading, but do they speed up that much faster than a HDD?

My setup:

I am replacing the motherboard with an Asus Z97-A or Pro Gamer, haven't decided which.

Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor

Memory Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB Superclocked ACX Video Card

NZXT Phantom 410 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case

Raidmax 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

AOC e2752Vh 60Hz 27.0" Monitor

BenQ RL2455HM 60Hz 24.0" Monitor

Don't forget to use the SATA high speed port.