Will (probably) buy a SSD soon and i have some questions

[salawow]

Hello !

I built a new system last month but i kept my old HDD. I'm thinking of getting a SSD for OS/gaming and keep the HDD for storage, but i have some questions. I am on a tight budget and i really want to make the best possible choice. I never had a SSD before, and although i read alot of comment saying things like "omg SSD changed my life, speed is like ferrari vs crawling on floor with hands and feet tied together", i'm still wondering how much i will feel this increased speed.

Ok so, here's some Q/A about my situation.

Why i want new storage: My 1TB WD caviar black is about 6-7 years old with about 45,000 hours usage. It also stayed for 6 years in a not well ventilated case, running at temperatures of 45-50 (occasionally 55). I fear it might die soon so i want to move it from primary HDD to Storage only.

Why i'm hesitating between a HDD and SSD: More space would definetly be nice. I could get a 3TB seagate barracuda for the price of a 256gb SSD. But, if the increase in speed is good enough (and noticable enough), a SSD could be better. (i don't have enough money to buy both).

What am i doing in my computer ? 40% internet browsing, 40% gaming, 10% movie watching, 5% other random things, 5% watching the desktop wondering which game i want to play.

What are my specs ?: i5-4590, Asrock h97 fatal1ty performance, Gigabyte g1 gtx 970, 8gb memory, 650w xfx PSU.

What OS am i using ?: Windows 7 x64

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And now my questions:

1- I have watched video about boot time / loading time comparison between HDD and SSD and it seems pretty nice. What about things like saving in Skyrim ?. Depending on how far i am in the game, it takes between 1 to 4 seconds. Can i expect saving in less than 1 seconds with a SSD ? And things like VRAM loading. In a heavily modded skyrim, i occasionally reach my 4gb VRAM, leading to some stuttering. Will a SSD help with this stuttering ?

2- I'm hesitating between a Crucial mx100 256gb and a Samsung 840 evo 250gb. Crucial is cheaper, but Samsung have better write speed. In what kind of situation would i benefits from this faster write speed ? And is there any other differences between these 2 drives ? (durability, etc)

3- I read that SSD memory have limited write cycle. Should i worry about it ? For exemple, In skyrim, i usually save 50+ time per hours. Would it be a problem ? and what does happen if i reach this write cycle limit ? Lose a definite amount of space ? SSD just die ?. I read some people saying i should tweak pagefiles or something like that to limit write, etc. Should i go paranoid about that ? (I'd like todo all i can to keep is working for 5 years, if possible)

4- If possible, i'd like to avoid reinstalling OS, games, application, etc. I have all that on my HDD on a 256gb partition (which 150gb is currently used). The other partition is 600gb used storage space, that will stay on the HDD. Is it possible and if yes, how can i do that ?

5- If i use my old HDD for storage, what is the best way to preserve it's life ? Can i turn it off when i don't need it ? (without unplugging it of course)

6- Is there anything else important i should know about SSD ?

Damn, it's a fairly large post, thank you if you have the courage to read it all

 

[DataMedic]

1. SSD's aren't much faster than standard drives for sequential read/writes, however they are much faster for accessing lots of small files. I'm not familiar with that game, but I'd assume that if it saves the game to a single file you won't see much difference. If however it saves to a lot of little files it might. I doubt the SSD will have much effect on any in game studdering, that's likely due to the limitations of your video card. But having a faster drive certainly doesn't hurt. You'll likely see a huge boost to game/app load times (AKA faster time to the action).

2. Samsung - Uses better memory, will last longer.

3. When the NANDs become worn you will start to lose space. This can be minimized by ensuring that your sectors are properly aligned.

4. Yes, it's possible. But it's not a good idea to just RAW image the drive to the SSD. That may lead to sector misalignment which will lead to premature failure of the SSD. Use a program like Paragon SSD migration to handle the imaging, and you should be all set.

5. Believe it or not turning off and on is more likely to kill it. If you don't mind wasting the extra electricity, just leave it running. Make sure to back up anything you can't rebuild if it does fail (pictures, docs)

6. Follow this guide to optimize your system for an SSD: http://www.disk-partition.com/kb/tips-ssd-optimization-windows7-1.html

 

[salawow]

Thank you for the answer A few more questions:

What is sector misalignment ?

According to the guide you linked, disabling paging files is controverial. Do you personally suggest to do it ?

So if i understand correctly, there is no noticable benefits beside OS/game/app load time, is that right ?

 

[DataMedic]

SSD's have 4Kb sectors, while most traditional hard drives use 512byte sectors (or at least emulate this). If you directly image a hard drive to an SSD the partition could end up starting in the middle of a sector instead of at the beginning. This will result in every file being overlapped across sectors (meaning that every time a sector needs to be accessed, the SSD will actually have to access both the wanted sector and the sector after it). This effectively doubles the input/output of many of the most used sectors such as the ones containing your OS. It slows things down, and will result in premature death.

I would definitely disable pagefile, but only after ensuring that you have enough RAM. If you run out of RAM you'll bluescreen. So make sure you have a lot, like double the recommended of your most demanding game (RAM is usually pretty cheap).

Overall you will see a noticeable difference with an SSD. Apps will not only load faster but will overall operate much faster too. Games might not see as much a difference as they are usually optimized to minimize HDD access during gameplay because it is the biggest bottleneck on your system.

 

[DataMedic]

Edit: There are a few odd programs that require a pagefile to run for some stupid reason. However you can create one on your storage drive to make it work, without having to have it on the SSD.

I'd recommend 12-16Gb of RAM if you're looking for a number to throw at it to be sure you won't BSOD out.

 

[DataMedic]

By the way, don't forget to mark which response answered your question. I'm going for a new badge.

 

[salawow]

Thank you, i think i understand it better now About RAM, i have 8gb, and getting more is almost on bottom of my "to buy" list. I don't think i ever ran out of ram, but i have occasionally seen 90% used RAM when running multiple application together. In this situation, would you still recommand disabling pagefiles ?