Would I NEED an SSD for a pc

[ExoticAzule]

Hi, I am currently in the process of a build and I'm wondering if I NEED an SSD storage card

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/

This is my build right now, any thoughts or opinions?

 

[Sedivy]

You do not need ssd. People have been building pcs without it for decades. But...ssd speeds startup of OS and of every application installed on it. It's highly beneficial that you get one, as you'll notice a difference. That being said, if you're on a budget and can't afford it at the moment, you can add it later and migrate your OS to it.

 

[boosted1g]

Computer's have been built without SSDs for decades.

You can certainly still use an old magnetic HDD for your boot drive.
You will notice a massive difference in windows and program load times with an SSD.

 

[raisonjohn]

If your PC's purpose requires faster boot times, launching applications, saving, copying, extracting files, professional work where time is of the essence, etc., then, yes, you NEED an SSD.

If your PC's purpose is just for gaming and non-professional work, then, the SSD is just gravy.

 

[mjslakeridge]

I don't have an SSD in any of my 3 computers. My everyday computer gets hibernated at the end of the day, and in the morning I am back to where I left off the night before in less than a minute, all applications, Chrome Tabs, IP cameras, etc. For my less frequently used ProTools Audio PC, I do completely shut it down, and in the time it takes to boot up (about 2 minutes), I can turn on the other studio equipment, mixing board, amplifier, effects rack, audio interface, etc.

That being said, when I build my next rig I will probably get a SSD for the OS drive, as prices are pretty reasonable for the smaller sized ones.

 

[geofelt]

I will never again build without a SSD for windows.
It makes everything you do seem so much quicker.

I sleep to ram and it takes 5 seconds to sleep or wake.
Thumbnails open instantly.
Maintenance and virus scans are faster.

No, you don't need one.

but if you care about performance buy one.
Hard drives are good for storing large sequential files.

 

[ExoticAzule]

I think I'll get an SSD cause I get sorta impatient sometimes so I'm not sure.

 

[ExoticAzule]

If you have multiple SSD's will your computer boot up faster?

 

[geofelt]

If you have multiple SSD's will your computer boot up faster?

NO.

 

[Sedivy]

You install your OS, in your case windows, on one drive only (unless you're doing RAID shenanigans which unless you're a professional server, you won't be doing) so there's no need for multiple SSDs. You can get one, minimum 250Gb for your OS and for applications. Then you can get an HDD, as they're cheaper, for all the big files like music, movies, photos, games and so on. That way your computer and your browser and media player and chat and so on, start up and run fast, but you still get plenty of space for bigger files that you don't need instant loading for.

 

[Dave_89]

So a good 1TB HDD and a cheap 120GB SSD are about the same price right now. You NEED one or the other, you don't need both really, but having both is the best option. You would store your OS and any demanding apps you want to run (games) on the SSD, and any downloads such as videos, music etc would go on the HDD, along with any large files or maybe your steam folder for all those games you install but never play.

If your budget is so super tight that you cannot afford a 120GB Sandisk Plus to run your OS from, given the choice between a 1TB HDD and a 120GB SSD I would still pick the SSD.

Sure, you won't be able to store much on your PC with only 120GB storage, but that's kind of ok. You can just delete games off Steam when you're not playing them and there's no need to download anything really if you use a streaming app like Kodi, as well as Netflix, Youtube etc.

No, you don't "need" a SSD in your PC, but then you don't "need" a GPU either, it can run on onboard graphics just "fine".

 

[ExoticAzule]

Thank you all so much!