Are SSDs truly worth it?

[Hunter Makoy]

I recently had my 320gb main system hdd crash. I'm now running off an old 140gb hdd for my OS and other main programs. It definitely seems that SSDs have a great advantage over HDD with performance, but are there good values out there yet?

I will be upgrading my motherboard and CPU soon, and I run Windows 7 64 bit. Is it worth going with a 120gb or so SDD? I don't need a 1 tb drive for main files, and the 500 gb drives are only 10% or so cheaper.

Also, if most of my games are on Steam, and that storage having to be on a separate hdd, would the SSD show any advantage with that?

[Crazyeyesreaper]

yes there are good values

a 128 GB Crucial M4 on various days can be had for under $100 on newegg when its on sale,

seen a 512GB Agility 4 go for just $320 at one point as well

moving games off the OS drive does help if set up properly

you have to remember the HDD has a page file windows uses + loads app and the OS from that HDD, these means the HDD when running everything is pulling double duty,

120 GB ssd + 1tb is the prefered combo, most lower capacity drives arent cheap enough to bother with, and an SSD once you get one and install the most important apps to it you will not go back to mechanical drives.

[Hunter Makoy]

yes there are good values

a 128 GB Crucial M4 on various days can be had for under $100 on newegg when its on sale,

seen a 512GB Agility 4 go for just $320 at one point as well

moving games off the OS drive does help if set up properly

you have to remember the HDD has a page file windows uses + loads app and the OS from that HDD, these means the HDD when running everything is pulling double duty,

120 GB ssd + 1tb is the prefered combo, most lower capacity drives arent cheap enough to bother with, and an SSD once you get one and install the most important apps to it you will not go back to mechanical drives.

Sounds great. So basically my steam being on a separate drive is already helping as much as it can.

Where can i find good information on setting up a SSD?

[Shocked]

I bought a 64 GB SSD for my OS and a 500 GB HDD for storage, still have about 18 GB of space left on my SSD, i'm running 64 bit Windows 7.

[karamazovmm]

You dont need to do anything to a SSD, but you can remove some windows things to get back some space. Basically you turn off virtual memory (only do this if you have more than 8gb of ram), hibernation (advisable) and thats it, otherwise some people fiddle with pre fetch and some other stuff that arent worth the time.

I would go for a 256gb SSD, since those are the fast ones, crucial and samsung are the brands that I advise, sand force still gives people (and me) headaches.

But to answer the question if the SSDs are worth it, yes, once you go SSD you never go back

[GasMask]

One SSD for your operating system is good enough and then use something like a 1-3TB HDD for your games and movies .

[PGeo36]

Short answer is yes, they are worth it. I used to not think so, but then I got my first one and quickly changed my mind. I use my 120 gb with my 500 gb hdd for storage. I use the steam mover for steam.

[Hunter Makoy]

It looks like the best brands are either Crucial or OCZ. Alot of them show different speed listings though, for MB/s and IOPs. Some list max, and some list sustained. Which ones should I pay attention to?

[karamazovmm]

It looks like the best brands are either Crucial or OCZ. Alot of them show different speed listings though, for MB/s and IOPs. Some list max, and some list sustained. Which ones should I pay attention to?

I dont know where you saw that buying a OCZ ssd is a good thing, but to the point the samsung and crucial are the best ones available, being the samsung slightly faster.

One thing that you have to focus is on reliability, sandforce has issues, crucial had, samsung doesnt have any AFAIK, get either samsung or crucial and give yourself peace of mind.

I have a common problem with the corsair (sandforce) that I have, it cant hibernate. If it hibernates it will crash, its a very common issue with sandforce, and there are some other things as well, that arent worth mentioning, basically, while a lot of OEMs do use sandforce, I wouldnt buy another one, until they fix everything. This reminds me that I have to buy another SSD

[Hunter Makoy]

I dont know where you saw that buying a OCZ ssd is a good thing, but to the point the samsung and crucial are the best ones available, being the samsung slightly faster.

One thing that you have to focus is on reliability, sandforce has issues, crucial had, samsung doesnt have any AFAIK, get either samsung or crucial and give yourself peace of mind.

I have a common problem with the corsair (sandforce) that I have, it cant hibernate. If it hibernates it will crash, its a very common issue with sandforce, and there are some other things as well, that arent worth mentioning, basically, while a lot of OEMs do use sandforce, I wouldnt buy another one, until they fix everything. This reminds me that I have to buy another SSD

I got that about OCZ because it had good reviews on newegg. I went with the Samsung anyway

Thanks everybody.

[Bolkonsky]

Don't discredit Samsung, theirs are extremely fast and worth more per gigabyte than most other comparable ones. Plus they use their own controller, not Sandforce which has some issues. I've got a Samsung 830 128gb, it's given me zero issues so far, and is lightning fast.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Admiral Piett]

Kingston just came out with a fantastic model as well which I'm considering for my next build. I'm still running an ancient machine.

[Hunter Makoy]

Which of these three do yall think would be the best buy?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147163 Samsung 128gb

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148442 Crucial 128gb

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227791 OCZ 128gb

[Bolkonsky]

At that price, the Samsung is the clear winner.

[AqD]

Definitely. I have been using it for several months and it's invaluable for game modding and software development, where I often need to search through thousands of files.


Don't buy a small SSD to put only windows on it - buy a 256G or 512G SSD to put everything except game setup, movies and backup files.

Also you can skip the speed spec of SSDs. Faster SSDs wouldn't really be much different from slower ones and it's better to spend your money on larger capacity.

[Musthavename]

To answer the thread title... YES.

I was very skeptical of getting an SSD, since I didn't care too much about boot times. But the real kicker is that applications are usable the instant you boot. Before I was waiting a good 15-20 seconds after I got to my desktop before my browser launched, now it's instantaneous. And they're cheap enough now that you can get a half decent size.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

agreed im on sandforce as well while the speed is noticeable i had a boat load of issues up until a new firmward a month or so ago where they finally fixed hibernate and bunch of other problems but that also resulted in a performance drop so not to happy about it. looking at grabbing a Vertex 4, Agility 4 (seen it go as low as $300 for a 512GB) or a crucial / samsung 256gb. just to get away from sandforce.

[karamazovmm]

great choice! there was a promo for the samsung 530 256gb some days ago at B&H, it was for 179, and to think that was usually the price of the 128gb model when this drive was launched.

[SonOfCrusader76]

How can you tell whether your case will be able to accommodate an SSD? My next upgrade is definitely going to include one, so I need to know whether I'll have to get a new case as well.

[karamazovmm]

How can you tell whether your case will be able to accommodate an SSD? My next upgrade is definitely going to include one, so I need to know whether I'll have to get a new case as well.

if you are going for a desktop its simple, buy a 3.5'' caddy, if you are doing it for a notebook, buy a 7mm drive just to be sure, though a lot of notebooks still use 9.5mm there are some that are using the slimmer format