System is in my sig, but I've decided to go all out and buy an SSD for my Steam library. Thoughts are a 240GB drive, and retaining my 60GB for Windows - it'll mean I can't have everything installed at once, but I can have my favourites and a bit of space for swapping. I can't see that a pair of 120GB drives in RAID is any better? However, I've not been following SSDs recently, and have no idea which to buy. I've got a SATA3 port available, but would like to stick as close to £1/GB as possible in terms of cost. Do I want a SandForce drive, or something else? Another Corsair drive? Intel?
I've not had any issues, and I've had a 128GB one since launch, still on 100% health using that SSD checker thing, at about 60% full If I had a 256GB version I'd have my entire library on there too; as it is I've got TF2 with a redirect, BF3 and a few other programs on there, makes such a difference Edit: You might want to check out Pocket Demons posts too, he seems to be the most knowledgeable on them 'round these here parts
Rather than retype, this basically covers most things as the OP also appeared to be looking at 240/256GB models. To tailor things slightly for you - - the 60GB SSD you have will be much slower than any 240/256GB model & so i'm really not sure why you'd want to keep windows on the one you have(?). You'd be much better off having most of everything on the new SSD. - if, however, you're adamant that you want to do things the way you're suggesting, the choice then will depend somewhat on what you're using the new one for... Simply that if it's predominantly read only (ie a games install SSD) then a M4 would actually be a decent choice if it's much cheaper than the better alternatives... ...whereas (esp) if you're doing more day-to-day writes (esp with heavy multitasking) then you'd see a decent performance increase from looking at something else.
- The 60GB seems fast enough for Windows, and I don't use the rig for anything apart from gaming. Would I actually see a difference by just using the single drive? My biggest problem is capacity, if I install Windows etc on the one 240GB drive I have even less space for games. - You're right, it's a read-only drive once the installs are done. Read is by far the most important stat to look at. Out of interest, with that in mind, what are my alternatives for read-biased drives?
Tbh, shaving a tiny amount of time off loading games isn't the best use of the faster SSD, given that it's all the Windows processes & pagefile usage & whatnot that will really benefit from the increased speed. ...& there's no reason why you couldn't stick a couple of games onto the 60GB one... ...or use it for other lower priority tasks like your email files & documents & whatnot. (i'm not sure how literal you're being about '(not using) the rig for anything apart from gaming' of course) & if you go down that route then it's back to the post linked to... ...but if you're 100% convinced that keeping Windows on the 60GB is the way to go, it's really about looking at the 'bang for the buck' on reads. in that case, it's either got to be a 256GB M4 or a bog standard sync nand 240GB SF (V3, Corsair GT, intel 520, etc) - the latter being slightly faster overall for reads but, again, there's the small chance that you could have compatibility issues... (again, the V4 'should' end up being faster, but it's unlikely to be atm for your proposed usage as your QD will be low, there will be few random reads & not everything will be large sequential r/ws - so it'd be buying on the assumption that the new f/w turns up & does what's promised... Yeah, 'if' there was definite news on the V4's f/w then they'd be top of the list for this usage unless they were considerably more than the other two options - they look to be about £30 more than the M4 atm which isn't *that* much at the capacity level but i don't think it's worth it for this usage... & there'd certainly be no point in spending extra money on the 830, PP or a toggle nand SF as you'd effectively see no gains for a read only usage & you're hardly going to be using many nand cycles unless you're constantly uninstalling & installing games)'if' you're going to go down this route, i'd go for whichever was cheapest - & look to putting any money you save towards swapping the 60GB out for the fastest 120/128GB (or 240/256GB if you can afford it) SSD that's available at the point when you've got the extra cash together...
I'm very literal about it being just for gaming - I have Macs for everything else! This box has nothing but Steam and Origin installed, and no emails or anything akin go near it. I'll look at the V3, M4, GT and 520 and find the cheapest on Monday when I'm going to purchase. However, your advice of changing out the 60GB for a faster model may be something I do next month. If I can upgrade the boot drive to a decent speed as well as the games volume, it's win win! Thanks for the advice
No worries... Yeah, assuming you're in the overwhelming majority of people who don't have issues with the SFs, they're a good choice now that they're roughly the same cost as the M4... (at different times the M4 & the sync nand SFs have swapped places with cost) ...though the models i gave aren't the only sync nand SFs available & they're much of a muchness - just make sure that you're not buying a cheaper async nand one (A3, Corsair F3 non-GT, etc) as they're noticably slower.
If it's all purely about the read speed, Aria were selling their 120Gb mushkin drives today for about £80....
Well they're async SFs & £90... ...not £80. Basically they're much slower at highly compressed r/ws... ...which drags down the average speeds considerably depending on the usage type. Well, for 99.999% compressed sequential reads which it is likely to tend nearer toward, at least in part, with a SSD purely for games than a general OS/apps SSD, they have less than half the read speeds of a sync nand SSD... (of course not all of the files will be as hampered but it's worth considering) So, that's not to say that 'if' price is more important it would be completely foolish to order two for the OP's usage... ...but it's something of a compromise... ...not least as the OP would have to buy 2 of them for R0 or separate drives to get the ~240/256GB that they're after - using up both of the 6Gb/s intel SATA connections & so preventing further upgrading (or limiting speeds further on a Marvell or 3Gb/s intel controller). [Edit] Just thought - Aria don't do free postage, so doing a checkout without buying of one of them (since it's ltd to 1 per order) & they're £98.33 a piece... which isn't cheap enough imho.
it's more about value for money rather than simply the base cost... Well, for just over £113 you can get an M4 & for just under £120 a V3... (& you can get a bit over £2 cashback on the V3 using http://www.topcashback.co.uk/dabs/) So, by spending a little more, you've got 2 far superior SSDs than an async SF... ...whether that'd be for 2X SSD for the OP's usage or a more general OS/apps SSD on a budget. More sensibly, the OP's after a single 240/256GB SSD - which would be ~£225 for a M4 or £230 for a V3... (both less ~£3 cashback) ...so going for a single larger SSD (which would be advantageous for the OP) doesn't appear to come at a premium. [NB - i'm not stating that these are necessarily the cheapest prices available btw - simply a very quick google shopping search to give an idea of the comparative costing between a low end SF that will have limitations & examples of the mid range drives which would be good value for money for the OP's usage...] [Edit] Don't get me wrong... if it had actually been £80 all in then despite everything i'd have probably said go for it as it would have been 2/3rds the price of what i was suggesting... ...but i'd seen the ad for it myself so knew it wasn't £80 &, as with all of Aria's things, there's a postage cost to add in. That's not to say that Aria aren't a great place to buy from at times... (i've bought lots of things from them in the past when they've been the cheapest) ...but their emails don't quite give the full story.
