I have a Crucial M4 256GB as my main drive and just received my Samsung 830 256GB drive today as I was running out of space. Out of the two drives, which is better suited for OS and main applications and which is better to run games from?
I'd have the fastest drive for OS and applications, so that would be the 830. Game maps etc will still load blisteringly fast from any SSD compared to a HDD.
I've had my 830 for a while now, and performance is identical to when it was new. GC seems excellent, and the software that comes with it is good too.
Thanks again for the quick reply. One last question, will a quick format on the M4 be enough before I use it to install games to? My thinking it if I quick format, and make the Samsung my primary drive, the TRIM on the M4 might not fully erase everything on the M4 before I install the games to it. Should I secure erase and if so, how would I go about it?
A quick format is fine, as you can force TRIM with various software. I use Diskeeper 2011's "hyperfast" to maintain performance, and you can force an optimisation run. GC on either drive is good though, so just leave the PC on overnight at the BIOS screen and the internal GC should take care of itself. However, grab a copy of the Parted Magic .ISO here It has a secure erase tool on it. (read instructions here)
+1 on parted magic. jfyi though, what DK 2011's Hyperfast does is to force x amount of block combining ahead of either GC doing the same thing or the necessity of it having to happen in real time - thus helping to maintain speeds by front loading the cycles needed to do this (which, incidentally, can reduce overall cycle usage). (the white papers at the time called it "free space fragmentation" - but, in normal SSD parlance, it's taking about dirty blocks) [NB the differences between this & other approaches (for example PerfectDisk's) is that it (a) doesn't do it to the nth degree - there being no point, of course, in combining every very temporary file as it just adds to cycle usage & (b) it (only) runs when it's actually needed & during idle time - rather than being scheduled.] it's not the same as trim though. Also, incidentally, the last 2011 build allowed the use of intelliwrite on SSDs (you had to manually enable it) - though, whilst this will optimise block usage as data's written, it *may* have a side effect of increasing the no of dirty blocks... ...it's not possible to tell exactly what it's doing & there no specific info about it that i could find to lead me to a definite conclusion. (though 'if' it were all gain & no potential downside then i would have expected it to be enabled by default when a SSD is detected - it's not in 2012 either) Then, with DK12, it apparently also allows some kind of implementation of trim in (some?) non-trim environments. Well, other it being stated that it does it & there's the setting for it on my proper machine (but not this one as it's only got a single SSD in atm, as i've not sorted putting some of my V2s in instead, so it has trim anyway), there's a lack of detailed info from Condusive about how it's doing anything. [Edit] Oh, & i should say that if there's sufficient idle time & free space (& OP) then there's no *need* to buy any 3rd party solution - be that DK or anything else... ...instead it's an additional choice that can improve the maintenance of speed. This isn't saying don't buy it (well i value the thing so money & mouth) - just making things clear.
Much more crucial (pun goodness) than an ssd. I feel obligated after discussion, to raise the issue of the 4 gpus in your system that have a usable 1GB of RAM each. What did you say your power usage was at the wall? 1KW? Can't even run BF3 with full settings @ 1200p because the VRAM runs out? Air conditioning needs to be on when gaming which probably adds another 800w? Change the thread title. We need a war cabinet meeting about this! As promised, here is an 11' score of my system http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3865282 Lets see your bragging rights
If you're running them both on sata2, i'd be tempted to jut leave the m4 as the boot drive and move what you newd on to the sammy as storage. True the sammy is quicker, but as they both saturate the sata 2 connection, you won't see the differance. Also, that way, you don't need to go through all the faffing around of changing them over.
Lol, downloading the benchmark now but I hardly see how this is gonna be fair, I have a 1st gen i7, you have 3rd gen clocked higher than me, you have SATA 3, im on SATA 2, you are running more RAM and faster RAM But sure, what the heck Thanks, I do like the sound of the easier solution, any was to change my steam directory and move the games over to the new drive?
The CPU is a valid point, the RAM wont affect the scores much and the SATA ports really have nothing to do with it at all. Unless you meant PCIe. I am simply trying to demonstrate that despite having 4 cores, a single 670 or 680 will wipe the floor in games and save you and your fam a massive amount on leccy!! Oh btw, our tents have been raided
Just use the electricity argument, you'll win hands down Plus you should raise some cash from the sale of your gpus Don't know if they saved, but our tents have been cleared out and a new tent erected. So obviously its been had and is a bit risky now.
I got your ass wupped! http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3891989 [edit] Not really teh thread for that though... couldn't resist