Are SSD for OS, games and programs???? If so, then why have anything bigger than 120GB? How large is the OS? The average program? The average game? Also, does it help WHILE USING the program or game, or just to start it? It takes about a three minutes for my system to start up, and maybe 20 seconds for my maximum program or game loading time. Basically I am looking at getting one if performance is worth it and need a reasonable "future-proof" GB size for my needs. Thanks!
As far as I know SSD's are used for the OS, programs, and games - that's what I would use it for at least. There isn't really any point to having anything bigger than 120 (or 160 depending on the manufacturer). As for average sizes, I know Windows 7 needs at least 8GB (and that's with hibernation disabled and no extra languages); and newish games seem to average around 5-8GB each as well. Right now with Windows 7, about 7 or 8 games, and just general programs (Zune software, OpenOffice, XBMC, Firefox) installed I'm using 105GB. If I was going to get an SSD I'd probably get the 160GB Intel X25M.
I personally notice a huge difference using SSDs but, in answer to all but the last of your questions, it depends upon personal usage. Well, whilst you'd be better off buying several small SSDs & R0ing them (up to the level that your controller can handle), if you were using a laptop you may only be able to install a single drive so not be able to also have a HDD for data. i guess someone might also only install one for low power usage - esp in something like a Atom based media centre where HDD noise &/or heat might be a factor. What does an 'average' user install? Well, me telling you that I need 60GB for this PC & 200GB for my main PC (+ have around 20TB of HDD data space) for all the things I install doesn't mean anything. You can tell your requirements by looking at what's currently installed, but that's only useful info for your usage. What I can say is that you either need to leave about 20% of the SSD empty or buy something like the non-E Vertex2 (as they have a decent amount of over-provisioning) to keep it running at decent speeds. It depends what program or game you're using - it won't make notepad or solitaire any quicker in usage as they're tiny nothing things, but it esp depends whether you keep the pagefile on the SSD & how many reads &/or writes the software does in the course of using it... & there's no such thing as future-proofing - well, next month & next year &... there will be something new & better out & there's no way of knowing what your future needs will actually be. in the context of size then (again) buying several smaller ones to raid reduces the cost of buying an extra one (to either image everything & then wiping, rebuilding the array or doing the latter two & doing a fresh install reinstall).
People don't use SSDs are other things because of moeny. If SSDs are cheap as HDDs then I would too. I have 4 HDDs in RAID 0 only cost me around 4 hundred, but if I wanted 4TB of SSD space, probably more than 10 grand. Windows itself would probably eat around 30GB, I just did a fresh format with drivers and nothing else. The rest you can install programs and games if you like. I personally don't think games need to be installed on a SSD. I certainly don't because my steam account has a couple dozen games, most over 4GB. Would max out my tiny 128GB SSD and just for marginally faster load screens because sustained read on HDDs in RAID 0 is pretty powerful already.
A 60GB SSD should be decent. 40GB for your windows files. 16GB for those games that are insane like STALKER or ARMA 2, that use alot of caching. Well 26GB since Windows is about 40GB.
You are assuming that people have a multi drive tower. Larger SSDs are perfect for people who live out of laptops. A 256gb or 500gb SSD starts to make sense then.
It all comes down too price, scan have a 1TB OCZ SSD listed on their site but at £2,600 its along way from a £50 samsung 1TB F3! If i had money to burn id still struggle to justify that price, So until price come down to an affordable level the best bet is to have your OS and most used programs on a smaller more affordable SSD and have a large cheap mechanical drive for bulk storage. and like Jumeira_Johnny says they're great for laptops where masses of space arent really needed but the extra speed is, Generally if im using my main comp i can wait a little while for it to do things so im not to fused about getting an SSD until i can get 500GB at a decent price.
3 minutes is a long time. I also agree with above, when you look at the price of F3's I think most ppl buying ssd's are crazy.
Right now SSD's are still too expensive, i would rather invest in a 1tb drive at £50-60 a shot to use as a boot drive, then retire into a storage drive when SSD prices drop.
Haven't I? Of course not! The internets wouldn't work if I tried one, weighed up the price vs performance and looked at f3's and stuff as well, then gave my opinion.
The only SSD ive ever used is the one inside my netbook, but from a desktop POV space is more important to me than speed, Yes if i put my OS on a small SSD it would be quicker, but i dont find my computer slow and like ive said id rather have 2TB of space than a fast 30/60GB boot drive tbh.
Eh? A fresh format and install of W7 takes about 14Gb. I've just done it. Yes files will accumulate with time and updates but 40Gb is way off. As for general use. Well, it works wonders for loading game levels. As an example playing Dragon Age Origins takes a couple of seconds on my SSD, other people have complained on HDDs at how long these take.
i took the plunge and got an intel 160gb x-25m for my desktop - that purchase made the single most difference to day-to-day usage out of the 2 grand i spent on that rig. after that i had to buy one for my laptop as i was sick of waiting for it to boot, got a 32 gb OCZ Onyx as a boot drive. Basically, once you go SSD, you cant go back
My Vista install is 27.8GB. My Steam folder is 61GB, then I have another 8GB of games on top of that. And I don't even have all my games installed at once. I don't own an SSD yet; I'm waiting for them to come in larger capacities and cheaper prices.
SSD speeds once you use 1 are just blazing fast they are imba for mmos that need to access hard disk alot Check out ff14 benchmark me and a m8 have the same system bar SSD he can't score Above 6k due to the hard disk been so slow whilst I get 8k that's the dif it can make in mmos Boot time is irelivent really, my pc rarely gets turned off
I never expected the sheer boost you get from an SSD. Having just installed Win 7 and am currently putting The Orange Box into the boot drive, I am impressed. I measured the boot time too. 40 seconds, even including selecting Windows 7 (My hard drive still has XP on it while I finish transferring what I need) and password entry. I made my dad jealous. He always gets angry when his laptop takes 2 minutes to boot and another to get ready to actually use. I just booted up and opened Firefox and Skype instantly. Made my day.
At the moment I'd get the 63GB Crucial RealSSD C300: http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=ctfddac064mag-1g1&click=true Got a good review on hexus: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=25308
