Build of month: would you consider a desktop w/o SSD?

[Deleted]

Hello guys,

Took a look at BoM and i am puzzled — does anyone consider builds w/o SSD nowadays?
I mean you can be poor and all but 128SSD is what, 50 bucks? I had such an awful experience on the machines that didn't have one, even waiting for a system, application or game to load or save, it honestly felt like i am back on my pentium 233mmx.

I know that "in theory" when it's loaded it's loaded and gaming experience itself shouldn't suffer but.. it does! I was playing black desert briefly without an SSD then added one — wow, it stopped being sluggish right away.
Considering we are all playing an open-world mmo that constantly loads something into and out of memory wouldn't SSD be the first thing you would consider?


Best

[Djuntas]

Nope, having had a SSD for a while now its the single greatest improvement to my "PC power". The gtx 970 is cool GPU, my I5 does fairly OK, and my case and temps are great always the same stable, but that SSD...<3

[Deleted]

it all depends on what the machine is for, which is why generic build advice is well, generic.

i think the general idea is that most people _need_ at least say 500gb room no matter what, so that is a priority over everything else. between windows, 2-3 games, maybe a few movies, some schoolwork, etc youll reach 500 quickly these days. and like it or not a ssd at the end of the day is mostly a quality of life upgrade, so if you are on a budget the choice really becomes loading times vs a better gpu.

now if your spending more then $600 orso, then yeah there is no excuse.

[Deleted]

I feel like "loading time" phrase is misleading. When you get summoned to a dungeon and the group pulls assuming you are there you don't want to have loading time. When you run on the mount and end up in a different location, you don't want loading time either. The faster you travel the more noticeable it is, flying mounts sometimes give you slide shows. When you teleport to Dalaran and it actually loaded but then you start moving and your whole environment and people around you are "lagging" and you feel like you have -1 fps it' is not perceived as loading time, it's just "lag".

I'd rather have shtest mouse / keyboard and maybe even worse CPU or MB but would save those 50$ and plug it on top of 500gb HDD. It's a massive improvement no matter what you are doing.

To be more specific: on that puppy builds i'd ditch heatsink (assuming that CPU comes with one), 43 for a mouse look a bit too much, and who needs DVD these days? Here you go 60 bucks. (also, speakers, really?)

[Fascinate]

Yes but not one without a SSHD (solid state hard drive, aka hybrid drives).

In fact, i built one a month ago with no SSD's and am happy as a clam with it.

[Maruka]

I wouldnt no but i could understand if its a super tight budget to skip it. Then again if i was under that tight of a budget in my life i wouldnt be building a computer anyways.

[Erous]

I wouldn't be able to live without an SSD at this point especially due to it's current low cost and performance value.

[MrPaladinGuy]

I wouldn't, as long as I can still have a very large, fast, and cheap mechanical HDD for a majority of my games that wouldn't greatly benefit from an SSD or fit.

Edit - forgot to page @GennGreymane since he's banned

[Gourmandise]

When the a good chunk of games have their performance and stability affected by read speeds, not just load times, I'd care. I'll always add one to a build list but it also might be one of the first things I'd cut or lower in quality if I was over budget. Like, ooo, I'm sooo happy I can load faster into my games that play at 30fps with stuttering
In the end you also look at your specific situation. Maybe you play multiplayer games and need faster loading times to not drag the team down or make everyone wait, etc. Its always going to be a specific situation that's personal from build to build.

[Gaidax]

I wouldn't buy any computer without SSD in 2017, even if its a small SSD for essentials. It does not affect FPS, but it damn sure affects everything else around it. It simply makes your experience more pleasant overall by cutting loading times of everything including OS and applications themselves and the difference is significant.

[Enfilade]

I would not recommend skipping out on including a SSD into your build, as cheap as they are these days. That goes without saying that just because you have a SSD, it doesn't mean that you can't have a traditional HDD (for things like storage). I personally run 3 hard-drives (1 SSD and 2 HDD).

[Shakadam]

I would never build a computer with a HDD in it anymore simply due to noise. You wouldn't believe how much noise a HDD actually makes.

I put all my HDD's in a NAS in my closet some months ago, I only have 2 SSD's (120gb+750gb) in my computer now. The reduction in noise by simply removing the HDD's from the computer was faaaaaaaaaaaar greater than the combination of all the other things I did to make my PC as silent as possible (I switched out my case to a sound dampened model, changed all fans to low RPM noctua fans which I run at only ~500 RPM, and replaced the power supply with a semi-passive model).

[ovm33]

I personally would not consider building a rig without one... but my budget isn't so limited as to need to exclude one. In fact my next build is going to have one large SSD as opposed to a small SSD and large HDD.

However, if a person's budget was limited in such a way as including a SSD would take away from a part that would actually increase in game performance then I would not suggest one. I.E. Having a 1050ti plus an SSD or having a 1060 and no SSD I would recommend getting the 1060.

[Linkedblade]

Not after having one for a few years. I'd rather have a small sad for os and favorite games, and an ok sized HDD say one or two TB.

Now I'd rather have an ok sized ssd and a small m.2.

[Kagthul]

However, if a person's budget was limited in such a way as including a SSD would take away from a part that would actually increase in game performance then I would not suggest one. I.E. Having a 1050ti plus an SSD or having a 1060 and no SSD I would recommend getting the 1060.

This is where im at. If adding an SSD compromises actual performance, I'll cut it first thing.

[chazus]

No. Simply put.

A cheap SSD (250gb) is about $90. A HDD is $50.

In a new system, there are two instances: The system is brand new, or it's an upgrade from an older one.

First, we're going to assume that $40 simply doesn't make or break any system. If $40 pushes you over your 'limit', you're living on too tight a budget and probably shouldn't be getting a system anyway. Otherwise, you can cut corners elsewhere and save that $40 to afford it (or even live with a 120gb ssd)

If it's brand new, you really don't need a ton of space for a while. Wait a month or two and buy the larger drive later.
If it's an upgrade from and older system, and you NEED that space, you already have a drive holding that stuff.

[Vash The Stampede]

Still don't use an SSD in any of my machines. Not a big fan of using something with limited storage. I would want at least a 500GB SSD to even consider using one. I'm waiting for them to drop bellow $100 before upgrading. Otherwise I'm fine with what I got. I've built people computers with SSDs but also with HDD's.

[Fascinate]

I will reiterate, hybrid HDD's are where its at. SSD's are too expensive for most people as a game drive so why would anyone buy a ~250gb ssd if you can achieve the same benefits with a hybrid hdd that only has a small premium?

[Alantor]

A cheap SSD (250gb) is about $90. A HDD is $50.

A good 250GB ssd is about $90, a cheap one is around $70 (although I wouldn't buy it) and a chinese one is around $50 (with coupons). So yeah, no excuse : )

[potis]

This discussion again.

Any system without SSD feels like a turtle after you try one.

Only PCs i put a HDD in are those that i know there is not even a 5$ to spare in the budget therefor that 40$ extra for SSD mean a lot.