SSD drives?

[BicycleMafioso]

Don't have updates folder, keep clearing it after every major patch. Current game client just is nearly 26GB which is already half of the 60GB SSD.

I deleted my beta the other day, and mine is 24,6 GB.
Including several addon-copies saved just in case.
Check Data\Cache? Or are they not smart to remove?

[Cilraaz]

I deleted my beta the other day, and mine is 24,6 GB.
Including several addon-copies saved just in case.
Check Data\Cache? Or are they not smart to remove?

Deleting Cache and Data\Cache won't save you any space, as they'll simply re-create when you log in next.

[BicycleMafioso]

Deleting Cache and Data\Cache won't save you any space, as they'll simply re-create when you log in next.

I just tried, and when I deleted it, it was 8,4GB - when it was re-created, it has 15,5 MB size, hmm. Ohwell, I'm sure it'll re-create.
edit; But, I guess, once you discover new areas, who'll download it back down, so it's a moot suggestion ^^

[Cilraaz]

I just tried, and when I deleted it, it was 8,4GB - when it was re-created, it has 15,5 MB size, hmm. Ohwell, I'm sure it'll re-create.
edit; But, I guess, once you discover new areas, who'll download it back down, so it's a moot suggestion ^^

Yes, it will be small at first, but once you get items, etc back into the cache, it'll be just as large as it was when you deleted it.

[Zanno]

I use a 128GB SSD and have never been happier. This thing is incredibly fast. I have Windows and all other programs loaded onto the SSD and all other files go onto two 500gig regular drives. This seems to be a good setup. Windows loads very quickly and I'm in game within 20 seconds of hitting the power button.

[Taistelumestari Viiksi]

Windows loads very quickly and I'm in game within 20 seconds of hitting the power button.

20 seconds? I'm calling shenanigans here, takes at least 20-30 seconds for windows to open for me, and yes, I'm using SSD.

[Mihail]

I guess he meant 20 seconds without counting the initial startup, loading Bios and all that. With my Crucial C300 it takes about 30 seconds from pushing the power button to get into Windows with everything loaded and ready. And thats with the Marvell controller.

[Airin]

20 seconds? I'm calling shenanigans here, takes at least 20-30 seconds for windows to open for me, and yes, I'm using SSD.

Hell it takes my 1tb 7200 rpm about 30 - 40 sec to boot through bios and load into windows.
Then again I'm running Server 2008 R2 in workstation mode.

[Asera]

My comp probably takes a minute or so to fully boot. But I reboot it maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks...

I think my offices domain controller wins though. It takes a solid 13 minutes to reboot. (Old P4 Xeon, crappy RAID controller card, slow Dell BIOS, broken tape drive that it tries to mount for like 5 minutes, and the fact that it runs Active Directory all factor into it). xD

[Deleted]

My comp probably takes a minute or so to fully boot. But I reboot it maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks...

I think my offices domain controller wins though. It takes a solid 13 minutes to reboot. (Old P4 Xeon, crappy RAID controller card, slow Dell BIOS, broken tape drive that it tries to mount for like 5 minutes, and the fact that it runs Active Directory all factor into it). xD

My parents are still using a Pentium II at home. Admittedly they only use it for an hour or so a week, but about 2/3 of that hour is spent either loading it up (it took about 25 minutes to startup last time I was there using it), or waiting for programs to respond. I think when I build my PC in the next couple of weeks I'll give them my old Dell for Xmas. That's also a hunk of junk but they'll probably think it's some sort of super computer.

On topic - SSD's are a luxury. Modern hard drives work fast enough with quadruple the space and for a quarter of the price. You should only buy an SSD if you're really hardcore, or really rich, as the lower size ones (60gb and below) are a waste of time.

[vesseblah]

Little amendment to my previous statement. I turned off hibernation support and forced Windows swap file to 1024MB fixed size instead of letting it use 4GB it wants to. Now there's 8.5GB free in the 60GB SSD (with Win7+Office2010+WoW+some other crap installed) and updater works again normally.

60GB is not hopelessly small, just risky, and might be too small when next expansion comes.

[Death Dealer]

an ssd would be nice but im gonna wait on a price drop for the larger size drives.

[Deleted]

Regarding boot up times, since I built my new rig, with the OS on an SSD, I see ~10 seconds to load the BIOS (and stare at the boot menu) + <20 seconds to load Windows 7. I have no issues logging in to WoW in under a minute.

[ant1pathy]

20 seconds? I'm calling shenanigans here, takes at least 20-30 seconds for windows to open for me, and yes, I'm using SSD.

Not all SSD are created equal; some brands are considerably faster than others.

To the OP: yes, SSD's are awesome. Don't go smaller than 120 though. I have a 64gb one and am pinched hard for space.

[Cilraaz]

Not all SSD are created equal; some brands are considerably faster than others.

Yes, but 20 seconds from pressing the power button to being in game is still an exaggeration.

[Lovestar]

I recall reading, while researching SSD, that their long-term performance degenerates due to (edit: OK I have no idea but just checked Wikipedia and it's not about defragmentation). The general idea was that some aspect of their performance benefit decays over prolonged use, versus HDDs.

Is there any accuracy to that?

[lockblock]

Yes, but 20 seconds from pressing the power button to being in game is still an exaggeration.

i could see 20sec from power button to in game and everything loaded if they were using suspend to ram
but that wouldn't really be a cold boot

[FlawlessSoul]

I recall reading, while researching SSD, that their long-term performance degenerates due to (edit: OK I have no idea but just checked Wikipedia and it's not about defragmentation). The general idea was that some aspect of their performance benefit decays over prolonged use, versus HDDs.

Is there any accuracy to that?

Empty block gets written to with file data. File gets erased, block still has data in it. Drive tries to overwrite block, has to erase first, then write.

Basically, over time the write speeds drop. Fortunately, newer drives support commands to flush those blocks (I believe it just does it when idle) called TRIM.

Someone feel free to correct me/flesh out what I wrote

[Xuvial]

I recall reading, while researching SSD, that their long-term performance degenerates due to (edit: OK I have no idea but just checked Wikipedia and it's not about defragmentation). The general idea was that some aspect of their performance benefit decays over prolonged use, versus HDDs.

Is there any accuracy to that?

What you're describing was an issue with early SSD's, it's been refined and dealt with for the most part.
Write speed does degrade slightly over time, but write speeds aren't the point of SSD's - it's the READ speeds that give it the insane performance over HDD's, and read speeds basically don't decay.
The best part is that if you feel your SSD is beginning to perform sluggishly after a few years of use (a sluggish SSD, does that even make sense?), the TRIM command (now built-in to Windows 7), lets you do a complete wipe and restore it to near-brand-new performance once again.
There are a couple of software tools that come with SSD's nowadays that ensure data is written in an efficient manner so the performance stays at it's best...TRIM is one of those tools.

The only real downside left to an SSD is.......the cost =/

[Lovestar]

Wow, thank you both very much for clarifying that and making it so simple. I get it now.

I'm building a new system right now and was on the fence about whether to go SSD. This thread has pretty much settled it. Thanks, techies and OP!