WoW on a SSD. Is it OK?

[protput]

It's highly beneficial to put WoW on an SSD, it's one of the games that benefits most from fast secondary storage.

Skyrim Can't even read the loading screen tips

[Postaldude]

yeah the loading screen reduction is by far the best advantage with ssd's for games. Once you start you never want to go back really

[Deleted]

I play WoW from my SSD, and tho improvement in loading/paging times is HUGE.
I have my OS back-up my WoW folder on a weekly basis to my external HDD just incase something goes wrong, but I was doing that anyway.
WoW (load times/scenery updates/anything that requires reading from the drive is soooo much smoother from the SSD.

[Frozenbeef]

I can barely tell the difference between a ssd and hdd >.<

[BenBos]

I can barely tell the difference between a ssd and hdd >.<

BS.

I am playing WOW on SSD since almost 2 years and the difference is staggering.

I put the complete game on SSD and it is a breeze to play. My OS is of course stored on SSD too.

Log in in SW in prime time: in less than a second everything is there: hundreds of players in one blimp of an eye.

Crossing CRZ ? I did the test with frame rates: steady between 55-60 drops per seconds, I really can not see where or when I am crossing zones even with the frame rates shown and counted.

SSD is the best thing since sliced bread for MMORPG's.

Since 90% of ALL information must come from your HD's in a very dynamic way (new players, new landscape data etc...), the SSD is simply breath taking.

Edit: I saw there were concerns about SSD's long term use: what a laugh.

[Kiingy]

I've had my SSD for 3 years now, its survived 3 windows reinstalls and multiple game installations (Like Tera and GW2, I'll move them onto the SSD then move them off when I quit)

Haven't had any issues.

Generally an SSD will outlive everything else on the computer. I've had to replace the HDD once.

[Traumatic]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm going to keep WoW on my SSD. After playing it on the SSD I have no desire to go back to the HDD and it sounds like there isn't much to worry about in terms of wrecking it.

[Soisoisoi]

The recommendations I've read is that you're supposed to leave 10-20% of the SSD free for best performance, however I question your decision to not run Windows from your SSD. Running your OS from the SSD is the biggest performance benefit you get from it.

Yeah, with Windows and WoW I didn't have much left so I just took windows off. WoW still loads fast though, just not everything.

[Deleted]

I've had my SSD for exactly 1 year today. It has been used for the Operating System and games. It has been through multiple OS reinstallations, I'm often copying games in/out of it. I wouldn't say its had "heavy" usage but I would personally say it's representative of the average "enthuiastic" computer user. Either way, the SMART data isn't even indicating a single percentage consumed of the overall P/E endurance. Assuming this data is correct and the usage profile continues, you may expect this drive to last at least 100 years.

Although endurance is an ongoing concern for heavy applications (e.g. servers), I don't think the average end-user should be concerned about it. Chances are if your drive fails it's not due to an exceeding the P/E limit, probably it's due to some other fault OR you just got unlucky.

[Skorpionss]

Modern SSD write degradation is complete FUD. It will take around 20-30 years to hit the maximum write count on 120-250GB SSD when using it for OS + games only. Heavy database use can wear down SSDs in five years or so, but nobody does that on gaming computer and very few parts of a gaming computer remains un-upgraded for five years in the first place.

come say that to my old pc(8years and still going strong)

[chazus]

come say that to my old pc(8years and still going strong)

Most people upgrade their computer every 3-5 years. Having an 8 year old main system usually means you don't do much with it, or have lower play standards than most people (or simply can't afford a few hundred bucks a year).

Not an insult, I'm just pointing out that your situation is a statistical deviant from that average gamer (on a community site for gamers)

EDIT: I'm a bit curious what you have, and what you play.

You can't really say "My computer lasted 8 years" when all you do is check email on it, and expect it to be a statistic for how long computers will last. If you want to go by that metric, my old Celeron 800 is still running like a champ.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

come say that to my old pc(8years and still going strong)

I've got a Pentium 166 from 1996 or 1997 in the cellar that would still work if I could find the Windows 95 installation stuff. Doesn't make it technologically non-obsolete.

[skatblast]

No harddrive is going to last 100 years...

[chazus]

No harddrive is going to last 100 years...

SanDisk would like to have a word with you

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

SanDisk would like to have a word with you

It is only 4-5 years since we stopped using IDE and hardly anybody with a PC built in the last two years can use an IDE device. Why bother having 100 year old data stored if nobody will be able to access it?

[n0cturnal]

It is only 4-5 years since we stopped using IDE and hardly anybody with a PC built in the last two years can use an IDE device. Why bother having 100 year old data stored if nobody will be able to access it?

There will always be adapters like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812189169
There are even silly stuff like modified 5.25" floppy drives that you can run on usb, or ISA expansion cards run on USB.

[RoKPaNda]

BS.

I am playing WOW on SSD since almost 2 years and the difference is staggering.

I put the complete game on SSD and it is a breeze to play. My OS is of course stored on SSD too.

Log in in SW in prime time: in less than a second everything is there: hundreds of players in one blimp of an eye.

Crossing CRZ ? I did the test with frame rates: steady between 55-60 drops per seconds, I really can not see where or when I am crossing zones even with the frame rates shown and counted.

SSD is the best thing since sliced bread for MMORPG's.

Since 90% of ALL information must come from your HD's in a very dynamic way (new players, new landscape data etc...), the SSD is simply breath taking.

Edit: I saw there were concerns about SSD's long term use: what a laugh.

It depends on the game and on your definition of a huge difference. For me WoW has always at most had a load time of 3-4 seconds, now that I'm on an SSD the load time is about a second or so. For someone that doesn't care much about a 2-3 second difference the difference would seem very minimal. Also CRZ is still noticeable, that doesn't really have much to do with the SSD.

[Deleted]

It depends on the game and on your definition of a huge difference. For me WoW has always at most had a load time of 3-4 seconds, now that I'm on an SSD the load time is about a second or so. For someone that doesn't care much about a 2-3 second difference the difference would seem very minimal. Also CRZ is still noticeable, that doesn't really have much to do with the SSD.

WoW loads a lot of data while the game itself is active. Unlike enclosed games like Battlefield and Call of Duty, WoW cannot preload all content simply due to the nature of being an open-world MMO. Thus it needs to perform a lot of dynamic loading, and this does have a direct effect on gameplay. It doesn't affect framerates, but it does affect how quickly players and world objects can become visible.

With the right tools, you can even lock the part of the of the game responsible for this behavior (that is, stop anything from loading), and observe its effects more directly. It can also be done in many other MMOs as well.

[mazox74]

I can barely tell the difference between a ssd and hdd >.<

This can happen if you do not enable ahci in the bios. Not having trim enabled might also cause performance loss.

[chazus]

For me WoW has always at most had a load time of 3-4 seconds, now that I'm on an SSD the load time is about a second or so. For someone that doesn't care much about a 2-3 second difference the difference would seem very minimal.

Previous system: Intel Core 2 Duo E7500, 4gb ram, HDD, Geforce 460
New System: Intel i5 3570K, 8gb ram, SSD, Geforce 660

I don't know if it's because my system in general is better, but wow could take me upwards of a minute to shut down (it took longer to shut down than start up O_o), and reboot, say if I needed to update an addon. Now with the SSD, I can do that in under 15 seconds. It plays both Diablo 3 and WoW SIGNIFICANTLY better, I feel. I used to say nay to SSD as they provide no FPS increase... But now I can never not have one.