Should I buy SSD for my setup and which one to buy?

[MrPaladinGuy]

That's not quite right. The EVO includes a DRAM-based mechanism for caching where it can queue up files before writing them to the drive. This improves performance by a huge amount and it's absolutely better to go for EVO over PRO. EVO is more expensive though (at least when I looked around they were) and they're in short supply compared to the PRO.

To put some numbers out there, without RAPID enabled, write speeds were 93.26MB/s for 4K Random, whereas WITH RAPID enabled, those speeds became 300.92MB/s for the same test. Basically, the technology uses your system RAM as a cache when writing files from memory. This feature isn't available with the PRO version but it is available with the EVO.

That contradicts everything I've read.

[docterfreeze]

Well Evo is 212 for 250 gb and pro is practically one for one for 256 gb. Can you also comment on life for SSDs? I'm getting scared.

I personally own a 840 pro 256GB and the life expectancy for it is over 10 years, so never worry about that.

As for the speed of it....

Shutting down- blink and you will miss it. (1-2 seconds)

Starting up- From button press to password screen is 3-5 seconds

Loading screens in Elder scrolls: Skyrim- 2-4 seconds (Gets a little annoying at times because I can never read loading screen tips/lore, but that's just my opinion :P)

Worth every penny!

[MrPaladinGuy]

Well Evo is 212 for 250 gb and pro is practically one for one for 256 gb. Can you also comment on life for SSDs? I'm getting scared.

Haha, you needn't worry. As long as you're not defragging the SSD and recording videos to it (video capture), you're fine.

A quick estimate says it would take about 39GB a day in writes for about 5 years before it's an issue. Keep in mind what matters are writes, not reads.

[Professor Expert]

Erm, so what's the deal with SSD life? Do they like die in a year or something?

I've found Extreme II on the market but it's pretty much 240 for 240 GB. And considering Samsung presence in our country is more significant I should probably go with Evos or pros. Not sure yet.

There is a limit to how many times the memory in an SSD (or flash memory in general) can be written to. For normal usage they'll probably last according to their MTBF, but if you run a program that writes often or have your swap memory set to SSD and do not have a lot of physical ram you can wear them down faster.

The orignial Sandisk Extreme is not bad and is available in 480 GB, but you could always buy two 240 GB and call it a day if you want more space. You wont really need to upgrade them again for a while.

[Pokot]

One very important note about Samsung SSD's:[/B] If you leave the Samsung Magician software running and put your system into sleep mode, the system will continually wake up. This will stop once you close the Magician software. Disabling it from running at startup is advised for this reason.

Yeah my computer is either awake or turned off so I don't think I should be worried about it. But thanks for the tip anyways. I'm still not sure on the whole EVO vs PRO debate though.

Worth every penny!

You guys have practically convinced me. I'll have to sleep on it first though

Haha, you needn't worry. As long as you're not defragging the SSD and recording videos to it (video capture), you're fine.

A quick estimate says it would take about 39GB a day in writes for about 5 years before it's an issue. Keep in mind what matters are writes, not reads.

Oh good. I was worried there for a second.

And a quick side question for everyone - do you think I should stick another processor into my mobo, and if yes which one?

[MrPaladinGuy]

I wanted to clarify something, when I said I see no other games worth putting on the SSD, I meant that I own, as in my personal preference. BF3 load times are pathetic, so it made sense, aside from that I don't have issues with load times in anything else. But I did put WoW on my SSD when I played and I symbolic linked my combat log to my non fraps mechanical drive.

And the last time I played Diablo 3, about 6 months ago, putting it on my SSD eliminated all of the stutter I experienced when starting a level.

[Dasffion]

Well Evo is 212 for 250 gb and pro is practically one for one for 256 gb. Can you also comment on life for SSDs? I'm getting scared.

Where are you at that the evo is 212? I just got one like 2 weeks ago for 180

[Pokot]

Where are you at that the evo is 212? I just got one like 2 weeks ago for 180

Third world man, third world.

[chadashcroft22]

If you can spring like 20 more bucks I would do this:http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-2-5-In...s=crucial+m500

Reason being is 128gig drives usually have 1/2 the controllers that 256gig drives do. This leads to most of these drives having about half the performance. And the reason I listed the m500 is it is one of the only sdds that have a power backup in them. So if your power suddenly goes out it can save your data and shut down the drive properly. Other drives can corrupt your data or even worse potentially hard brick your drive.

[MrPaladinGuy]

And a quick side question for everyone - do you think I should stick another processor into my mobo, and if yes which one?

Looking at your hardware, you'd benefit from a CPU upgrade, especially if you play WoW as it's extremely CPU dependent as more people are around you(assuming you're not GPU bottlenecked). Your GPU won't bottleneck an upgrade either (compared it to one of my 570's, which I used for a few years before going SLI)

Your mobo supports the upgrade as well.

I'd go with an i5-2500 (at least), essentially any socket 1155 CPU that's at least a 2500 Sandy Bridge.

Your mobo doesn't support Haswell procs, and they're basically the Sandy Bridge replacements.

It's up to you,

This is what you can expect

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/289?vs=288

Your resolution won't matter that much, as long as you're not running above 1080p.

Even if you're not playing WoW you'll benefit from the upgrade, quite a bit too.

It's up to you if it's worth the cost though, since you're paying quite a bit more than others due to your location.

[Pokot]

Looking at your hardware, you'd benefit from a CPU upgrade, especially if you play WoW as it's extremely CPU dependent as more people are around you(assuming you're not GPU bottlenecked). Your GPU won't bottleneck an upgrade either (compared it to one of my 570's, which I used for a few years before going SLI)

Your mobo supports the upgrade as well.

I'd go with an i5-2500 (at least), essentially any socket 1155 CPU that's at least a 2500 Sandy Bridge.

Your mobo doesn't support Haswell procs, and they're basically the Sandy Bridge replacements.

It's up to you,

This is what you can expect

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/289?vs=288

Your resolution won't matter that much, as long as you're not running above 1080p.

Even if you're not playing WoW you'll benefit from the upgrade, quite a bit too.

It's up to you if it's worth the cost though, since you're paying quite a bit more than others due to your location.

Thank you. I'll consider it. 2500k is almost 250 bucks so it's something to think about for sure though. I'd rather go with 4670 of course but would have to change the mobo.

[MrPaladinGuy]

Thank you. I'll consider it. 2500k is almost 250 bucks so it's something to think about for sure though. I'd rather go with 4670 of course but would have to change the mobo.

You could always go for an I5-3570 for $219 which is slightly better than the 2500, and it's actually available, unlike the discontinued 2500 (Sandy Bridge) series.

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/288?vs=701


I really think a 2500k would cost more as it's 'rare' now.

[Pokot]

You could always go for an I5-3570 for $219 which is slightly better than the 2500, and it's actually available, unlike the discontinued 2500 (Sandy Bridge) series.

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/288?vs=701


I really think a 2500k would cost more as it's 'rare' now.

True that. Would 1333 ram be okay with those CPUs?

[MrPaladinGuy]

True that. Would 1333 ram be okay with those CPUs?

Yes, it will work fine, and it won't limit it.

[Pokot]

Yes, it will work fine, and it won't limit it.

Alright. Thanks for your help a lot.

[MrPaladinGuy]

Alright. Thanks for your help a lot.

You're welcome.

Enjoy both upgrades, you're going to have fun, snappy OS + better framerate.

[Pokot]

Just as a heads up on my situation - I decided to go with Samsung pro 256 gb and 3670k as an upgrade but unfortunately both are completely sold out. I'm looking at a week - week and a half till the next batch hits the country and considering reservations I might not even get them then. So I'm thinking I'll go for an entirely new PC on Narwhal level with a new monitor and all (I'm using 20" 1600x900 right now) in a month or so since I have some more money coming my way (supposedly), although with people talking about 4k monitors etc I'm not even sure.

[MrPaladinGuy]

Just as a heads up on my situation - I decided to go with Samsung pro 256 gb and 3670k as an upgrade but unfortunately both are completely sold out. I'm looking at a week - week and a half till the next batch hits the country and considering reservations I might not even get them then. So I'm thinking I'll go for an entirely new PC on Narwhal level with a new monitor and all (I'm using 20" 1600x900 right now) in a month or so since I have some more money coming my way (supposedly), although with people talking about 4k monitors etc I'm not even sure.

Do you mean the 3570k ?

Depending on how picky you are, don't go above a 24" display for 1080p as the pixel pitch will be too large and the pixels will be too visible, 24" is the sweet spot for a 1080p PC display, assuming you're 1-3 feet away from the screen.

Also, go for an LED-backlit IPS display, LCD TN panels are hideous in comparison. A large viewing angle isn't required, but at least make sure the vertical viewing angle isn't 160 degrees. When you see the viewing angle displayed make sure it at least says 170/170 and not 170/160. It might say 178/178 which is even better, but it's not necessary.

If you want to get something between 24"-28", then go for 1440p, but be aware that a 1GB framebuffer (Vram) won't be enough in a bunch of games if you're going to max them, and especially not if you're using 16x anisotropic, and moderate levels of anti-aliasing.

An IPS LED-backlit display worth getting will start around $350, but it's absolutely worth it. If price is a serious issue then don't go the IPS route, a simple LED-backlit display will be fine.

Just make sure you research the monitor extensively, as every display has it's own issues.

Ignore the talk about 4k displays.

[Pokot]

Do you mean the 3570k ?

Yeah, sorry, wrote that from my memory and my memory sucks.

Depending on how picky you are, don't go above a 24" display for 1080p as the pixel pitch will be too large and the pixels will be too visible, 24" is the sweet spot for a 1080p PC display, assuming you're 1-3 feet away from the screen.

Yeah I'm thinking 24", don't really see a point in going larger screen not to mention I would have serious trouble adjusting.

Also, go for an LED-backlit IPS display, LCD TN panels are hideous in comparison. A large viewing angle isn't required, but at least make sure the vertical viewing angle isn't 160 degrees. When you see the viewing angle displayed make sure it at least says 170/170 and not 170/160. It might say 178/178 which is even better, but it's not necessary.

I'll have to research because I honestly got a little lost at this part.

If you want to get something between 24"-28", then go for 1440p, but be aware that a 1GB framebuffer (Vram) won't be enough in a bunch of games if you're going to max them, and especially not if you're using 16x anisotropic, and moderate levels of anti-aliasing.

To be fair while I'd love to play all games on ultra (have been buying medium level PCs mostly) I kinda always balance between throwing up or having a stroke and playing normally especially with very colorful games with lots of motion so v-sync is turned off 100% for me while filtering and other advanced settings are off for shooters and off/on in other games depending on how I'm taking it. But I don't think I'll go more than 24" anyways.

An IPS LED-backlit display worth getting will start around $350, but it's absolutely worth it. If price is a serious issue then don't go the IPS route, a simple LED-backlit display will be fine.

Well I would really like to leave my current pc with ESI Juli@ soundcard for my MIDI keyboard sessions and include ASUS Xonar STX with new pair of Senn HD 598 in the new build and considering the monitor price you're suggesting the build would be dangerously approaching 2k which is easily my 3 month pay last year (I'm doing better this year, yay!) so I'll have to think real hard about this.

Ignore the talk about 4k displays.

Roger that.