getting SSD for WoW and OS worth it?

[fanshu]

price are dipping below the $2/gb mark and I've been eyeing the recent deals on the OCZ 2 vertex but just wanted to know is it worth it? do you noticeably notice the difference in loads times in WoW and windows to justify dropping $200 (120gb version).

[Markro]

No question there are faster load times, I'm not sure you'll notice much on the load of WoW, currently mine loads in under 2 seconds (may depend on your current load time / computer specs), but you will notice a reduction in the boot up time of Windows and possibly other high demanding software.

[Xuvial]

To directly answer your question, the load times in WoW and Windows are completely worth it IMO. OCZ Vertex 2 is an excellent choice.

The prices may throw you off buying them (and you're right in a way because they will get a lot cheaper over the years)....but once you get a taste of SSD-level performance, you will be ADDICTED and never want a PC without one ever again. Atleast, that is the case for me.

But since they are so expensive, make sure you buy the right size SSD for your needs. Depending on how many games you play and how frequently you play them, you may not need a 120gb SSD (even if you're trying to futureproof). Only your OS and 1-2 games should go on the SSD at a time, the rest should be fine running from a normal HDD

No question there are faster load times, I'm not sure you'll notice much on the load of WoW, currently mine loads in under 2 seconds (may depend on your current load time / computer specs), but you will notice a reduction in the boot up time of Windows and possibly other high demanding software.

2 second loads with a fresh start? Even with zero addons, the Intel X25 (fastest SSD) and a beast of a computer....that would be a VERY interesting claim.

As for the load times in WoW with an SSD vs HDD, there is a colossal difference. Not only are the loading screens atleast 50% faster but do you notice the absence of all the players when you log into e.g. Dalaran? With an SSD when you appear in a city, all the players/textures only take a few seconds to appear after the loading screen. With an HDD you could be waiting for up to 20-30 seconds while everything loads around you.

Here's a basic demonstration (may not be the case for everyone) of WoW loading screen + texture loading with SSD vs HDD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47dt-y27eYk

[treston323]

Nope. Too expensive for useless load times. Rather just get a 1tb internal HD for much cheaper.

[Markro]

2 second loads with a fresh start? Even with zero addons, the Intel X25 (fastest SSD) and a beast of a computer....that would be a VERY interesting claim.

As for the load times in WoW with an SSD vs HDD, there is a colossal difference. Not only are the loading screens atleast 50% faster but do you notice the absence of all the players when you log into e.g. Dalaran? With an SSD when you appear in a city, all the players/textures only take a few seconds to appear after the loading screen. With an HDD you could be waiting for up to 20-30 seconds while everything loads around you.

Here's a basic demonstration (may not be the case for everyone) of WoW loading screen + texture loading with SSD vs HDD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47dt-y27eYk

I was referring the the initial boot up of WoW, I run in windowed mode and my old computer would load the login screen in ~7-10 seconds, the new one is ~2 seconds. As for the actual game load, it's nothing more than 3-5 seconds, although I do run minimal addons (PitBull, ClassTimers, Bartender, DBM, Omen and Quartz).

To provide a comparison: I'm running on the WD Black Carvier 1TB 6.0/GBs HDD, not solid state, and when I log into Dal, every texture is loaded within 2-4 seconds maximum. I'm confident if I swapped my existing HDD with the new solid state, I wouldn't see a difference (at most 1 second load - which is not noticeable). The only reason for this is, I have 8GB RAM, i7-960 and a 460 GTX. If you are experiencing 20-30 seconds delay on textures, I assure you the your HDD is not holding you back, some of your other components are.

I suppose in conclusion my point is: It depends on your other components whether you will see noticeable load time differences, if you have a very high end computer I'm positive you won't notice a difference in WoW load times (at least not enough to justify the extra costs and loss of storage volume). Although you will notice a difference in boot time in your Windows and other programs (Photoshop for example)

[Xuvial]

Nope. Too expensive for useless load times. Rather just get a 1tb internal HD for much cheaper.

Storage isn't the point of an SSD. The point is to greatly increase the performance of your system and overall make it very "snappy" even when it's been in use for several years and stuffed with programs. Programs still open in the blink of an eye, games load very quickly, etc. Once every few years you simply do a TRIM erase and your SSD is back to near-maximum performance.
There are also other factors like greater reliability, lesser wear-and-tear, very low chances of "dying" like traditional HDD's do, etc.

[Cilraaz]

SSDs are a luxury item. Solely for WoW, they simply aren't a good purchase when figuring price-per-performance. Grand total, you might save a minute on initial load. Once you're loaded into game and character models are loaded into memory, the SSDs performance gains cease. Unless you already have a top of the line CPU and GPU (or a second reason to buy an SSD), it's more worthwhile to spend money elsewhere in the system to gain actual benefit.

[Asera]

lesser wear-and-tear

Uhh, don't SSDs have a really small amount of write cycles the NAND flash is capable of before the transistors fail (in comparison to magnetic sectors)?

A root partition kicks around way too many files via updates, temp files, web browsing, cache, paging, scratching, etc etc for me to ever consider using one as a system drive. I'd love to have an SSD for WoW though. Way out of what I'm willing to pay for the performance gain though.

[Drakoes]

If you REALLY want to save yourself some cash, get the smaller versions and only put WoW on it. Put your music, movies and other personal stuff on a secondary mechanical hard drive.

SSDs atm are just too expensive on the whole, and the majority of people don't even have one so just remember, a SSD is like a luxury.

[Cilraaz]

Uhh, don't SSDs have a really small amount of write cycles the NAND flash is capable of before the transistors fail (in comparison to magnetic sectors)?

A root partition kicks around way too many files via updates, temp files, web browsing, cache, paging, scratching, etc etc for me to ever consider using one as a system drive. I'd love to have an SSD for WoW though. Way out of what I'm willing to pay for the performance gain though.

Most current SSDs have "reserve" storage. When a sector "burns out" from being written to too many times, the drive will pull a sector from the reserve. The number of writes per sector has also improved. There's also TRIM to help out, as well.

In short, current SSDs won't burn out as quickly as first-gen SSDs. They've come along a decent amount in a short period of time.

[llDemonll]

To provide a comparison: I'm running on the WD Black Carvier 1TB 6.0/GBs HDD, not solid state, and when I log into Dal, every texture is loaded within 2-4 seconds maximum. I'm confident if I swapped my existing HDD with the new solid state, I wouldn't see a difference (at most 1 second load - which is not noticeable). The only reason for this is, I have 8GB RAM, i7-960 and a 460 GTX. If you are experiencing 20-30 seconds delay on textures, I assure you the your HDD is not holding you back, some of your other components are.

Find the error and see why I proclaim that his claim (hey look, it rhymes!) of 3-5 second load times is false.

After I've logged in my computer will do 5-10 second load times (30-45 seconds initial load), personally that 30 seconds lost on the initial load isn't worth $200 to me

[Asera]

Most current SSDs have "reserve" storage. When a sector "burns out" from being written to too many times, the drive will pull a sector from the reserve. The number of writes per sector has also improved. There's also TRIM to help out, as well.

In short, current SSDs won't burn out as quickly as first-gen SSDs. They've come along a decent amount in a short period of time.

Ah. That's good. I'll wait for them to come a little further and I might get one. xD

[Cilraaz]

Find the error and see why I proclaim that his claim (hey look, it rhymes!) of 3-5 second load times is false.

After I've logged in my computer will do 5-10 second load times (30-45 seconds initial load), personally that 30 seconds lost on the initial load isn't worth $200 to me

I typically have 15-20 seconds of model loading on an initial load. I happen to be running a WD Caviar Black 1TB drive. It's only SATA II, not SATA III, but that doesn't matter since neither drive can saturate the bandwidth available via SATA II, let alone SATA III. I'm running an i5 750 @ 3.8GHz, 4GB DDR3 @ 1600MHz, and a Radeon 5770. I'd have to say 2-4 second model load times on a non-SSD is bullshit.

[llDemonll]

I have a SATAII cavier black as well and 2-4 seconds is lol, nice try with that one though.

(does he know that sataIII mechanical drives are useless?)

[Gentoo]

My 1st SSD was the OCZ Agility series. I had to RMA it after 3 months, during the time it took to send it in, and get the new Vertex back i used the usual spinner drive.

It was murder, you dont realize how fast everything is running with a SSD until you dont have it any more.. Worth every penny

[Xuvial]

It was murder, you dont realize how fast everything is running with a SSD until you dont have it any more.. Worth every penny

See what I mean :S
It's one of those "gotta jump into it and find out for yourself" things
Nobody can really convince you as to why you should (or should not) get an SSD, you'll keep seeing people arguing from both sides.

[fanshu]

hmm good points from everyone especially the youtube video big difference. i think if i do pull the trigger i will get the 90gb version, windows 7 20gbish without all the junk like hibernation and wow i think is 30gb or more? i should be fine hopefully. im currently on a HDD samsung spinpoint f3 and i5-750, 5770 gpu and tbh it loads pretty decently fast already. Hmmm so tough to decide if only it was $1.5/gb or lower it would make it so much easier :P

[llDemonll]

wait til near christmas, they will probably go on sale a bit more then (or black friday)