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  1. #1

    [SSD?] 5400rpm HDD looking for upgrade solutions.

    The only thing I am not happy with is the HDD that I play on since it is a slow 5400rpm. I was looking into SSDs, but I am so lost in trying to pick which is the best. I know there are different manufacturers for the internals, and I was wondering if I could get some advice on which ones are the most reliable. I just need enough room for WoW and maybe another game 5gbs~

    Also
    - SSD vs 10k rpm?
    - Should I get one big enough to stick window's on it also?

    Thanks for the help.

  2. #2
    SSDs (the right ones, like the Corsair force, even the ocz-vertex II) is way faster than a 10k RPM drive.

    Since Wow takes up 15-20GB of space, you only want a 25GiB SSD? ;P
    If you want to stick windows onto it, which does make a difference, you'd want a 120GB one.
    An SSD isn't for storage, but you want enough headroom for unforeseen events.

    Corsairs force f120 is reliable and very fast - but if you are willing to wait for the intel 310-series, you could buy an SSD that's more affordable.
     

  3. #3
    Suggest you go with a 120Gb SSD as tetrisgoat said, and have it for your Windows install as well as WoW+ some games. Alternatively, go with a 60Gb to begin with (Windows+WoW) and add another later.

    I currently have a 60Gb SSD for Windows and WoW, with user folders linked to my D: drive which is two 300Gb Western Digital VelociRaptors in RAID0. They're fast, but the SSD beats them.

  4. #4
    Deleted
    I'd go with the 60GB SSD, cram windows and WoW on it, and use the 5200 RPM drive as a data drive.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by FlawlessSoul View Post
    I currently have a 60Gb SSD for Windows and WoW, with user folders linked to my D: drive which is two 300Gb Western Digital VelociRaptors in RAID0. They're fast, but the SSD beats them.
    60 Gb? That's 7.5 GB, don't you mean 60 GB?

    But can't you divide the Windows system files (needed for booting) and the other files between 2 drives?
    Like Prixie said, the basic Windows files + WoW shouldn't take more than 60 GB, so my guess is 120 GB would be more than needed.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Nozrek View Post
    60 Gb? That's 7.5 GB, don't you mean 60 GB?

    But can't you divide the Windows system files (needed for booting) and the other files between 2 drives?
    Like Prixie said, the basic Windows files + WoW shouldn't take more than 60 GB, so my guess is 120 GB would be more than needed.
    /facepalms

    I think it can be safe to assume that since there are no 7.5 GB SSDs, and there are plenty of 60GB SSDs, that he did indeed mean 60GB...

    Bits are typically for bandwidth anyways, nobody talks about storage with bits, its usually with bytes.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by ayako View Post
    Bits are typically for bandwidth anyways, nobody talks about storage with bits, its usually with bytes.
    But in his defense, it's GB not Gb - if he could capitalise the G, one can assume they intentionally did not for the B, ie, bit.
    Although, in this case, well.
    Speaking of which, I know there're HDD/SSD-hybrid drives starting with an SSD-size of 4GiB and up ;o
     

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by tetrisgoat View Post
    But in his defense, it's GB not Gb - if he could capitalise the G, one can assume they intentionally did not for the B, ie, bit.
    Although, in this case, well.
    Speaking of which, I know there're HDD/SSD-hybrid drives starting with an SSD-size of 4GiB and up ;o
    Last I checked Hybrid drives are still a storage medium.

  9. #9
    I would suggest against a 60GB, you would barely be able to fit what you want onto it. 120GB is about the minimum you would want.
    And if you didn't go SSD, a 7200rpm HDD would do the trick and they're quite cheap at the moment, so it would be the cost effective upgrade.

  10. #10
    The Intel G2 drives (early firmware issues aside) have a good reputation for being very reliable. You can get them while supplies last as they are currently being replaced by the (new and unproven) Intel G3 drives. Other brands have a checkered record.

    If you just want enough room for WoW and maybe one other small game, you may be able to get by with the 40GB X25-V but be aware that you will have to copy the game over to your regular hard drive on each patch day to patch it and copy it back to the SSD after it is done. (patches need a lot of space)

    The 120GB X25-M can be found online for around $200 and it's my choice for a no frills drive.

  11. #11
    Until you get to the new Cata loader/launcher.

  12. #12
    Changing your hard drive to faster one like a SSD will not affect the performance of you machine that much or play wow really any faster, but if you want to have a faster start up from power on or load programs faster then go for it. I am going to build a new machine here in a few months and I plan to have a SSD of about 90 Gb or so and then a storage drive of about 350 Gb plus.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Synthaxx View Post
    Indeed. However, what i found is that in real terms, my RAID has much higher read and write speeds than my SSD, up close to 400MB/s on r and w, and both those drives are 5400 (primarily due to them being 2TB each. Game performance and loading times are marginally better on the SSD, but not so much i'd recommend one for the average user. At £60 per drive, it's still got 8x the capacity and still 6x cheaper. For the performance increase though, you obviously want 2 of them. Even then, it's still 3x cheaper, but gives 16x the capacity and similar performance.
    pretty much what this guy said but instead of 2TB each get two 1TB at 7200 and raid them it will be faster than SSD

  14. #14
    I have a 60GB (big B :P ) OCZ Vertex II, and it's fine for Windows 7 + WoW. If you have 4GB RAM you can also disable your swapfile with WoW running at max, which removes the need for the SSD to work on paging.

    I can fly in a straight line on max graphics on a 310% mount + crusader aura and not suffer any kind of loading delays. Same for spinning 180 degrees on the spot, and on my old WD Raptor (10k RPM HDD) that used to freeze WoW up for a second or so while stuff loaded.

    60GB is the very bare minimum though, like I had to move Steam onto a different drive because the SSD filled up fast.
    ----------------------------------------
    1999 - 2001: Ultima Online
    2001 - 2004: Dark Age of Camelot
    2004 - Today: World of Warcraft
    *** 19 years of MMO gaming ***
    ----------------------------------------

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Kohbl View Post
    The only thing I am not happy with is the HDD that I play on since it is a slow 5400rpm. I was looking into SSDs, but I am so lost in trying to pick which is the best. I know there are different manufacturers for the internals, and I was wondering if I could get some advice on which ones are the most reliable. I just need enough room for WoW and maybe another game 5gbs~

    Also
    - SSD vs 10k rpm?
    - Should I get one big enough to stick window's on it also?

    Thanks for the help.
    Ok, so if you're shopping for a SSD, right now, get one with a SandForce controller. As stated about Intel has some new ones coming, so in theory they should shift the prices of all current generation stuff down, so it might not hurt to hold off if you can.

    As for size, 40GB would be great for WoW. You could slam WOW + Win 7 onto a 60, but that'd be tight might not allow for future updates to WoW, like the next Xpac. 80 GB is a good compromise for both Win and WOW. If you do a 120GB then you'll have plenty of room and can throw on some other games as well.

    fwiw... right now for me WOW is 24GB and WOW+Win 7 = 57

    On newegg, the OCZ 120GB is selling for $209 which is probably a sign of things to come. The Corsair Force 115GB is going for slightly more, but it's also slightly better.

    If you do a $$ to size ratio, these are the best drives to get. However, the 40GB version of the Corsair is literally half the price. So, a lot of it has to do with your budget.

    also... a well managed 7200 RPM drive, like the Samsung F3 (or Caviar Black) will give you a great performance boost at a fraction of the price (500GB for about $50)
    Current System - Ultra Budget <$550 (Reused: 19" monitor, KB and mouse)
    Case: Xion Echo $50 PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA-500D $50
    Win 7 OEM: $99 HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s $45
    CPU/MB Combo: MSI 880GMA-E45 / Phenom II x3 720 2.8 (OC 3.5) $150
    GPU: MSI R5670 CYCLONE 1G Radeon HD 5670 $89
    Mem: G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2GB 1333 (pc10666) $45
    DVD Burner: Asus 24x $18
    - update: 2/16/11 added Hyper 212 CPU Cooler $30

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Synthaxx View Post
    Indeed. However, what i found is that in real terms, my RAID has much higher read and write speeds than my SSD, up close to 400MB/s on r and w, and both those drives are 5400 (primarily due to them being 2TB each. Game performance and loading times are marginally better on the SSD, but not so much i'd recommend one for the average user. At £60 per drive, it's still got 8x the capacity and still 6x cheaper. For the performance increase though, you obviously want 2 of them. Even then, it's still 3x cheaper, but gives 16x the capacity and similar performance.
    * when doing sequential reads/writes

    Then the question becomes, when is a situation going to arise during gaming that the 400MB/s sequential reading of HDD based RAID outclasses an ordinary SSD? When you're using fraps??

  17. #17
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by McFrotton View Post
    pretty much what this guy said but instead of 2TB each get two 1TB at 7200 and raid them it will be faster than SSD
    The SSD's ability to rapidly access random bits on the drive is vastly superior to sustained read/write speeds on RAID drives. Sure, frapsing on SSD's is retarded since they're a lot more expensive $/GB, but for games they're a lot better.

  18. #18
    Reply to OP, i currently have the OCZ Vertex 2 SSD 240GB. one thing i can say is that, yes you should get one big enough to run windows on as well as every program you use on your computer... as an avid gaming/pc enthusiast, and one who owns an SSD and owns a 10,000 RPM, there is 0 comparasion between the two, the SSD is revolutionary, when you install windows on it and just click around and open files, games, internet browsers, anything you do on the ssd is so instantaneous that it literally feels like an entirely new machine. it feels the way a computer SHOULD feel, and it is in my mind by far the biggest upgrade anyone can make to their machine. anyone who doesn't have one before you go and blast me, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE just go in and click around on a machine that has an SSD installed at bestbuy or (if they have any) it truly is incredible.

    What you want is one big enough to run all of your programs/games from, if you have externals or seperate internals for file storage that is fine. but all programs and games and windows want to stored on the SSD. i personaly like OCZ's SSD's and have heard nothing but good things, and as an owner of the Vertex 2 i highly recommend it. get one that's big enough for your own needs you wont be sorry. i believe ocz offers a 5 year warranty on all SSD's i personally have had mine for about 7ish months now and had 0 problems. I've frapsed and completely filled up my SSD then moved files after rendering onto a seperate drive and re frapsed and basically pushed my SSD to the limit adding and deleting files multiple times and have had no problems at all. Do your research their may be better ones out there now, but when i was in the market the OCZ vertex 2 was the best offer out at the time, one thing to mention is that when i bought my 240gb it was around 600ish dollars, and i looked it up on amazon a few minutes ago and it's now up their for close to 400, so the price decrease is pretty dramatic, if you want it now and can afford it, you wont be sorry i still am not. but if you can hold of for a bit longer, do it and scoop one up in a few months.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Nozrek View Post
    60 Gb? That's 7.5 GB, don't you mean 60 GB?

    But can't you divide the Windows system files (needed for booting) and the other files between 2 drives?
    Like Prixie said, the basic Windows files + WoW shouldn't take more than 60 GB, so my guess is 120 GB would be more than needed.
    No need to be a twat, mate. When I was building PCs twelve years ago, the convention was Gb. I've just never bothered being specific, and do you know why? Everyone knows what you're talking about based on context, and if there is an ambiguity you're sure to use the specific term from the word go. Only morons don't get it.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Synthaxx View Post
    When you RAID-0 on a good controller with 2 HDD's, you'll be able to push up your write speeds even further. Your sequential read speeds will often rise way above an SSD in these circumstances too. Your Random Read speeds will still be below an SSD.
    Only if you use first gen shit SSD. Last year's SSDs with Sandforce chip goes way past even 10k rpm RAID0 in sustained reads and writes.
    Never going to log into this garbage forum again as long as calling obvious troll obvious troll is the easiest way to get banned.
    Trolling should be.

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