What size SSD should I get?

Discussion in 'SSD and HDD storage' started by 0blivious, Feb 15, 2014.

  1. 0blivious

    0blivious Ancient Guru

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    I'm building a new rig next week and buying parts in a few days. I plan to buy a 4TB Seagate HDD and a 120GB SSD. I intend to put my OS on the SSD and possibly a game or two that I frequently play.

    Q's:

    1) Is there much benefit to having games on the SSD? I know it doesn't increase FPS but are the game/level loading times significantly reduced?

    2) If games do benefit from being on an SSD, what would be an ideal size SSD with a good price per GB ratio?

    3) What SSDs do the gurus recommend? I was planning to buy the drive linked below, but I know virtually nothing about SSDs. As I peruse this forum, I'm seeing the Samsung 840 listed as a great choice.

    Planning to purchase: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series SV300S37A/120G 2.5" 120GB $80

    Thank you all for any suggestions.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2014
  2. head

    head Guest

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    I bought a 128gb m4 crucial, I put my programs + os + games I often play on it.

    These days you can get 250GB+- for a fairly cheap price.

    Samsung EVO / crucial M5 are good
     
  3. The Goose

    The Goose Ancient Guru

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    I bought an Ocz Vertex4 512gb ssd few months ago but after reinstalling my sytem and games i found out that filling the drive to more than 50% it runs at a slower rate called storage mode so to keep the drive at max spd i just run my os and a few games off it, comparing max spd and storage mode is very noticeable so i wouldn't bother with anything above 250gb unless you get one dirt cheap and run your not so much used games off a second drive

    Now considering i paid £512 for 512gb of ssd compared to the £185 i paid for my 1 tb WD Velociratpor 10,000rpm hd i should`ve just got 2 1tb drives but most people gave the opinion that ssd was the way to go...i still have doubts.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2014
  4. IcE

    IcE Don Snow

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    That's pretty crappy, I've never heard of any other drives doing that.

    I think 256GB is the sweet spot these days. Some games benefit largely in load times from being on a SSD. BF4, Natural Selection 2, and Kerbal Space Program come to mind.
     

  5. lucidus

    lucidus Ancient Guru

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    1) Is there much benefit to having games on the SSD? I know it doesn't increase FPS but are the game/level loading times significantly reduced?
    BF4 benefited immensely. Skyrim also benefits if u have lots of mods.

    2) what would be an ideal size SSD with a good price per GB ratio?
    I bought a 240GB Intel SSD because the price difference between 180 and 240 was less than $50. Depends on the prices you are buying at really. Best to get the biggest drive you can afford and not bother about upgrading later on.

    3) What SSDs do the gurus recommend?
    Intel or Samsung are highly recommended.
     
  6. 0blivious

    0blivious Ancient Guru

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    Thank you all for the information. I can now buy with more confidence. :)
     
  7. Tacoboy

    Tacoboy Guest

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  8. pegasus1

    pegasus1 Ancient Guru

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    I run Samsung, Sandiskw and OCZ in my rigs and the Samsung is by far the better drive. Before you by an SSD, plat BF on an SSD rig then on a HDDS rig, you will be amazed at the difference. Also Windows performance is hugely different.

    As for what size, buy the largest you can afford.

    My main rig runs 512gb
    Laptop 256gb
    Daughters rig 256gb
    HTPC 128gb
     
  9. Pill Monster

    Pill Monster Banned

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    ^Pretty much all this. Intel SSD's come with a 5yr warranty.

    4TB drives scare me. That's a lot of data gone if they fail, I like the 2TB Seagate's but in the end it's up to you.

    It's called OVP (overprovisioning).
    SSD's work better when they aren't full, and with OVP the actual storage area is more than what the specs say. So a drive advertised as 120GB might actually be 140GB. I guess OCZ don't have OVP.
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2014
  10. Rich_Guy

    Rich_Guy Ancient Guru

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    Im using a 960Gb M5, make images of it every now and again, just in case :p
     

  11. joey79

    joey79 Guest

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    I qould recommend 256GB drives. 128 are filled up fast. If you can afford a 500+ GB drive you can get one of these.
    Samsung 840 Evo is highly recommended.
     
  12. sykozis

    sykozis Ancient Guru

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    I'm finding this statement to be false....

    Before anyone starts trying to flame me....

    I own:
    Crucial M4 256GB (old system drive)
    Crucial M4 64GB (file backup only)
    WD Caviar Black 500GB (recovery drive)
    Seagate Barracuda 1TB (current system drive)

    I've been running the Crucial M4 256GB for 3 years. I just recently switched from the M4 256GB to the 1TB Seagate and so far the only difference in performance I've noticed is that my system actually boots faster now. What so many fail to mention is that as SSDs get filled up, they slow down dramatically. So, if you want optimal performance, you either have to buy a considerably larger drive than you actually need....or never place any non-OS files on a smaller drive. This is why I switched back to a mechanical drive.
     
  13. joey79

    joey79 Guest

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    This is not true for actual SSDs. As long as TRIM works an you leave some free space (like 5-10%) a SSD will not slow down dramatically.
    You should never fill a SSD completely in order to allow TRIM to work efficiently.
    Every start of a proframm will be faster with a SSD, thats a fact.
     
  14. joey79

    joey79 Guest

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    Every start of any program from an actual SSD will be way faster than from any HDD. Thats a fact.
     
  15. kens30

    kens30 Maha Guru

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    I am not trying to flame you but why did you ditch an ssd for a 1TB seagate mechanical drive?I find it hard to believe that a mechanical drive boots faster than your crucial M4 256gb.Once OS is booted your 16gb surely helps with less writes to the HDD especially if you are running it without a page file(have you ever secure erased it with parted magic to restore it to factory defaults to regain performance?)
    I am just saying this because i run my PC with 1tb WD drive before upgrading to an ssd (Corsair Force3 120gb) and all i can say is that i was amazed by it's performance, much faster boot times,faster loading of apps windows was way more responsive etc.
    You are completely right that SSD's slow down as you fill them up but by running benchmarks the only thing that was affected for me was write speeds.
    I recently bought a Samsung pro128gb ssd ,after installing the os and my apps i still have 90gb free and i am now using the Corsair Force 3 to install some games that benefit a lot from loading times like Battlefield 3 on my 1tb hard drive it took ages compared to an ssd.
    My config now is Samsung pro 128gb for OS and apps Corsair Force 3 120gb for games and 2x 1tb WD caviar blue HD also for games and an extrnal 2tb drive for backup.
    Back to the OP i highly recommend getting a 256gb Samsung Evo ssd if you plan to instal a couple of games on it mainly because the size in gb of some games are getting really big.
    Other wise for a 128gb drive would still be sufficient for Windows and with a few apps installed it will still leave you with 90gb of space
    I would again recommend a Samsung Evo or a Samsung 128gb pro as it comes with 5 years warranty opposed to 3 for the evo.
    Just my thought you can grab a 128gb drive now mainly for Windows and your apps and down the line when you can afford it get an 256gb one for games only.
    As for a 4TB Seagate HDD i would recommend 2x2TB as if your drive fails for any reason loosing 4tb of storage is not a pretty sight.
     

  16. sykozis

    sykozis Ancient Guru

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    At any one time, I have around 220GB worth of software and files on my PC, not taking into consideration the files that are stored on my 64GB M4. Quite honestly, I fail to see the value in using a single SSD just to run Windows, and a mechanical drive (or another SSD) for everything else.

    No reason to do a "secure erase" if you don't reinstall everything with any frequency. When I got the drive, I installed Windows7. When Windows8 was released, I upgraded. When 8.1 was released, I upgraded again. The system has only been reloaded twice and one of those was from a drive image.

    And for joey's "fact".... My boot time with SSD was around 45sec. With my Seagate, it's around 30sec..... and yes, I have a ton of stuff that loads with Windows that slows my boot time dramatically. He should also look into the older Kingston SSDs that had read/write rates lower than most mechanical drives.....
     
  17. Loobyluggs

    Loobyluggs Ancient Guru

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    1) Levels load faster - normally (personally) on BF4 servers before everyone else and I have the 'waiting for players to join' comment for a few seconds before the server has enough to start the round/map. Worth it if you want to get in vehicles before other people :)

    2) I use 128GB SATA III for games and the same for a seperate OS SSD drive. Works fine for me, but I have Adobe CS plus some 3D software also on the OS drive.

    3) Crucial for reliability, although throw a stone and someone will tell you different brand and why. I went for reliability over raw speed. Nothing wrong with Kingston, but I'm only going on reviews. Probably very little difference between SSD drives out there for speed, it's really about reliability, but again, I'm sure others will argue I'm totally wrong on this.
     
  18. kens30

    kens30 Maha Guru

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    I just wanted to confirm that i am using a similar config to yours.
    I also use a 128GB ssd for an OS drive including some apps and another 128gb for games+
    a 1tb mechanical drive for other games that load almost instantly.
    I don't own BF4 but BF3 makes a huge difference in loading times on an ssd.
    Plus as you mentioned this config works perfectly for me as well.
    As for Crucial ssd's reliability i have been reading nothing but good words,
    from actual users and they where highly recommended by a lot of guru3d members.
    Same goes for Samsung i mainly bought the 840 pro version for the 5 years of warranty.
    My Top 2 ssd makers far as reliability is concerned is Samsung or Intel..
    I am not sure about current Crucial's line of ssd's but as i mentioned earlier,
    they where highly recommended for their reliability.
     
  19. 0blivious

    0blivious Ancient Guru

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    I grabbed one 128GB SSD for my OS and I definitely want another SSD just for games. I did put one game on it, Battlefield 4, and I like the results.

    On a related note, my new 3TB Western Digital (black) internal drive benchmarks much faster than any of my previous 7200/5900rpm drives. Something like 2.0-2.5x faster. Are the new, standard hard drives getting that much better than say, 3-4 years ago?
     
  20. TirolokoRD

    TirolokoRD Guest

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    I currently have a 256gb and its almost full (Only 20gb left), I cant put several games like I wanted but will hold off for a while until I get a new one...

    Yes, they are better than the HD from 4 years ago...
     

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