Gaming I was blown away

[Zetta_x]

My friend asked me to help him install a Corsair GT force 3 into his computer last weekend.

Everything went great ... but holy crap... he only had SATA II.

Even using that SSD with a SATA II port, I can't use my computer anymore and I have a WD caviar black.

I was blown away with shutdown/bootup times and the few applications ... explorer menus that popped up instantly... It was only SATA II...

So I must ask... why do I not have one yet?

Anyone have any experience with the Agility 3, Vertex, or GT Force they would like to share to help me pick one out? About how much gigabytes of space do you typically use it for? Which applications do you use it for? Anything wrong with using it for all applications if you have enough space (kill performance?)

So far, I'm thinking about getting a Corsair GT force 3 - but want collective feedback about SSD's in general.

 

[Berthenk]

Why you don't have one yet? Well, the price, probably.
Using it only as a boot disk, you'd probably only need a 32 GB model, however, those are often (if not always) the slower ones.
An SSD is often the best choice in upgrading because you will really notice the difference and once you've used a computer that has an SSD inside you'll never want to use a PC without one.

 

[Joe88]

my wallet complained
thats why I do not have one...

 

[KinGamer7]

Mine is the Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB SSD. I've installed Windows 7 on there and install most of my programs (barring Steam) on there.

Just get one. Forget about the price and get an SSD. Please.

 

[Foxi4]

For the price of a medium-sized SSD I can build a RAID Matrix from several drives. I'll end up with extremely fast performance combined with a Gajizillionbyte of space more then SSD users may enjoy.

No thanks, maybe in 5 years.

 

[Zetta_x]

A raid matrix... I'll have to experiment with that

 

[Krestent]

I installed a Intel 320 SSD into my Mac Mini. Now from the time the Apple logo appears to the time I'm able to open applications is 6 seconds.

 

[Zetta_x]

I installed a Intel 320 SSD into my Mac Mini. Now from the time the Apple logo appears to the time I'm able to open applications is 6 seconds.

Mother of god...

I used to not mind, but holy shit the speed difference was crazy between an SSD and a HDD.

 

[Originality]

I've got a 120GB (soon to become 128) OCZ Vertex 3 and it's currently half full. Windows can take up to 40GB by itself, and there's also all the apps I've installed to it. This is the reason I tell people 60GB is the minimum for a boot SSD, with preferably 90-128GB if you want to install your favourite few games to it (Mass Effect 3 anyone?). All I can say is that rebooting takes 14-25 seconds to boot and having all apps load quickly (even my virus scan is much faster, though I don't want to test a full scan of 5.1TB) makes my computer feel more alive. I tried to use my brother's computer for a while yesterday and the sluggishness of it.... yeah, anyone can tell the difference.

Whilst SATA2 does limit the performance of SSDs, it doesn't stop them from being so much faster than HDDs.

For those limited to SATA2, the Crucial M4 is the best choice (you could go with the C300, but M4 is C400 so the choice should be obvious). For those with SATA3, it's a choice between the Crucial M4, OCZ Vertex 3 and Samsung 830. Some would complain that SandForce 2xxx based drives suck due to low reliability and constant BSoDs, but firmware updates have fixed that. I've not seen a single crash or BSoD in the couple months I've used this drive, so that's all I can say.

exangel made an interesting point in another thread: SSDs should not be used as a boot drive (since you only boot Windows once) but as a dedicated gaming drive (since games will load a lot, especially when loading maps). I may try this out some day (using a 40-60GB drive since I don't have as much time for games as I used to).

One last point, SSDs are not for everybody. They are a high-priced luxury feature. For a tiny capacity and a high price, you get a fast drive. Fast drives just decrease loading times in certain specific situations (e.g. booting up Windows, or loading up levels in games) and for the rest of the time there is no difference that you will experience compared to a HDD. If you have the £150 to spend on a 120GB SSD, then that's up to you... but you can just as easily get a £146 3TB HDD and still have some change left over. That's around 20x more space, for slightly less money, and you will still be able to load all your games from it without any significant difference in performance.
It's like buying a Rolex instead of a Seiko watch... at the end of the day, it just tells the time, but you spend somewhere between 10x and 60x more.

 

[Zetta_x]

My mind is very ADHD like. I've always hated opening up the control panel and knowing exactly where to click to go next but the second or two delay makes it feel like an eternity. Checking computer properties... pretty much everything had no delay. It was like the computer knew what I was going to click before clicking and it was like "Dude here is chrome for you"

 

[Foxi4]

My mind is very ADHD like. I've always hated opening up the control panel and knowing exactly where to click to go next but the second or two delay makes it feel like an eternity. Checking computer properties... pretty much everything had no delay. It was like the computer knew what I was going to click before clicking and it was like "Dude here is chrome for you"

I must be old. I remember when loading stuff took long enough to let you brew a tea or coffee before you start using the program. I kinda liked that - technologically-enforced breaks.

 

[Originality]

I must be old. I remember when loading stuff took long enough to let you brew a tea or coffee before you start using the program. I kinda liked that - technologically-enforced breaks.

You're not that old, since I remember those times too. The same thing has been seen in smartphones too, how it used to take a minute to load a webpage and now they're all instant with their super-fast dual-core CPUs. Considering quad-core smartphones/tablets are coming out this year, everything is going to get silly fast... or so I hear.

 

[Zetta_x]

Just another way to shove the consumer expectations up to make more expensive hardware and software

 

[Click This]

My bank account begs to differ.
Maybe in a few years.

 

[moose3]

I picked up an intel 320 160GB (am2+ MB so only SATA II) and I am not looking back. I'd have to say Samsung 830 or the crucial M4 for 120GB are both running around the same price point, $180 at newegg and either would be my choice when I upgrade sooner or later to an SATA III capable system. Samsung has a better reputation for reliability, up there with the Intel drives, but not at the cost of extra $ so I'm leaning towards them. If you go OCZ I believe their Vertex line is faster than the Agility line at the cost of $10-$20 more, but I'm personally wary of OCZ since they got such a bad reputation with the 2 series failures, even with the 3 series not having the same sort of problems.

 

[Zetta_x]

I ended up buying one of these: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820220624

 

[Costello]

the one that interests me is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167093
the new Intel 520 series. i read reviews and it seems like a great pick, especially considering it comes with a 5 year warranty

can't really order it now though since I reside in China and Newegg won't ship there.
I don't know any store that has it in stock and that ships to China.

 

[Thesolcity]

Why don't I have one? Because I have a Mac (Score for the price I got it at), and I don't have any money to build my own PC.

Sad, sad days. ;-;

 

[SenakeRow]

SSD are like russians roulette lol . Hopefully soon they will get alot cheaper and not break like hell

 

[Zetta_x]

the one that interests me is http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820167093
the new Intel 520 series. i read reviews and it seems like a great pick, especially considering it comes with a 5 year warranty

can't really order it now though since I reside in China and Newegg won't ship there.
I don't know any store that has it in stock and that ships to China.

Haha, I'm pretty sure the temps would all chip in to purchase the SSD and gift it to you!