Half-Life Fallout: Is SSD worth it? - Half-Life Fallout

I recently upgraded my computer with the following hardware:

Intel Core i7-3770k,

Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 Motherboard,

Corsair CML16GX3M4A1600C9B LP Vengeance 16GB 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Four Module Kit,

Asus Nvidia GeForce 2GB GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP

Now, I was thinking of installing Windows 7 (and Microsoft office, etc.) on an SSD, but is it worth it? Is it much faster?

If anyone has any experience with this I would love to hear your thoughts.

I do not have an SSD, but I do want one, because my experience with them (along with the people I've spoken to) indicates the performance increase is suitable.

But 'worth' is relative. They're expensive, and don't have a lot of storage space, so you'll need to have a second drive dedicated to programs/software that you don't need loading quickly.

If you want Windows to boot up super quick, and maybe put your most frequently used game on it or something, and don't mind the entry price, then I'd say yes it is worth it.

EatChildren is spot-on as always. It really is relative to how much you value the increase in speed from starting Windows and other programs installed on the SSD. Problem is that, since a decent sized SSD also costs a whole lot, you probably won't be buying one which has enough room for all your games/programs (at least not for me, since Steam is already hammering my 1 TB drive).

Personally, I'm waiting until decent sized SSD are a bit cheaper. Though I could easily buy a 128GB SSD to run Windows and standard programs on and use my two normal drives for games/movies, but I'm a cheap bastard so I'd rather wait for normal hard-drives to die out and SSD to take over.

I have an SSD since november, 250GB, and loading times are suuuuuper fast in everything, especially videogames.
My secondary HDD is a 2TB caviar green,which is very slow in initial access time (robably due to the "green" monicker, which makes it power down quite fast.).

It's quite an investment, so if you have the money to spare,go for it. But a good HDD is good enough if you don't need to have the latest and greatest.

EatChildren, on 25 June 2012 - 12:20 PM, said:

Yes, this was exactly what I was thinking. I already have 1 terabyte, and I want the SSD to run stuff like Microsoft Office and Windows 7 (and maybe StarCraft 2).

Thanks for the reply!

Monkeh, on 25 June 2012 - 12:37 PM, said:

My thoughts exactly. I was thinking of buying this: OCZ AGT3-25SAT3-120G Agility 3 120GB SATA III 2.5 inch SSD because decent-sized SSDs are expensive.

I would kill to have this Crucial CT512M4SSD2 512GB M4 SSD, but it's just waaaay too expensive for me.

SSDs aren't that expensive anymore. Of course if you compare them to standard hard-drives. I'd definitely pick one up since it clearly improves the boot time of not only Windows but also all programs that are installed on it. Everything just opens up in a snap. I have BF3 installed on the SSD and I think it does help with the loading times.

I only have a 128gb one now, but I probably will buy a 256gb for all my games later (will be sufficient no problem).

Edit: I recommend the Samsung 830 series.

There was a mention a while back that a price war on SSDs was incoming and they've already dropped quite a bit over the last year.
Might be worth it to wait a few months.

Berrie, on 26 June 2012 - 11:03 AM, said:

That is true. I've noticed that the prices have dropped quite rapidly in just over some months. This development is sure to continue, but if you need an SSD now, can't go wrong with a 128gb one. Maybe buy a larger one later?

Bundai, on 25 June 2012 - 02:06 PM, said:

What about OCZ Petrol Series? Their prices are some of the lowest right now. You can get a 128 GB SSD for just 60£ -- that seems quite reasonable. OCZ seems like a reliable maker from my experience with their RAM blocks. Also, I was told that the difference between SSDs of the same size from different makers was minimal at best. What's your take on that?

Thanks for the recommendation by the way!

Bundai, on 26 June 2012 - 04:11 AM, said:

If that SSD price war is coming then I think I might wait until the prices are a bit more 'reasonable'. I think I'll buy one of these OCZ PTL1-25SAT3-128G Petrol Series 128GB SATA III Internal 2.5 Inch SSD, though.

Thanks for all the advice guys much appreciated. It's always nice to hear the opinions of others

I own one, The Intel 64 GiG version i think its their 2nd Generation Dunno the name atm, bought it at a Black Friday deal for 80bucks last year.

Have my OS Windows 7 and of course drivers and AntiVirus loaded on it and thats it.

It boots up in 45 secs...or less from pressing the power on to I can do something. And the operating system is extreamly snappy and quick.


Store the rest of my shit on 2 320 GiG Regular Platter Drives.

Their price though have been dropping like almost every 1-3 months now. That and the fact the floods in Thialand that upped the price of Disk HDDs has also helped keep pushing the price of SSD drives down.

Bennyman, on 26 June 2012 - 07:33 PM, said:

Hmm, it is probably true that the speeds don't vary that much in practice between different makers. Mostly the reliability has been upto discussion for what I've gathered. Most issues have been fixed by firmware updates by now and you should update the firmware the first thing when you get a new SSD (with good luck there might even be the latest one already installed). I have a Samsung 830 128gb drive (PC) and a OCZ Agility 120gb (in my MacBook Pro). No problems with either one and both are very fast. In any case, any SSD is substantially faster than a good HDD.

I think a safe bet would be to go for one with like a 3-year warranty? Then you'd at least get your money back or a new drive if it fails during that time.

As EC said worth is relative. For a gamer on a very tight budget who simply wants to achieve a playable framerate without breaking the bank then no an SSD is probably not worth it.

But for a guy like you who is willing to spend on an i7 CPU and a high end GPU then you probably should get an SSD. Just think about some of the routine things you do with your PC. Booting up, opening some applications, installing a game, loading a game etc... In all of these tasks you would not be able to notice the difference between your CPU and a lowly first gen i3. But you certainly would be able to feel the difference between a hard drive and an SSD. Modern CPUs and RAM are so fast that they spend most of their time waiting on mechanical hard drives. SSDs don't completely eliminate that bottleneck but they certainly help.

I've got a 256GB Corsair Performance Pro. It doesn't allow me to do anything new, it just makes my PC feel extremely snappy and responsive. I have a budget CPU- Pentium G840, you would never know it when working on my PC. Loading Windows from this drive is so fast that now I actually get frustrated by how long my Asus motherboard takes to POST and go through it's startup routine. Once that is over the OS and AV etc load very fast to a useable desktop. And total shutdown takes 4 seconds. This on a simple dual core CPU without hyperthreading which is considered more low end than an i3, would be sweet when paired with your 3770K

Nice thread here. I really need a new pc this year, mine is ancient. So this will help me in deciding whether or not to get an SSD drive, that is for sure. So basically it sounds like if the budget it tight, skip it. But if you have the extra coin to go for it right?

Trooper, on 27 June 2012 - 11:47 AM, said:

I'll tell you of my opinion of SSDs in a few days when I receive this SSD: OCZ AGT3-25SAT3-120G Agility 3 120GB SATA III 2.5 inch SSD

It's one of the fastest, it's not too pricey, and it has gotten positive reviews.

By the way... this is an excellent guide: Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs

It basically explains all that you'll (ever) need to know about SSDs.

I did a lot of research on optimization and tweaking before buying my SSD. It brought me full circle to the realization that Windows 7 is very much an 'SSD aware' operating system and it actually treats SSDs differently from hard drives. There are a lot of long guides on the Internet that will tell you to turn off various services, delete page files, how you should be careful about writing to the disk- that it has a limited lifespan etc... This is all BS that doesn't improve performance and is designed to generate hits to websites. Unlike the first generation, modern SSDs are very stable and you certainly don't have to worry about their lifespan or over-exerting them. The link that Bennyman posted on the other hand is good if you are interested in some extra info.

But essentially if you are installing Win7 all you need to know is
-In your BIOS make sure the SATA mode is AHCI
-Do a quickformat during the OS setup process, not a full format
-Windows 7 (unlike XP) will automatically align itself
-Once the OS and system drivers are installed run the Windows Experience Index, this is actually more than giving a score to your PC's components, it makes Windows realize how fast your disk is and then it automatically treats it differently. For example some features such as superfetch and prefetch (which are designed to accelerate hard drives) are turned off. I got a 7.9 with my drive which is the highest possible score.
-Make sure disk defragmentation is turned off (previous step should do that automatically)

Trooper, on 27 June 2012 - 10:17 PM, said:

Yes. Basically it will not allow your PC to do anything that it didn't already do. But it will feel snappier. They are expensive but on the plus side they don't really become obsolete. A fast SSD today will still be good enough for you in 3 years, newer and quicker models will be out by then but yours will still get the job done. Unlike a graphics card which is made to suffer by a new generation of games.