Which drive should my SSD be?

[xbonez]

I have a gaming PC. I'll list the specs below, just in case they matter. As of now, I have 2 Samsung Spinpoint 500GB drives. I have one partition only for my OS, and another partition only for games.

I am thinking of getting the Intel X-25V 40GB SSD. If I do, should I use this SSD drive for my OS, or for games for best performance? I typically restart my computer once a week, and apart from that, never shut it down.

System Specs:
AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE, Corsair H50 Liquid cooling
MSI 790FX GD70 Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2GB RAM DDR3 1600Mhz
2 x Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB
SApphire Radeon HD 4890
Creative X-Fi Fatality Titanium Sound Card
Corsair 850 W SLI Certified PSU

 

[foscooter]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but studies have shown that gaming really doesn't beneift with the use of an SSD. Pagefile and maps may load faster, but I'm not talking from experience.

As for the iX25-V 40GB, I wouldn't recommend only 40GB for an OS. Although I have 2, My OS only uses 22+GB of the "80GB" array. But I only have Windows 7 Home, Office 2007, Norton Security Suite, Quicken, iTUnes, and a few other programs.

However, you do have 2 Spinponts, so you can have a data/media drive(s), as I also do. I "moved" all my Libraries to the other array: My Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos.

For the price, go ahead and try it. Let us know.

BUT BEFORE YOU DO, what OS do ou have? TRIM is part of Windows 7, and helps the drive "self-optimize." OS below 7 don't support TRIM, so you'd have to get "The Intel SSD Toolbox" for the drive to "self-optimize."

Also, since you have an AMD build, ACHI is not supported also (probably). You can do without ACHI, but it too helps SSDs.

There are "tweaks" you can do stay under 40GB, like moving the pagefile to an HDD, turn off Hibenate and System Recovery, etc. Let me know and I'll give you a link.

BTW: I'd go with the Intel X25-M 80GB, at twice the price of the V. Or look into OCZ Vertex 2 or OCZ Agility 2, each 60GB or so.

 

[xbonez]

OK..thanks for the reply. I have the Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit edition. Right now, I am moving all my data from my hard drives to an external HDD, and then will put my Spinpoints in RAID0., and get another 1TB drive just for media etc.

In around 2 months time, I will be able to make an upgrade. At that point, I can either go for a SSD, or the Raptor. I guess 40gb is a little too less for the OS drive, so I'll look to get a 60gb.

 

[guanyu210379]

Like said before, games don't benefit much from SSDs.
SSD only make loading time somehow faster.

I have but another suggestion :
Get yourself directly a fast SSD around 60-80GB and keep using your 2 Samsung HDDs (not in RAID) for your datas and forget buying another 1 TB HDD.
This way you save money from that 1 TB HDD.
Just hold on for 2 months.
BTW : If you are aiming for speed, forget Raptor. SSD is still faster.

 

[xbonez]

Best answer selected by xbonez.