Are SSDs really required?

[mtrotchie]

I know SSDs are not required, but by today's standards do the speeds of an SSD kind of make it a necassary component for a nice desktop PC? I'm building my computer and thought about it to save like $100+. Or maybe could I build my system and everything then a little bit later down the line could I purchase an SSD and transfer everything from my hard drive to the SSD, or would that not work and I would need to purchase a new OS and whatnot to install onto the SSD etc... please help!

 

[firo420]

Well that depends on a few things, Do you find yourself wishing that you could boot in sub 15 secounds? Do you find yourself being annoyed by quick lil fps drops in games when loading a new area all be it not really that noticable can be slightly annoying, waiting to maps to load in new games? Becuase if you do then an SSD can be very beneficial. But make sure that you have a SATA 6gbs connection becuase if your running a SATA 3gbs port on your motherboard, you will only recieve half the sequential read and write(load and write speed) making them not worth the money, IMO. If I were you and this only applies if your considering buying an SSD, I would Buy 2 60gb SSD's and run them in RAID 0, that way you can get speeds up to 875mbs in sequential read and write.

To answer your second question yes you can transfer all your files over and even clone your current drive and copy the exact disk image to the new SSD/SSD's without a reinstall. Do not try and copy game folders to another storage device and then copy over becuase the registry values will be incorrect and can cause errors with the game your trying to run, its better to either make a clone image or do a fresh reinstall

 

[loneninja]

If you want programs to load significantly faster, load times reduced in games, files to open more quickly, and for windows to boot in a fraction of the time than yes you need an SSD. You can still have a good PC without one, I still don't have one, but those who are use to them say they can't go without one.

 

[HEXiT]

currently there enthusiast parts they need to get down to something like 10 gig per dollar/pound which is at least a year maybe more away. ie 1tb for 100 notes is when they will take off and replace mechanical drives...

imo they are to small to be of general use to me as 60gig wouldnt last 10 minutes. my current c: is 500 gig with the rest of the 2 tb raid 0 as fast storage(@around 230mbps on large files about half that on small files). its all well and good saying get 1 for booting as they will make a difference in boot times but thats about all. as an average windows installs at over 21gig within a few weeks. so that leaves less than 40 gig for apps, which is nothing, you will literally be spending more time deleting and installing than using the thing productively...