Some Questions about SSD

[gnarx]

First off, what a forum I came across! I Have been reading non-stop for the past week while at work. I am gearing up to build a gaming PC and haven't done so in 8 years getting a pretty good idea which route I am going from reading here but trying to fine tune the well.. finer points.. to get a blueprint so I can start looking at my budget.

My question:

SSD - I see people saying they increase load time (game load? map loads? all applications/programs?) I am just unclear on how these actually are setup and work in tandem with your HDD.

Do you install ONLY windows onto the SSD.. How do you launch the games then - and people saying to use the SSD as a chache drive? How is this done?

Thanks for any clarification and great community you guys got here.

 

[tomatthe]

SSD should decrease load times, that's basically why people use them. Most people use an SSD for OS/Apps/Maybe games and another drive for storage. The apps/os are quick because they are on the SSD and the videos/music/pic etc are on the slower drives, but it doesn't really matter.

You can install whatever you want on the SSD, but the drive space is usually small on these so people try to keep things they load often on them, and store other items elsewhere.

You can set where you want the pagefile to be in Windows from within the OS. On second thought you might be referring to the caching features on the z68 boards, which I'm not familiar with, but from searching a bit it sounds like you use a spinning drive for your main drive and the system uses an ssd for caching.

You might wanna read a post/article about building a first machine or something like that to get a better understanding of how everything works together.

 

[mcnumpty23]

you can do it either way--i manage to get windows and my games and programs on an 80gb ssd--there are a few ways to make more space--i dont use a pagefile having 12gb ram--though cs5 or some programs may not work without a pagefile--havent had any problems with the games and software i have used with no page file--i also delete hyberfil.sys--this doesnt stop you using sleep in windows 7 only hibernate-- and uninstall any windows features i never use with add remove features in control panel--all in this saves quite a few gb

also remember not to defragment if using an ssd

there are also hybrid drives that are part ssd and part normal drive--these give a better price per gb--but still let you have a lot of storage--such as this 500gb

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/SATA+%28Serial+ATA%29/500GB+to+1TB/500GB+Seagate+Momentus+XT+ST95005620AS+2.5%22+SATA+II+Solid+State+Hybrid+Drive+?productId=45428

ocz have just released a hybrid pci-e drive--this will be more expensive but the read and write speeds look incredible--though no reviews are available yet

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219655/OCZ_releases_its_first_hybrid_drive_a_1.1TB_rocket

 

[inzone]

A lot of people will use a SSD as thier primary drive and get a one or two terabyte drive to hold bulky files like picture library's or movies and such. The OS loaded on the SSD will by itself make the computer faster because there are no spinning platters and the seek thime is measured in milleseconds. You can get some fairly good sized SSD's depending on your budget( 240gb , 360 gb) and be able to load a lot of programs or games. You can also manage your games by picking one or two that you will be playing and storing the rest untill you want to play them.
The catching thing is for the new mother boards (z-68) and those SSD's that are used for that are useually small ( 20 gb ) and there is a place on the mother board to plug them in and only used for the catching purpose.
All load times are decreased ( games and apps ) and that includes maps. People with SSD's are usuelly the first ones in the map and you are not waiting more than a couple of seconds for the map to load , of course sometimes it depends on your internet connection.

 

[gnarx]

A lot of people will use a SSD as thier primary drive and get a one or two terabyte drive to hold bulky files like picture library's or movies and such. The OS loaded on the SSD will by itself make the computer faster because there are no spinning platters and the seek thime is measured in milleseconds. You can get some fairly good sized SSD's depending on your budget( 240gb , 360 gb) and be able to load a lot of programs or games. You can also manage your games by picking one or two that you will be playing and storing the rest untill you want to play them.
The catching thing is for the new mother boards (z-68) and those SSD's that are used for that are useually small ( 20 gb ) and there is a place on the mother board to plug them in and only used for the catching purpose.
All load times are decreased ( games and apps ) and that includes maps. People with SSD's are usuelly the first ones in the map and you are not waiting more than a couple of seconds for the map to load , of course sometimes it depends on your internet connection.

There we go! Now that makes a little more sense to me about the caching setup. With the z68 board is that just plug it into the slot made for it and it is good to go or do you still have to setup something to have it use it as a cache drive. This was the most interesting aspect to me while reading about the SSD. Is getting a 20gb SSD and using it as a cache slower/same/faster than having a 120+ gb SSD and loading windows/games on it.

 

[mcnumpty23]

it would be slower than 120gb ssd--its a similar sort of thing in principle to the seagate hybrid drive i mentioned earlier--but only fits on certain motherboards unlike the seagate--it uses a sort of mini slot that only certain motherboards have

 

[gnarx]

Best answer selected by gnarx.