Bad idea?

[lunar216]

After posting a potential newbuild in systems ( I will actually be building a gaming pc soon) I was informed that the 1.5 tb 5900 rpm hdd I had selected was a bad choice due to the issue of bottlenecking. An ssd was suggested if my low budget(1000usd total for entire hardware) could support it.
I have found a Plextor 128gb sata 3 for 100usd after instant and mail in rebates on newegg.

My question is this: could I use that for my total system memory at least to start out? I cannot afford an hdd and any ssd as far as I know. My budget is 100usd for whatever memory solution. Please be detailed as I am not as familiar with all of the pc knowledge you all have accumulated. In fact I pecked out this whole message on my galaxy tab 10.1, I have no pc...
Thanks~

 

[masterjaw]

I think would be better for you to get a new HDD first instead of just running everything on an SSD outright.

Unless you are really concerned with random access speed, boot times, and all, a single 1tb 7200prm HDD may serve you well enough for now, plus you have extra space for storage.

 

[lunar216]

I honestly am worried about not having the speed and efficiency of an ssd. This is to be a gaming rig. But as I said I have little experience with computers. I realize 1tb is significantly more than 128gb! However, with an os on the 128 what other things might you average computer have? Drivers ect? Is the 128 just too small for a main drive for a couple months? Again I do not actually know so if thats a bad question plz excuse me.

 

[eddieroolz]

I'm guessing the HDD was a WD Caviar Green 1.5TB?

If so, yes, you will run into bottleneck issues if that's your primary drive. Caviar Greens are known to "park their heads" every 8 seconds or so of inactivity, which is a huge pain in the rear if you're not constantly accessing the filesystem.

I would suggest you go with a cheaper 500GB/1TB 7200rpm HDD, anad a 60GB SSD to install Windows and some applications on. This way it might come out to around $150 if you do it right.

 

[willard]

I honestly am worried about not having the speed and efficiency of an ssd. This is to be a gaming rig.

SSDs will only help with load times. Games do not read from the disk frequently due to its very low speed. A decent 7200 RPM drive is fine for a single drive in a gaming system. You can always pick up an SSD later.

Is the 128 just too small for a main drive for a couple months?

Absolutely, especially for a gaming rig. You'll have room for at most two big games (BF3, Skyrim, WoW, etc) at any time. Want to install a new game? You get to uninstall one of the old ones first. Running SSDs at their maximum capacity is also bad for the drive because it can't perform wear leveling as efficiently.

I'd recommend getting a 7200 RPM drive with at least 500GB, then pick up the SSD once you can afford it.

 

[blackhawk1928]

As you said, if your computer is for gaming only, there is no need for an SSD. The fact that HDD's bottleneck and SSD's do not is really not true. When you open applications, they sit in your system memory and some in your cache. Thats what actually affects program performance, because your CPU needs to fetch this data off the RAM at absurd speeds. Even the fastest SSD on the market right now is probably a million times slower than RAM is in both transfer speeds as well as access times. The speed of your storage, weather an SSD or HDD will simply affect how fast programs are loaded up such as games, any applications, or your operating system. Once the application is already in the RAM, the SSD/HDD has completed its job. Therefore, as a gaming computer goes an SSD or HDD will not make a difference in your performance (FPS) at all. It can speed up the process of loading levels and opening the game, but thats just about it for games. An SSD's benefits in real world usage are huge, just not in games. It really shines when you open and close lots of applications or if you use applications that load themselves up in parts. They just make the system feel much more responsive and fast.

However, if you never had or used an SSD, then don't waste money. Get a big nice HDD for gaming. You cannot miss what you never had.

 

[lunar216]

Best answer selected by lunar216.