Features - QOTW: Do you use an SSD in your main PC?

[Lee H]

No I don't use an SSD.

I actually use 2 of them in my PC (OCZ Vertex 3 and Agility 3) at the moment, with a 3rd planned for when TRIM finally gets supported with RAID.

[robbiec]

I went a bit crazy last year and hooked up a 4 drive (OCZ Vertex 2 60GB) array on a LSI9240 controller. Never looked back. Did have one of the SSDs die but it was just a case of restoring a backup on a smaller volume while I waited 4 weeks for a replacement.
SSDs are a complete game changer for the PC, its like moving from a 486 to Pentium II!

[Saracen]

As much as I try, I battle to understand other people's priorities. As Saracen pointed out, he'll spend thousands of pounds on photo equipment while I'll do the same for my PC; the way I feel about his priorities is probably the same way he feels about mine.

Now I know how generations before us felt about clouds, the ocean and nature.

Quite likely.

Oh, years ago, I kept PCs that were state of the art. I think my first PC was in 1984, maybe '85. And that was after the Apple II, and some others. I remember putting a £1500 ESDI hard drive ( a whole 338MB, and yes, megabyte) in, when 20MB was the standard for PCs and about 99% of homes didn't have PCs at all. And I kept at the bleeding edge for years, helped by having good press contacts, meaning a constant stream of pre-release hardware, from pre-production processors to one of the first HP colour lasers to hit the UK (the one that did most of the press rounds).

But these days, a PC is largely a tool to do a job. It's a means to an end, and certainly not an end it it's own right, for me. The farce with DRM and the proliferation of Steam, etc, has largely put an end to gaming for me, and that's a major driver for performance. So I'm not driven by that. And most of the things I do do are more affected by other things, such as memory and multiple HDs, which give me the blend I need of decent performance and versatility. Even the processor is an old-ish Quad, though not an i-anything. and the mobo is a P45. And it's perfectly adequate for the job.

So my assessment of something like an SSD is .... what difference does it make to what I use the PC for. And the answer is, not even to justify £70 (for a small-ish one) let alone a lot more for bigger ones. Biut that's not to say that's the right answer for anyone else. Clearly, for some people, they feel the same, but many (most) don't.

[Noxvayl]

The farce with DRM and the proliferation of Steam, etc, has largely put an end to gaming for me, and that's a major driver for performance. So I'm not driven by that. And most of the things I do do are more affected by other things, such as memory and multiple HDs, which give me the blend I need of decent performance and versatility. Even the processor is an old-ish Quad, though not an i-anything. and the mobo is a P45. And it's perfectly adequate for the job.

I might stop gaming in the near future if it wasn't for the trend of DRM free games getting stronger. Admittedly it's mostly Indie games but still worth supporting for me. More recently though I have backed 2 Kickstarter campaigns for games(Double Fine Adventure and Wasteland 2), something I hope revolutionises the gaming industry reconnecting developers to their audience.

One is still going, $15 pledged gets you a DRM free copy of the game produced. Might be worth checking out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2

I support Steam, not because it's inherently good or trustworthy but because it's better. I have been annoyed by the restrictions lately but they haven't been enough to stop me gaming, especially when I tend not to spend more than £15 on a game any more thanks to the sales. Even though I tend to be a lot more selective compared to friends based on DRM grounds I'm not willing to only play DRM free titles just yet.

So my assessment of something like an SSD is .... what difference does it make to what I use the PC for. And the answer is, not even to justify £70 (for a small-ish one) let alone a lot more for bigger ones. Biut that's not to say that's the right answer for anyone else. Clearly, for some people, they feel the same, but many (most) don't.

SSD's tend to influence the majority of peoples PC experience hence the strong support. I still find it hard to imagine being ok with not getting one though.

[Hicks12]

Yes Exhail, sorry bit off topic but so glad you mentioned W2!!! Never played the original but theres been a couple of games popping up on kickstarter and it seriously is a much better way. I glad i havent missed that pledge as it sounds right down my street !

[andrewuk]

256GB SSD for Windows boot/Apps and a few selected favourite games (WoW sucks up 25GB on it's own!). 1TB mechanical storage (2x500gb in raid 0) for the rest of the Steam folder and used as scratch space for when I'm converting my blu-rays to MKVs for the media PC.

[Kanoe]

Just got my first SSD on order. The recently reviewed SanDisk 120Gb. Should be in the post as we speak. Thankfully ordered it at the weekend before Amazon put it up £5!!. Its not going to replace much (500Gb system drive) but it will kinda alter the chain in the PC from 500GB System, 1.5TB Games and 250GB Backups to 120GB SSD System, 1.5TB Games and 500GB Backups and out with the smallest drive as its quite old.

[miniyazz]

But these days, a PC is largely a tool to do a job. It's a means to and end, and certainly not an end it it's own right, for me. The farce with DRM and the proliferation of Steam, etc, has largely put an end to gaming for me, and that's a major driver for performance. So I'm not driven by that. And most of the things I do do are more affected by other things, such as memory and multiple HDs, which give me the blend I need of decent performance and versatility. Even the processor is an old-ish Quad, though not an i-anything. and the mobo is a P45. And it's perfectly adequate for the job.

So my assessment of something like an SSD is .... what difference does it make to what I use the PC for. And the answer is, not even to justify £70 (for a small-ish one) let alone a lot more for bigger ones. Biut that's not to say that's the right answer for anyone else. Clearly, for some people, they feel the same, but many (most) don't.

Any thoughts on what you're going to upgrade next, then? Memory is so cheap you can buy 16GB of it for <£70 (perhaps not DDR2 though!)
Incidentally, for anyone running a virtual machine on the same hard drive as the OS, and found it dog slow.. like me.. an SSD totally solved that problem

[crossy]

Any thoughts on what you're going to upgrade next, then? Memory is so cheap you can buy 16GB of it for <£70 (perhaps not DDR2 though!)
Incidentally, for anyone running a virtual machine on the same hard drive as the OS, and found it dog slow.. like me.. an SSD totally solved that problem

I've got two VirtualBox hosts here - a C2D laptop with a RAID1 array attached and a hex-core desktop with the VM's stored on a WD 2TB drive. Interesting (side?) point is that when I moved my VM's from the desktop's "programs" drive (1TB Seagate) to the "backups" drive (the 2TB) then the performance noticably went up. I'm sure that there's good reasons for this - increased data density meaning faster loading for the large files that make up the VDI?

If the price of SSD's falls to the point where I can get a pair of 500GB units for a reasonable price then I might follow your lead and replace the drives in my RAID array with SSD's. I think though that I'd get better performance for less by slapping in more memory and perhaps putting the VM software itself on SSD. At the moment though, my SSD preferences would be to replace the OS disk in that C2D laptop and then spending money to replace my "programs" drive in that desktop.

[DaveBG]

I got Vertex 3 and it is absolutely great. Speed cannot be compared to what i was used before. Definitely recommend to anyone. I got cheap 60GB one.

[Saracen]

I might stop gaming in the near future if it wasn't for the trend of DRM free games getting stronger. Admittedly it's mostly Indie games but still worth supporting for me. More recently though I have backed 2 Kickstarter campaigns for games(Double Fine Adventure and Wasteland 2), something I hope revolutionises the gaming industry reconnecting developers to their audience. ...

A valuable approach, I agree, and one that bucks the mainstream trend.

I guess part of my problem is the sheer effort involved in vetting every game I look at to see quite what restrictions it has. Back in the days of "CD in the drive", it was a pain, but one I'd live with. But needing to install Steam (or Origin, or whatever) to activate, or even to run, or having to have an internet connection (my games machine doesn't) to load, or for some, having a permanent internet connection to even continue to play, once started .... well, I guess I just got fed up with spending time looking for a game that appeals to me, then checking to out to see what other gamers thought of it, then separating out the comments of those that love it but have different gaming preferences to me so as to get games I'll like, and then finding it falls at the DRM hurdle. Well, I've more or less given up even bothering to look. Life's too short.

When it was as simple as "will I like it, and will it run on my PC/processor/sound-card/disk space, well, that was easy. These days, finding something I'll enjoy and can run is a bit like panning for gold in a fast-flowing river. There are nuggets to be found, but it take a lot of time standing there getting your feet wet, and there's no guarantee of success in the end.

....

I support Steam, not because it's inherently good or trustworthy but because it's better.

....

I understand why many (most) people find Steam a good bargain, overall, even if there are aspects they don't like. It has advantages and I don't see it stopping any time soon. But for me, it's a non-starter. I don't expect this to be a common perspective, but it's not for me.

....

SSD's tend to influence the majority of peoples PC experience hence the strong support. I still find it hard to imagine being ok with not getting one though.

I also understand why people use them. For my purposes, they're still just poor value for money. The capacity of any drive at a sensible price is so small as to not replace an existing conventional drive, and that means it's an addition purely for the performance boost. And for a drive in the 60-128GB range, that means, what, £65-£140, roughly.

Will I pay that for the indisputable performance they add? Nope. I understand why people do, but it adds nothing significant to my computing needs. I added a 2TB drive to one system recently, because they did add something I actually needed. Would an SSD? Not for me, at that price point. But as with Steam, I expect to be in the minority on that point, just as I am with having little or no interest in smart phones. Again, I understand why some people want/like/need them, but I don't, and actively don't want one. If someone gave me one, I'd sell it or, if need be, give it away, but I wouldn't use it.

[Noxvayl]

I guess part of my problem is the sheer effort involved in vetting every game I look at to see quite what restrictions it has. Back in the days of "CD in the drive", it was a pain, but one I'd live with. But needing to install Steam (or Origin, or whatever) to activate, or even to run, or having to have an internet connection (my games machine doesn't) to load, or for some, having a permanent internet connection to even continue to play, once started .... well, I guess I just got fed up with spending time looking for a game that appeals to me, then checking to out to see what other gamers thought of it, then separating out the comments of those that love it but have different gaming preferences to me so as to get games I'll like, and then finding it falls at the DRM hurdle. Well, I've more or less given up even bothering to look. Life's to short.

When it was as simple as "will I like it, and will it run on my PC/processor/sound-card/disk space, well, that was easy. These days, finding something I'll enjoy and can run is a bit like panning for gold in a fast-flowing river. There are nuggets to be found, but it take a lot of time standing there getting your feet wet, and there's no guarantee of success in the end.

When you put it that way finding a game to play is hard work, I definitely don't go that far finding the games I play that I'm happy with; of course my set of criteria are different. You should definitely get the next Humble Indie Bundle that gives you the bonus of previous bundles if you spend more than a set amount; I've had as much fun playing my Humble Bundle games last year as I did my premium games, there are some gems in there DRM free

That said I use the tried and trusted technique of checking if the game meets my minimum expectations first before finding out more about it. If the game has Securom, Ubisoft as a publisher, online only DRM or no demo then I look no further. I also generally only check for the above mentioned items if the game is recommended or on a Steam sale which also reduces the amount of games I actually think about buying. Saves me loads of time and I still play some awesome games that I would not want to miss out on.

I understand why many (most) people find Steam a good bargain, overall, even if there are aspects they don't like. It has advantages and I don't see it stopping any time soon. But for me, it's a non-starter. I don't expect this to be a common perspective, but it's not for me.

Fair enough, a fair few of my friends think I'm stupid for saying the same about Origin.

... Will I pay that for the indisputable performance they add? Nope. I understand why people do, but it adds nothing significant to my computing needs. I added a 2TB drive to one system recently, because they did add something I actually needed. Would an SSD? Not for me, at that price point. But as with Steam, I expect to be in the minority on that point, just as I am with having little or no interest in smart phones. Again, I understand why some people want/like/need them, but I don't, and actively don't want one. If someone gave me one, I'd sell it or, if need be, give it away, but I wouldn't use it.

I'm sort of with you on the smart phone issue. I would use one if given one but I've decided I won't buy one, not for the next few years at least.

I still think you are crazy for not getting an SSD though.

[miniyazz]

I've got two VirtualBox hosts here - a C2D laptop with a RAID1 array attached and a hex-core desktop with the VM's stored on a WD 2TB drive. Interesting (side?) point is that when I moved my VM's from the desktop's "programs" drive (1TB Seagate) to the "backups" drive (the 2TB) then the performance noticably went up. I'm sure that there's good reasons for this - increased data density meaning faster loading for the large files that make up the VDI?

If the price of SSD's falls to the point where I can get a pair of 500GB units for a reasonable price then I might follow your lead and replace the drives in my RAID array with SSD's. I think though that I'd get better performance for less by slapping in more memory and perhaps putting the VM software itself on SSD. At the moment though, my SSD preferences would be to replace the OS disk in that C2D laptop and then spending money to replace my "programs" drive in that desktop.

Unlikely to be drive density/faster loading of the large files. Read speeds will be almost certainly be within 20% of each other depending on drive models between 1 and 2TB. More likely it's due to other programs or OS using the 1TB drive but not the 2TB drive, so interrupting sequential reads and massively reducing load times.

You must have pretty large VMs to need 500GB SSDs!

[aidanjt]

You must have pretty large VMs to need 500GB SSDs!

++

I can run a whole whack of VMs from my 240GB SSD. :\

[aidanjt]

I guess part of my problem is the sheer effort involved in vetting every game I look at to see quite what restrictions it has.

One quick and easy way is to buy from GOG.com. If it's on there, it is DRM-free and doesn't depend on some game management system. But sadly, it's game list reflects the current state of the game industry, so they're a bit thin on modern titles.

[vrykyl]

You couldnt pay me to give up my ssd (currently a crucial m4 256gb) - tbh its THE component that makes my pc feel 'fast' in day to day use... Id even go so far as to say people should put them in cheaper pcs, as the bulk of people dont use anywhere near a modern pc's maximum potential - but they WILL notice daily how fast everything opens