SSD Now or later this year?

[Ulti]

Well I've pretty much upgraded my computer enough and all I want now is a SSD and a bigger monitor. I already know which monitor I'm getting (the budget 24" BenQ G2420HDBL - sold out at almost every place except OcUK though so I'm waiting for places to get more stock ) so now it's down to SSDs. I'll get another 5770 down the line for crossfire in one isn't enough but it should at least get me through most games without dropping to unacceptable frame rates I imagine.

I'm using Windows 7 64 bit and the rest of my hardware is listed in "My system", I've got a budget of £100 for an SSD. I really don't want to go over this at all.

I've got about 80GB used up on my WD Black 640GB with 15GB being in the "Program Files" folder and another 15GB being in the "Windows" folder, my combined media reaches 43GB.

Obviously with £100 I'm not going to be able to get anything bigger than a 40GB SSD right now, but is this likely to change before summer '10? As soon as summer begins I'm not gonna have any money whatsoever so I'd like to get a SSD before this.

I've seen that there are 30GB versions such as OCZ's offerings and the soon to be released Kingston SSDNow V-series (2nd gen) as well as 40GB SSDs such as the Intel X25-V, which would be the better pick for me and why? Obviously I won't need to put all 15GB of my program files folder on the SSD as I don't think I use that many of the programs anyway.

What is the important thing to look out for with SSDs? I'm guessing sequential read is quite important as a lot of companies seem to state this only and sequential write. I guess TRIM support is also one of the important features that is a must have too and it seems the Intel and the soon-to-be-released 2nd gen Kingston SSDs offer this.

Hopefully someone could shed some light on the shady world of SSDs, thanks!

[GheeTsar]

I can't remember where I read it, but I think Intel are planning on a die shrink of the memory chips in their SSDs - which should cut costs in theory. I think it said for later this year.

[alexander]

I picked up for my 64GB Samsung SSD MLC for £70 including postage a few days ago.

I know it's not the fastest one around but it still works relatively quickly and boots up to my Windows 7 desktop within 25 seconds.

[shaithis]

There was an article somewhere that I read a while ago that was saying that current SSD technology will not scale well and will not be dropping in cost much. It was from someone in the industry that said current technology is a dead-end and a different tech would be needed to scale to the capacities and prices we expect from HDD technology.

Based on that I bought pretty early and so far have seen very little movement in prices (in fact, they went up!)

[Ulti]

Well I'm just thinking that I either shouldn't bother getting an SSD or if I do go for it not to go for the slower ones such as the Patriot ones and such, from what I've seen the Samsung MLC isn't anything to be proud of either so I'll think I'll skip out on that one.

Realistically I think even a 30GB SSD might be enough but I'm not too sure.

[Englander]

Just for your information regarding sizes, I still have 15.6GB free in my 40GB SSD with my nice full Windows 7 64bit installation. This has been achieved by having my main Program Files on the D: partition on my larger mechanical hard drive. Only small/essential programs are on my SSD such as firefox, iTunes, Adobe, AVG and various other things. All larger programs (such as my 23GB Steam folder) is on the D: drive as well as all my other games.

Pretty much what I'm trying to say is don't really be too bothered about size too much because it's perfectly achievable to get everything you need on even a 30GB SSD.

As for whether to buy now or wait, I'd say if you can wait then do it because they will only get cheaper and faster as new revisions are brought out and more competition enters the market. However, if you're like me and can't wait, then just buy it now EDIT: just read shaithis' post and apparently I may not be completely correct with the assumption I made in this paragraph!

Write speed is fairly irrelevant and to an extent so is sequential read. What's most important I've heard are "IOPS" (not entirely sure what they are) and random 4kb reads.

[GheeTsar]

Realistically I think even a 30GB SSD might be enough but I'm not too sure.

I don't mean to put a dampener on - but SSDs operate best when they have a reasonable amount of free disk space to act as headroom. Running a nearly full drive will be slower than one 75% full, particularly if the drive doesn't support TRIM.

[Englander]

I don't mean to put a dampener on - but SSDs operate best when they have a reasonable amount of free disk space to act as headroom. Running a nearly full drive will be slower than one 75% full, particularly if the drive doesn't support TRIM.

Out of interest, do you have any figures on the degree of performance reduction when running 100% full vs not 100% full?

In fact, after lunch I may do a bit of tinkering and copy a 15GB file onto my SSD and run some benchmarks before and after.

[Terbinator]

I got the BenQ on Tuesday and its an absolute top monitor for the price (£142 from Dabs). The back lighting was surprisingly good and a definite improvement over my 3 year old Advent TN panel. Considering how good this looks to me and comparing to a Hazro i view on a daily basis, cost for an IPS monitor isn't justifiable to me!

[GheeTsar]

Out of interest, do you have any figures on the degree of performance reduction when running 100% full vs not 100% full?

In fact, after lunch I may do a bit of tinkering and copy a 15GB file onto my SSD and run some benchmarks before and after.

This is pilfered from the AnandTech article on SSDs:



http://www.anandtech.com/storage/sho...spx?i=3631&p=8

The article is well worth a look if you haven't read it anyway.

[Ulti]

I got the BenQ on Tuesday and its an absolute top monitor for the price (£142 from Dabs). The back lighting was surprisingly good and a definite improvement over my 3 year old Advent TN panel. Considering how good this looks to me and comparing to a Hazro i view on a daily basis, cost for an IPS monitor isn't justifiable to me!

Yeah, I've read nothing but good reviews about how good it is for that price, however it's sold out at every place except OcUK, I would place an order there but I don't have free shipping and I've read about how the box seemed to have already been open etc.

I don't mean to put a dampener on - but SSDs operate best when they have a reasonable amount of free disk space to act as headroom. Running a nearly full drive will be slower than one 75% full, particularly if the drive doesn't support TRIM.

I've heard that's true, I don't imagine I'll be using up more than 20GB though. What I'm not so sure about is that even though W7 will only take about 15GB or so to install, there's things such as pagefile and other things right? I tried to read a bit on pagefile but it seems that turning off does not help in W7 at all and could even lead to some errors.

Right now I'm looking at the Intel X25-V 40GB, I can't see any faults to it either, should I just pull the trigger and get it now as 40GB seems to be the perfect size for me (well within my budget anyway) and the performance seems to be good enough. If I order it now I could perhaps even get it delivered for tomorrow.

Are there any KNOWN SSDs that are going to be released within the next few months that will be better than this yet cost less or the same? If not then I have no reason to wait haha.

[Saracen]

In terms of whether to buy now or wait a few months, I think you pay your money (or not) and take your chance. I don't think anyone can't predict with any accuracy what'll happen.

Yes, generally, new technology comes down in price and these may too. I'd certainly expect some economies of scale, even if the points made about the tech itself not scaling well are true, due to market forces and to non-production costs.

BUt at the same time, exchange rates are volatile. We've already seen the pound drop from around $2 to about £1.65 over the last year or so, and recently, it's dropped to the $1.55-ish mark. It may go back up, or it may drop further and that depends on a legion of factors .... like what the US economy does, and on how long the markets let the government keep borrowing what it needs, which MAY not be that much longer. And as for the impact of the current scare over PIGS and the Euro, well, who knows where that's going, what effect it'll have and whether the pound will get dragged in as well, given our current debt levels.

And if the pound drops any further, you could well see the price of all sorts of tech goods going up as a result, If it drops and stays dropped, you can guarantee to will, though it may take a bit to feed through.

You could find in 6 months that these drives a re a lot cheaper (thugh I'm not holding my breath), but you could find them dearer.

My advise .... ask yourself what type you want, what it'll cost now and whether you're prepared to pay that. If you are, get one and enjoy. If prices go down, oh well, it happens. But if prices go up, you could find yourself without one at all and unable to afford what you decided you wanted at all.

As I said, we all pay our money and take our chances. Me .... I'm not wanting them enough to pay anything like current prices. If they come down enough, maybe. If they don't .... well, I'm pretty content with my system right now. But if you do, well, the risk one way is that you could have saved a bit by waiting, and the risk the other way is that they get priced out of your range. Are you prepared to take that risk by waiting hoping for a bargain? The answer to that is the answer to whether to buy or not.

[Terbinator]

Would you not be best getting the Kingston drive for a little bit more and getting 24GB more room !

[Ulti]

In terms of whether to buy now or wait a few months, I think you pay your money (or not) and take your chance. I don't think anyone can't predict with any accuracy what'll happen.

Yes, generally, new technology comes down in price and these may too. I'd certainly expect some economies of scale, even if the points made about the tech itself not scaling well are true, due to market forces and to non-production costs.

BUt at the same time, exchange rates are volatile. We've already seen the pound drop from around $2 to about £1.65 over the last year or so, and recently, it's dropped to the $1.55-ish mark. It may go back up, or it may drop further and that depends on a legion of factors .... like what the US economy does, and on how long the markets let the government keep borrowing what it needs, which MAY not be that much longer. And as for the impact of the current scare over PIGS and the Euro, well, who knows where that's going, what effect it'll have and whether the pound will get dragged in as well, given our current debt levels.

And if the pound drops any further, you could well see the price of all sorts of tech goods going up as a result, If it drops and stays dropped, you can guarantee to will, though it may take a bit to feed through.

You could find in 6 months that these drives a re a lot cheaper (thugh I'm not holding my breath), but you could find them dearer.

My advise .... ask yourself what type you want, what it'll cost now and whether you're prepared to pay that. If you are, get one and enjoy. If prices go down, oh well, it happens. But if prices go up, you could find yourself without one at all and unable to afford what you decided you wanted at all.

As I said, we all pay our money and take our chances. Me .... I'm not wanting them enough to pay anything like current prices. If they come down enough, maybe. If they don't .... well, I'm pretty content with my system right now. But if you do, well, the risk one way is that you could have saved a bit by waiting, and the risk the other way is that they get priced out of your range. Are you prepared to take that risk by waiting hoping for a bargain? The answer to that is the answer to whether to buy or not.

You could say I'm a computer enthusiast on a budget so I'd say it's worth the money. I've heard people say it's a much better upgrade than going from a dual to a quad and to be honest it seems to me that going from a dual to a quad did not really offer many performance gains for me. (Perhaps I just don't use quad core optimized programs).

Either way, it's probably better for me to get one now so I'm not constantly wondering how good a SSD will be haha.

Would you not be best getting the Kingston drive for a little bit more and getting 24GB more room !

What's this Kingston one you mention?

[MadduckUK]

he will mean a ssdnow 64gb

[Ulti]

Well I don't think that the increased space will be worth the performance loss, trying to find some reviews with them compared though.