Time to see what the fuss is about (SSD)

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Hi lads can anyone recommend me a ssd for under £100? preferably want one from scan

Are they really worth the cost? blistering speeds compared to a sata 2 samsung f3 drive?

[kalniel]

Hi lads can anyone recommend me a ssd for under £100? preferably want one from scan

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/60gb-...-write-275mb-s

Are they really worth the cost?

How long have you got and what's your criteria for 'worth'? They do a fairly unique thing which makes them hard to compare to other components in a computer, and cost of a component isn't always related to how much it contributes towards overall computer speed.

blistering speeds compared to a sata 2 samsung f3 drive?

Yes, absolutely. But you won't be using it in the same way as you'd use a F3 drive.

Typically you will put your OS on it first and foremost. This will shave 6-10 seconds off your boot time and increase general windows responsiveness. Any other applications you put on (like web browser) will be much snappier to load up and use. You may even catch yourself opening programs and links just for the hell of it : If you squeeze a game on it then you'll often enjoy better load times, but not always, and you'll won't have room for more than one or two games.

[Ice Tea]

Are there any TRIM tools yet for WinXP. ?

[dirky]

BTW the vertex 2e is on todayonly for £88.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/60gb-...-write-275mb-s

How long have you got and what's your criteria for 'worth'? They do a fairly unique thing which makes them hard to compare to other components in a computer, and cost of a component isn't always related to how much it contributes towards overall computer speed.

Yes, absolutely. But you won't be using it in the same way as you'd use a F3 drive.

Typically you will put your OS on it first and foremost. This will shave 6-10 seconds off your boot time and increase general windows responsiveness. Any other applications you put on (like web browser) will be much snappier to load up and use. You may even catch yourself opening programs and links just for the hell of it : If you squeeze a game on it then you'll often enjoy better load times, but not always, and you'll won't have room for more than one or two games.

cheers dude. yea im going to stick my OS and my core apps on it. maybe squeeze in one or two games on it but i want to buy another seperate ssd next year just to run my games on it.

do people buy a seperate 60gb ssd for running their games?

You got a ssd?

[kalniel]

Yep, I went with a 120gb corsair force drive.

[Terbinator]

The thing that still brings the biggest smile to my face is having Office programs open after you've clicked, not the ensuing 10 second delay they have loading from a HDD.

[kopite]

Sorry to thread hijack but...

Whats the difference between the the Sata drives and the pcie drives? is there performance difference or is it just where they plug in?

[Terbinator]

There can be performance difference as well as the interface, if your considering one you have to make sure there is an option in your BIOS to boot from PCI-e.

[Savas]

Just search around for HDD Vs. SSD and you can pretty much make your own mind up on what's good about SSD.

[kalniel]

Sorry to thread hijack but...

Whats the difference between the the Sata drives and the pcie drives? is there performance difference or is it just where they plug in?

The PCI-E drives are usually 2 or 4 SSDs in RAID, so compared to 2 or 4 SSDs in RAID the performance is quite similar, but it depends how good the RAID controller they were going against is.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Does ssd's connect to my mobo using sata2?

[oolon]

Does ssd's connect to my mobo using sata2?

Yes they normal ones look and work just like a normal hard drive. (Some manufactures for high end are making add in cards PCIE, with a controller and a card on the device, however these are specialist).

[kingpotnoodle]

The thing that still brings the biggest smile to my face is having Office programs open after you've clicked, not the ensuing 10 second delay they have loading from a HDD.

Office is near-instant for me with spinning drives... either you're opening huge docs, or your system was a mess anyway. Everyone I know complains about their slow laggy Windows... and I believe them when I see it, I don't have the same problems though... I'm tidy and don't install all the crap under the sun.

The SSD in my HTPC has helped with media centre, the tv guide is faster to load (random reads I suspect) and it starts a touch quicker, but I'm not blown away, mine however is a cheap drive (£50) and not the fastest, it just did the job of being a small boot drive and accelerating media centre. I'm not compelled to upgrade my main PC, and probably not my laptop either.

[kalniel]

Office is near-instant for me with spinning drives... either you're opening huge docs, or your system was a mess anyway. Everyone I know complains about their slow laggy Windows... and I believe them when I see it, I don't have the same problems though... I'm tidy and don't install all the crap under the sun.

My Windows wasn't slow and laggy before, everything loaded in perfectly reasonable times and more or less instantly. With the SSD, things now open exactly instantly. There's a noticeable difference, but it wasn't a necessary upgrade. But then neither was an i7 and 6gb RAM

[Fraz]

With the SSD, things now open exactly instantly. There's a noticeable difference, but it wasn't a necessary upgrade. But then neither was an i7 and 6gb RAM

Likewise <--- My System

My Vertex2E is phenomenal - noticeably better than a Gen2 Intel SSD I have in another system.

Also, games load SOOOOOO much faster. Can be quite annoying when you are playing online though... waiting for ages for your mates on their puny spinning drives to actually turn up after level changes. It's a problem I'm prepared to put up with though

Having an SSD will be about the biggest change to overall perceptible performance you've seen in years, assuming you've always had a fairly decent computer in the first place.