SSD worth buying just for windows?

[Gilly961]

Is it worth buying rather than a hard drive? Is there any a difference other than a faster boot up?

Edit: Thanks for all the feedback, going through the pro's and con's, I think for now I'll try the SSD. If I really don't notice the difference then I know not to get another in the future ish. Mistake made lesson learned.

[Saracen]

It makes a lot of other operations a lot snappier, like opening big apps (Office, etc). But a lot will depend on what you do with your PC.

Personally, I don't get enough benefit from SSDs to be bothered about them. I have a 128GB Crucial M4 that's been sitting by my PC for about 6 months waiting for me to get around to putting it back in. But a LOT of people will tell you they love them.

So .... whether it's "worth it" depends on what YOU do with your PC, and how much YOU value that speed increase and snappier feel.




EDIT - Just to clarify, as I've already had one member inquire if the M4 is for sale, as it's not in use, sorry but no, it isn't. I do need it here for test purposes.

[HalloweenJack]

I love my 256GB crucial M4 , and whilst I have a 1TB drive for storage , a few games and ofc windows is on my SSD. - it pains me to see a pc start up without an SSD noawadays

[Dooms]

Its a nice to have for windows boot time but my main love for SSD is game loading times being a lot quicker.

[wasabi]

Everything just feels a bit snappier with a SSD as my boot/programs drive. I still have a 1Tb 5400rpm drive in there too for large rarely files.

[Stringent]

I'm an advocate of them. I use one for my work machine, its a 120GB Samsung 830. When you have them, you wonder why you haven't done so before. It will make your day to day use of an OS a lot quicker. If you plan on using it as your only drive it will become expensive storage wise. I suggest a 128GB drive for your primary applications like Windows, Office etc then another normal drive for your file storage. I also stuck a Crucial M4 in my MacBook Pro, boot to desktop in less than 8 seconds.

Every time I sit at a machine with no SSD I cringe now.

[Butcher]

I have a 128GB boot drive and a 240GB games drive, makes the machine a lot faster and games load very quickly indeed. I get quite frustrated with how slow my laptop is at times.

[OilSheikh]

Once you use a SSD, life will never be the same again!

[ik9000]

Once you use a SSD, life will never be the same again!

this. Once you've tried it you won't go back.

[Saracen]

this. Once you've tried it you won't go back.

I did. It's why that M4 is sitting there currently unused.

Take HalloweenJack's comment, for example, about it being painful watching a PC boot. So, don't watch it. My morning (work at home) routine is :-

- get up, get bathed, dressed, etc
- turn PC on
- get breakfast, make coffee
- eat breakfast
- go to PC to work.

My PC could take 20 minutes to boot and I still wouldn't notice, so for me the difference in boot time a PC offers makes NO difference to me at all. I don't see it happen, and it doesn't save me as much as one second of MY time.

So, yeah, it's snappier in day-to-day use, and that's nice, but in terms of any changes to my productivity, it's minimal or zero.

For gaming, I can see the advantages but I don't do enough to care, and besides, for me, the cost of that M4 might well be better spend on upgrading my GPU if that were the driving force. And for a laptop, certainly I can see that being nice. Essential, no, but very nice, yeah.

But for ik9000's point about not going back, most people probably won't, but I don't really care if my PC is HD or SSD based, because for me, all it does is make it feel a bit quicker, but doesn't actually make and real difference to my actual use.

In terms of my PC productivity, an SSD is a bit like a fancy stereo in a car - it's nice to have, but doesn't get me to my destination any faster. And that from someone that did put a £3k stereo in their car.

Therefore, whether it's "worth" putting an SSD in a PC, or a fancy stereo in a car, is a very subjective decision, that can only be answered by the person spending the money, and bazed entirely on how they value the benefits. And that depends on a realistic assessment of the benefits, which we can give a fairly objective assessment if, and how the buyer values those benefits, which is something only the OP can decide.

I wonder how many people would choose to put a £3k stereo in their car? It'll depend on how much that £3k means to the buyer (and I'm not wealthy, though not skint either, so to me, it was a lot of money), and on how much time they spend in their car, and on how much quality sound means to them. And, for that matter, on the type of car. There's not much point putting it in a rattly old rust-bucker that's so noisy you still can't hear the music. You'd probably get better musical appreciation from getting a better, quieter, car.

I will NOT say than an SSD isn't worth it, but I will say it isn't worth much to me. For the OP, only you can decide if it's worth it, and neither my nor anybody else's opinion much matters, because we don't have your PC, your uses, or your valuation of the effects it'll have.

[Jonj1611]

Another vote for an SSD here, absolutely love mine, everything is quicker, love it

[TheDutyPaid]

I have seen tests that show a PC booting from a SSD is about 12 seconds faster. So lets say you turn on your PC 6 out of 7 days a week in a normal year that will be 312 days, 312 X 12 = 3744 seconds or 62.4 minutes or 1.04 hours per year faster

I think until we see SSD's with a couple of TB of storage there is no need for them,

[OilSheikh]

I........

But, I on the other hand, time with a stopwatch how long it takes my PC to boot up.
OP, advantages of a SSD :
- Quicker startup ( only SSD as storage can get you 10 second startup! )
- Quicker shutdwon
- Faster Alt+Tab out of games to your Desktop and back again
- Quicker searching
- Faster copying of data
- Faster Program installations
- Data reliability
- Silent
- Cooler

[ik9000]

I have seen tests that show a PC booting from a SSD is about 12 seconds faster. So lets say you turn on your PC 6 out of 7 days a week in a normal year that will be 312 days, 312 X 12 = 3744 seconds or 62.4 minutes or 1.04 hours per year faster

I think until we see SSD's with a couple of TB of storage there is no need for them,

Each to their own. SSD is noticeably quicker in start-up, shut-down, opening programs, loading games, loading AutoCad and similar. Autosaving is sped up, you can open more windows, more quickly, and suspend/hibernate/sleep whatever so much quicker. There are youtube videos comparing boot, and opening every programme on the machine using SSD vs raptor HDD. The result is the SSD beasts all over it. That 12 seconds is only the startup. Add in the daily usage speed-up and you get a bigger benefit. Also add in the lower power use and for me now that the price is less than £1 a GB for a boot drive I would only recommend going SSD. Other folks can do what they like, and eat breakfast with the start-up screen. I like to eat mine browsing the web on something that's already up and running.

[Saracen]

But, I on the other hand, time with a stopwatch how long it takes my PC to boot up.
OP, advantages of a SSD :
- Quicker startup ( only SSD as storage can get you 10 second startup! )
- Quicker shutdwon
- Faster Alt+Tab out of games to your Desktop and back again
- Quicker searching
- Faster copying of data
- Faster Program installations
- Data reliability
- Silent
- Cooler

Agree with almost all of that, though I'd put a LARGE question mark over "data reliability". If that is important to someone, DO NOT rely on either an SSD or HD. Either can fail, with little or no warning. So if that's an issue, you NEED some blend of automatic or scheduled data replication, or backup, or external data storage (like a NAS) with or without built-in data resilience (RAID) and a backup regime of it's own.

Of course, this might simply be some (free) software copying all or specified subsets of data to an external HD. Or expensive hardware solutions. But using data reliability as a justification for an SSD seems to me to be pushing it a bit, even if there was a demonstrable edge of SSD over HD because both can fail, or be taken out, by external factors, like mains surge, theft, fire, etc.

[Butuz]

Short answer? Yes SSD worth buying just for windows.

Butuz