SSD question

[badb0y]

hey guys,

i am looking to buy a SSD and i need some advice on my purchase about :

which size i should get? so that i can get the fastest performance? the bigger SSD is better? or the smaller?

also, should i just install OS on it? or creating one or two partitions will decrease its performance?

thanks

[capr]

SSDs you buy are going to be small enough where you can just put the OS on the entire disk. Partitioning it won't make a difference but you probably won't be doing it.

What is your budget? what motherboard do you have? We can recommend the latest and fastest SSD but if your computer can't handle it, there is no point.

What are your expectations of the SSD? Do you just want one to say you have one?

If your hardware can handle a SATA 3 drive then I recommend the agility 3 drive. It is as close to the top of the line as you can get without paying "too" much money.

A lot of people will recommend the Vertex 3. it is the top of the line and you dont' need it. dont' waste money on it.

OCZ customer service is good enough that I will buy from them regardless of their hardware's stats.

[badb0y]

I wanna buy that Ocz Technology - Vertex 3 240 GB and put it in my Alienware - M17X

will that be good? or shall i go for 120 GB?

i m planning to install OS, and play Games on it..... mostly BF3, COD MW 1 or 2 more....

i am looking for maximum performance that i can get from it while running multiple applications, and copying large files etc as well

thanks

[Boxster17]

I was sort of going through a similar decision to you when I was making a choice as to a 128 or 256, but in the end I decided on the larger drive. I figured that with games getting larger in size I didn't really want to have to worry about constantly uninstalling stuff to make room if I started to run low.

I install everything on to the SSD and then use the other 2x2TB drives for media and documents. Right now I've got pretty much half of it used up, though with my Steam collection ever growing, I know the space available will just continue to go down (BF3 alone is using 15GB for example).

[badb0y]

so i think i need to go with 240 GB.

@ Boxster17, how many partitions you have created on your SSD? and keeping everything under one partition (OS, games, applications) would be okay? or will impact performance of OS?

thnx

[Boxster17]

To be honest I don't partition it at all, though if you wanted to that's perfectly fine and would not diminish performance.

[badb0y]

that sounds good, thanks for the info.

[devHead]

There's really no point in partitioning an SSD since you're primarily using it for your OS and program files. Partitioning is only useful if you want to have some separation between types of files stored on your hard drive. But since SSDs aren't really for storage per se, it's kind of unnecessary.

[badb0y]

There's really no point in partitioning an SSD since you're primarily using it for your OS and program files. Partitioning is only useful if you want to have some separation between types of files stored on your hard drive. But since SSDs aren't really for storage per se, it's kind of unnecessary.

yeah but i keep some games (dumps) such as BF3 so i like to keep them organized on separate partition

[mbowman]

Why don't you just make a games folder on your ssd drive then? not worth doing a partition...

[badb0y]

Why don't you just make a games folder on your ssd drive then? not worth doing a partition...

right, gonna do that! thnx

[Astra.Xtreme]

OCZ Vertex 3 240GB Max IOPS is the best on the market. Can't go wrong with it. :yes:

[patseguin Global Moderator]

I would (and did) start with a 256GB SSD. I eventually wanted even more performance and space for commonly used programs so I use 2 256GB SSD's in RAID 0 now.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

a year or two ago i bought a 160GB Intel X25-M for games only. it's been a fantastic SSD, but it formats to 149GB and i couldnt fit nearly enough games on it. moral is - buy the biggest SSD you can afford!

[+Warwagon MVC]

Personally I would probably get the new Plextor SSD's

Plextor PX-128M3S 128 GB M3S SATA 6 GB/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive

$189.99

http://www.amazon.co...28902772&sr=8-1

The 5 year warranty is impressive

Product Features

• True Speed - an exclusive technology providing consistent high performance in real-life computing environments for the lifetime of the product. Unlike the competition, Plextor SSDs sustain read/write speeds for the life of the drive.
  
• Server-grade Marvell 88SS9174 controller chip for read/write speeds of up to 510MB/s and 360MB/s in sequential mode, and 70,000 and 65,000 IOPS for random read/write operations at 4K file size
  
• The M3S fully supports SATA 6Gb/s and is backward compatible with SATA 3Gb/s and SATA 1.5Gb/s
  
• The DDR3 DRAM cache transfers data faster and helps extend lifetime of the product
  
• The latest synchronous MLC NAND flash modules from Toshiba further enhance product reliability
  
• Five-year ironclad warranty provides reassurance of Plextor quality standards
  
• Smart firmware combines three advanced technologies to sustain performance: Bad Block Management, Global Wear Leveling, and Instant Restore. Bad Block Management and Global Wear Leveling optimize the way data is written on the drive and Instant Restore is a technique that overcomes the problem of declining speed after prolonged usage
  
• The M3S supports advanced functions such as S.M.A.R.T. failure prediction, the TRIM command, NCQ optimization, and superior Garbage Collection to further increase performance and reliability
  

.

[UndergroundWire]

hey guys,

i am looking to buy a SSD and i need some advice on my purchase about :

which size i should get? so that i can get the fastest performance? the bigger SSD is better? or the smaller?

also, should i just install OS on it? or creating one or two partitions will decrease its performance?

thanks

Capacity doesn't matter for performance (to an extant). I have an 80GB SSD. All I have on it is my OS, Internet Security software, CAD & GIS software and MS Office. Everything else goes on my second drive.

I prefer certain application to be on SSD for performance reasons. Certainly if you are a gamer you would want the game installed on the SSD.

[NinjaGinger]

Silly question, do you have to leave space free like on an ordinary drive so it does'nt hit performance with ssd?

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

Silly question, do you have to leave space free like on an ordinary drive so it does'nt hit performance with ssd?

yes and no

in order to keep performance constant, the SSD's controller will use free space before needing to overwrite an already-used cell. Performance can suffer when a controller needs to overwrite a cell as there are more 'steps' to complete the action.

Sandforce controllers overprovision and keep/hoard some of the hard drive's space for itself. that's why OCZ sells their's as 60GB even though the drive has 64GB of NAND.

however, all modern SSDs can use the TRIM command to "clear up" those leftover cells. so it's not crucial to have a ton of free space as the TRIM command will overwrite/clear them.

[badb0y]

how do you guys utilize your SSD's? like store everything on one partition? or make one partition just for OS and applications and another for putting games etc?

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

i dont really see the point of having more than 1 partition these days on the same device. since you'll just have a single drive in your laptop, stick w/ 1 partition

[ESC@PE]

Just got one of these:

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/Intel-Solid-State-Drive-520-Series-solid-state-drive-60-GB-SATA-600/2612153.aspx?enkwrd=ALLPROD%3a%7c2612153%7cAll%20Product%20Catalog

waiting for it to arrive now :)

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

Just got one of these:

http://www.cdw.com/s...oduct%20Catalog

waiting for it to arrive now :)

yikes. did you pay $170 for it?

[ESC@PE]

Nah.. $105 shipped.. lol

that was just a quick reference link

[badb0y]

How about :

Ocz Technology - Vertex 3 240 GB Retail Pack $351

But the Benchmarks shows Patriot Wildfire to be the best

http://www.harddrivebenchmark.net/high_end_drives.html

[McLaren_F1]

How about :

Ocz Technology - Vertex 3 240 GB Retail Pack $351

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/761692-REG/OCZ_VTX3_25SAT3_240G_240GB_Vertex_3_SATA.html $308 after MIR