Solid State Hard drives

[Thor.]

Ya its worth it, with a quad and lots of ram, older hard drives tend to bottlenck my true performance, in fallout a get 3 to 2 second loads, no joke :biggrin: .

 

in a sata case wired up to sata 2 :biggrin:

 

Its funny that they say fallout 3 is not quad optimized but i graphed it and it says :unsure: otherwise.

[Pronam]

Perhaps it is not optimized, just happens to go faster :)..

It is the same with one core and dual core using the Construction Set for Oblivion.

My dual-core laptop on 2.2 ghz. takes just 2 seconds to load any lists. (Especially useful when editing conditions in dialogue) While my single 3.2 ghz takes 2 to 4 seconds more..

Now I have almost the exact same installed on both, same memory, same fsb and oblivion was from before dual-cores got mainstream.

They make a huge difference, while they aren't optimized for it.

[LHammonds]

Additional info:

 

I've heard that if you buy SSD drives, make sure it has the Intel chipset and not one of the other two (Samsung? and some other generic version). The Intel performs better and does not degrade in performance over time like the others.

 

Like most other technology, it is not recommended to get the "biggest" drives possible since the cost factor is so high but to make sure it is big enough to hold your operating system and applications that will benefit most from performance. (Keep your data, video, pictures and backups on your mechanical drives)

 

It has been proven that these SSD drives (even at the slowest possible rate) can out-perform the fastest mechanical drives. A mechanical drive having to move all over the platter to read thousands and thousands of little files takes forever compared to the near-instant access in the SSDs.

 

** We now resume our normal programming **

[Thor.]

Additional info:

 

I've heard that if you buy SSD drives, make sure it has the Intel chipset and not one of the other two (Samsung? and some other generic version). The Intel performs better and does not degrade in performance over time like the others.

 

Like most other technology, it is not recommended to get the "biggest" drives possible since the cost factor is so high but to make sure it is big enough to hold your operating system and applications that will benefit most from performance. (Keep your data, video, pictures and backups on your mechanical drives)

 

It has been proven that these SSD drives (even at the slowest possible rate) can out-perform the fastest mechanical drives. A mechanical drive having to move all over the platter to read thousands and thousands of little files takes forever compared to the near-instant access in the SSDs.

 

** We now resume our normal programming **

 

 

Hmmmm interesting, i had my SSD Drive for awhile now, no problems so far, crosses fingers.

[LHammonds]

Hmmmm interesting, i had my SSD Drive for awhile now, no problems so far, crosses fingers.

Flash memory cells have a limited lifetime somewhere between 1,000 and 100,000 writes (depending on technology) and the firmware helps minimize this issue by spreading the writes among all cells as evenly as possible (called wear leveling). Performance degrades over time but Intel handles this best so far.

 

Either way you shake a stick at it, owners of SSD need to know the disadvantages of SSD and make sure they minimize the problems / risk. One way to do this is to make sure that the amount of data being written to it is minimized. For example, once the OS is installed onto the SSD, re-direct the TEMP and TMP variables to point to paths on mechanical data drives instead of the SSD. Move the SWAP file off the SSD and onto your mechanical drive. Anything that creates temporary files over and over again should be move to the mechanical drive if possible to minimize the wear leveling effect.

 

LHammonds

[Thor.]

Thinking about flash memory i had my 128mb mem stick that came with my psp 1000, it still works today. I use it for manly music and stuff but other then that it hasn't failed. its 4 years old now.

 

Now lets hope my SSD Drive lasts that long ah, well lets hope. Soon they will fix whatever bugs may be in the firmware soon enough, remember its still very new tech, once it becomes mainstream it'll be resolved. OCZ is the second best SSD drive you can get.

 

specs

 

pretty much the same drive as mine, except mine is 8gb more.

 

OCZ

Series Summit

Model OCZSSD2-1SUM120G

Device Type Internal Solid state disk (SSD)

Architecture MLC

Expansion / Connectivity

Form Factor 2.5"

Capacity 120GB

Interface Type SATA II

Features Utilizes 128MB Onboard Cache

 

Exceptional balance of performance and reliability

 

Next generation controller for improved performance

 

Versatile product bridges the gap between consumer an enterprise SSD

 

O/S Compatibility: Windows XP 32 Bit; Windows XP 64 Bit; Windows Vista 32 Bit; Windows Vista 64 Bit; Windows 7 32 Bit; Windows 7 64 Bit; Mac OS X 10 and Above

Performance

Max Shock Resistance 1500G

Sequential Access - Read 220MB/s(max)

Sequential Access - Write 200MB/s(max)

MTBF 1,500,000 hours "note the hours".

 

source

 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?...N82E16820227450

[LHammonds]

Thinking about flash memory i had my 128mb mem stick that came with my psp 1000, it still works today. I use it for manly music and stuff but other then that it hasn't failed. its 4 years old now.

I don't think you understand the difference between the usage of a USB data stick and a hard drive.

 

You can put all the MP3 music you want onto a USB stick and keep it plugged into your system 7/24/365 but the OS will not be doing anything to your data on that stick. However, an operating system is almost constantly working-over the hard drive, defragmenting, optimizing and all sorts of junk we have no clue about.

 

In terms of the Windows OS, it wasn't until Windows 7 that it became aware of SSD and the known issues to avoid and optimize for it. I think there is a patch or driver for Vista for it to become SSD-aware but regardless, the operational differences between an OS drive and a USB data stick are quite different and a indirect correlation in longevity should not be drawn. ;) Granted, I'm not saying drives will be failing a year after being put into use either...but there is a sure-fire limit to the number of writes that can be made. It should also be noted that in terms of data protection and longevity, flash memory seems to be the "best" solution available...better than CD, DVD, HD or Tape. I keep all my important and family-related documents on a USB stick in a safe.

 

LHammonds

[Thor.]

Thats when you disable page file, works flawless. Doesn't write to drive.

 

Also windows 7 has some great features for ssd drives right now, also a good idea is to disable defragmentation under msconfig.

 

Nothing writes to the drive unless i'm playing a game or downloading stuff to the ssd drive, or installing.

 

I know a few tricks here and there.

 

more info.

 

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/windows-7/...eed-tweaks.html

[LHammonds]

Interesting Article(s) related to solid state drives:

 

AnandTech: The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD - This article tries to understand the difference between generation 1 SSDs (50nm process) and generation 2 SSDs (34nm process). In summary, the Gen2 drives are cheaper, maintain performance over time and support the TRIM command (as well as Win7).

 

If I find any more interesting articles, I'll update this post and add them.

[Thor.]

One thing i noticed with win7 is a huge boost in performance, the pro vs the beta. There must of been some added features for ssd drives side, i mean i'm getting impressive results in oblivion. No loading lagg at all, it almost feels like i'm missing something.

 

Visual mods in use.

 

qarls

atp roads and grasses

reflections maps

nateral invironments

 

and lots more