I want to build a new PC, budget wise, I'm very flexible. I haven't upgraded since my Q6600 almost 3 years ago, I pretty much waited for this day, and now I want the best. I am not going to rebuild "right now", I want to wait probably a few more months until a) Nvidia gets their act together with fermi, :( hexa cores hit mainstream (no way I'm wasting a $1,000 for a CPU that'll be $299 in 4-5 months, that money is better spent for something like a PFC yoke but anyways....). I have been reading a lot about SSDs, their gain is obvious, yes fast load times, better texture transition, etc. But what about SLC vs MLC? Yes, FSX doesn't do much as far as write I/O, once you install everything, you just read it, but I'm sure there is a reason why Intel's X-25 costs almost $700. Now, if there is really a benefit for an SLC, I will buy it, but is there? And if there is, do you guys see prices going down? I have been waiting and waiting for almost a year now, ever since X-25 was released, it's priced didn't drop a bit! The problem is, now that I have waited so long, I obviously don't want to buy something overpriced just to see its price go down in a month, plus, it's something that's been in the market quite some time, I wonder if Intel will release a new one?Thanks!

I want to build a new PC, budget wise, I'm very flexible. I haven't upgraded since my Q6600 almost 3 years ago, I pretty much waited for this day, and now I want the best. I am not going to rebuild "right now", I want to wait probably a few more months until a) Nvidia gets their act together with fermi, :( hexa cores hit mainstream (no way I'm wasting a $1,000 for a CPU that'll be $299 in 4-5 months, that money is better spent for something like a PFC yoke but anyways....). I have been reading a lot about SSDs, their gain is obvious, yes fast load times, better texture transition, etc. But what about SLC vs MLC? Yes, FSX doesn't do much as far as write I/O, once you install everything, you just read it, but I'm sure there is a reason why Intel's X-25 costs almost $700. Now, if there is really a benefit for an SLC, I will buy it, but is there? And if there is, do you guys see prices going down? I have been waiting and waiting for almost a year now, ever since X-25 was released, it's priced didn't drop a bit! The problem is, now that I have waited so long, I obviously don't want to buy something overpriced just to see its price go down in a month, plus, it's something that's been in the market quite some time, I wonder if Intel will release a new one?Thanks!

I am happy with my Kingston 64GB Gen 2 drives. I am getting 230 MB/s read times, and they cost under $400 total for both.

I want to build a new PC, budget wise, I'm very flexible. I haven't upgraded since my Q6600 almost 3 years ago, I pretty much waited for this day, and now I want the best. I am not going to rebuild "right now", I want to wait probably a few more months until a) Nvidia gets their act together with fermi, :( hexa cores hit mainstream (no way I'm wasting a $1,000 for a CPU that'll be $299 in 4-5 months, that money is better spent for something like a PFC yoke but anyways....). I have been reading a lot about SSDs, their gain is obvious, yes fast load times, better texture transition, etc. But what about SLC vs MLC? Yes, FSX doesn't do much as far as write I/O, once you install everything, you just read it, but I'm sure there is a reason why Intel's X-25 costs almost $700. Now, if there is really a benefit for an SLC, I will buy it, but is there? And if there is, do you guys see prices going down? I have been waiting and waiting for almost a year now, ever since X-25 was released, it's priced didn't drop a bit! The problem is, now that I have waited so long, I obviously don't want to buy something overpriced just to see its price go down in a month, plus, it's something that's been in the market quite some time, I wonder if Intel will release a new one?Thanks!

BTW, Don't think there will be any 6-core cpus from Intel at $300 coming out anytime soon. Intel is busy working on their next new architecture which isn't due out for another year or so.My Falcon II SSD workds great for FSX. I've heard its not the best SSD in the world, but its better than any physical harddisk available.

BTW, Don't think there will be any 6-core cpus from Intel at $300 coming out anytime soon. Intel is busy working on their next new architecture which isn't due out for another year or so.My Falcon II SSD workds great for FSX. I've heard its not the best SSD in the world, but its better than any physical harddisk available.

There'll be a mainstream 6-core, Q3 the latest. You can count on it;) You can look back, the pattern has been the same for i7, Q series, E series, P4 series, heck, even the MMX in 90s.As for the SSD, does anyone actually own the X-25s from Intel? Are they worth the money?

I have Intel 160 Gb SSD x25 m . I plan for more scenery . It is worth itself but if you can find any SSD at same read speed ( manual specification ) I think It can not distinguish by eyes.you have many choice .

There'll be a mainstream 6-core, Q3 the latest. You can count on it;) You can look back, the pattern has been the same for i7, Q series, E series, P4 series, heck, even the MMX in 90s.As for the SSD, does anyone actually own the X-25s from Intel? Are they worth the money?

I have three 160 GB Intel X-25M SSDs in my simulation system. I decided to put Vista 64 on one of the MLC drives, and put the page file and IE caching onto my 300GB Velociraptor, rather than springing for one of the very expensive 64GB X-25E SLC drives for the OS. I think it's been a great solution...boot times and FS load times are very fast. With 6GB of RAM, the paging file is rarely getting hit, and I don't do much web surfing on that machine.I would only consider an SLC drive (at today's price points) if I had a specific application that needed to do a lot of very fast random and/or small file writing and reading, like perhaps a real-time database on a server.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Any experiences/advantages by using symlinks? I'm thinking about buying a SSD, instead of a Fermi card, but i can only afford 50-100GB. So mainly for the OS and maybe some of FSX's texture folders.

Intel will not be releasing a 6-core processor for less than $499 this year, you can count on that. 6-core is the flagship. You don't undersell flagship parts.

Is this one the best there is (MLC)?http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002IJA1EQ/?tag=mall02-20So I'm assuming SLC is a waste of money, MLCs write speeds are still far better than velociraptor?

Any experiences/advantages by using symlinks? I'm thinking about buying a SSD, instead of a Fermi card, but i can only afford 50-100GB. So mainly for the OS and maybe some of FSX's texture folders.

I think the Fermi video card will give you more bang for the buck than an undersized SSD.Running Vista 64 on an SSD did not make nearly as much of a splash for me as moving FS to one. It's nice to have, but the difference in boot times as compared to my 300GB Velociraptor weren't huge, given that a lot of the boot delay is the BIOS initialization.BTW, I've no idea what symlinks are.

Is this one the best there is (MLC)?http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002IJA1EQ/?tag=mall02-20So I'm assuming SLC is a waste of money, MLCs write speeds are still far better than velociraptor?

MLC write access speed is massively...like two orders of magnitude...faster than the VRaptor. But large file throughput is not all that much faster. For FS use, it's all about small file read access time, anyway, and the SSD stomps the HDD.The X-25M Gen 2s are good drives.CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

I think the Fermi video card will give you more bang for the buck than an undersized SSD.Running Vista 64 on an SSD did not make nearly as much of a splash for me as moving FS to one. It's nice to have, but the difference in boot times as compared to my 300GB Velociraptor weren't huge, given that a lot of the boot delay is the BIOS initialization.

I'd love to buy a Fermi card but they are simply not available in Germany and i don't have a Velociraptor :( A 80GB SSD would be more than enough for me, since i'm not trashing my OS and my iTunes music, Steam games, photos, docs etc will be stored on a HDD. Either via symlinks or i can change the path in the programs directly.If i'm not totally mistaken, having the pagefile on the SSD should be already a nice thing for FSX too.I don't expect to get more FPS, i only want to remove bottlenecks and having the OS and pagefile on a SSD is only the first step. FSX's HDD can be replaced later.

BTW, I've no idea what symlinks are.

E.g.:mklink /j g:\FSX\Texture\ C:\Texture Or for Google Chrome's cache: mklink /j "C:\Users\nils\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache" G:\ChromeTemp(CDM should be started as Admin and C: would be the SSD and G: would be a HDD)In that way i should be able to have some parts of FSX on the SSD and i would also be able to assure that no temp files would trash my SSD.

I have three 160 GB Intel X-25M SSDs in my simulation system. I decided to put Vista 64 on one of the MLC drives, and put the page file and IE caching onto my 300GB Velociraptor, rather than springing for one of the very expensive 64GB X-25E SLC drives for the OS. I think it's been a great solution...boot times and FS load times are very fast. With 6GB of RAM, the paging file is rarely getting hit, and I don't do much web surfing on that machine.I would only consider an SLC drive (at today's price points) if I had a specific application that needed to do a lot of very fast random and/or small file writing and reading, like perhaps a real-time database on a server.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

I will be getting an Intel 160GB SSD. Do you have any advice for an SSD noob? Thanks.

I will be getting an Intel 160GB SSD. Do you have any advice for an SSD noob? Thanks.

You want to use AHCI mode with the X-25m to get a big increase in small file access speeds. If you are mixing the SSD with HDDs, it's best to put the SSD on a separate disk controller (my eVGA X-58 mobo has three drive controllers...an Intel ICH10R, a JMicron JMB362, and a JMicron JMB363).Putting regular HDDs on a controller in AHCI will slow them down. If they're just being used for bulk storage or apps that aren't speed sensitive (i.e. web browser cache), then no big deal. My configuration has my three X-25Ms, my 300GB Velociraptor, and my DVD-ROM on the ICH10R in AHCI mode, and I have an external 2TB WD Caviar Black on the JMB362 in IDE mode (via a mobo mounted eSATA port).Don't put any application that does a lot of writing on the SSDs...the MLC drives can be worn out prematurely if you have something like your paging file on the SSD. You can specify a separate location for the page file, which is what I did when I put Vista 64 on the SSD. The page file is on the Velociraptor. The cache for your web browser is another app that writes a buttload of data to the disk (all those graphics on the web pages you visit are cached to the local disk). You can also specify another location for those in IE/Firefox...I have them on the VRaptor too.If you're using Vista, you'll need Intel's SSD management utility to manually run a trim pass on the drive about once a week (it runs in seconds). If you're using Win7, it does that automatically for you.When you order the X-25, I recommend you also get an IcyDock 2.5 to 3.5" mount converter. The IcyDock opens up like a clamshell, you drop in the SSD, close it, and then mount the IcyDock with the SSD inside just like any 3.5" HDD. Really painless...they're about $15-20 at NewEgg.Make sure if you have a disk defrag program that you exclude the SSD from any defrag ops...it will put a lot of premature wear on the SSD, and defrags on SSDs are utterly useless.If you're thinking of putting SSDs into a RAID array, be aware that the TRIM functionality does not work on drives that are part of a RAID array. I don't recommend doing it unless you know a lot about what you're doing...unless you're running a humongous photo scenery database, it won't do much for you anyway.OK, that's my from the hip brain dump on the topic for now.CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

You want to use AHCI mode with the X-25m to get a big increase in small file access speeds. If you are mixing the SSD with HDDs, it's best to put the SSD on a separate disk controller (my eVGA X-58 mobo has three drive controllers...an Intel ICH10R, a JMicron JMB362, and a JMicron JMB363).Putting regular HDDs on a controller in AHCI will slow them down. If they're just being used for bulk storage or apps that aren't speed sensitive (i.e. web browser cache), then no big deal. My configuration has my three X-25Ms, my 300GB Velociraptor, and my DVD-ROM on the ICH10R in AHCI mode, and I have an external 2TB WD Caviar Black on the JMB362 in IDE mode (via a mobo mounted eSATA port).Don't put any application that does a lot of writing on the SSDs...the MLC drives can be worn out prematurely if you have something like your paging file on the SSD. You can specify a separate location for the page file, which is what I did when I put Vista 64 on the SSD. The page file is on the Velociraptor. The cache for your web browser is another app that writes a buttload of data to the disk (all those graphics on the web pages you visit are cached to the local disk). You can also specify another location for those in IE/Firefox...I have them on the VRaptor too.If you're using Vista, you'll need Intel's SSD management utility to manually run a trim pass on the drive about once a week (it runs in seconds). If you're using Win7, it does that automatically for you.When you order the X-25, I recommend you also get an IcyDock 2.5 to 3.5" mount converter. The IcyDock opens up like a clamshell, you drop in the SSD, close it, and then mount the IcyDock with the SSD inside just like any 3.5" HDD. Really painless...they're about $15-20 at NewEgg.Make sure if you have a disk defrag program that you exclude the SSD from any defrag ops...it will put a lot of premature wear on the SSD, and defrags on SSDs are utterly useless.If you're thinking of putting SSDs into a RAID array, be aware that the TRIM functionality does not work on drives that are part of a RAID array. I don't recommend doing it unless you know a lot about what you're doing...unless you're running a humongous photo scenery database, it won't do much for you anyway.OK, that's my from the hip brain dump on the topic for now.CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

I am using W7 Prof x64. I am not using Raid. I am only putting FSX on the SSD. I wasnt' planning on using AHCI.I have the Asus Rampage II Extreme mobo. It has two controllers ICH10R and JMB363. I assume I must use the ICH10R.There is a new bios release the this ssd which allows for a 40% increase in write speed for the 160GB which is the one I have.http://www.slashgear.com/intel-x25-m-ssd-f...eds-40-2661825/How do you think I should set this SSD up?Thanks.

I am using W7 Prof x64. I am not using Raid. I am only putting FSX on the SSD. I wasnt' planning on using AHCI.I have the Asus Rampage II Extreme mobo. It has two controllers ICH10R and JMB363. I assume I must use the ICH10R.There is a new bios release the this ssd which allows for a 40% increase in write speed for the 160GB which is the one I have.http://www.slashgear.com/intel-x25-m-ssd-f...eds-40-2661825/How do you think I should set this SSD up?Thanks.

The latest BIOS for the 160GB X25M isn't new...it's version 02HD and is about 4 months old now.I highly recommend you set up the SSD in AHCI mode. If you put it on the JMB363, make sure to get the latest driver directly from JMicron and install it first. Also, if you're not putting the OS on it, I recommend you use a block size bigger than 4K when you format it...I have mine set up with 32K blocks.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO