I say just spend a couple days trying both options. You're the best judge of your system performance. For me, there was absolutely no difference between FSX on a HDD and FSX on a SSD (in terms of fps or smoothness). Granted, I had both FSX and the OS installed on the same SSD. Perhaps running FSX on a SSD dedicated solely to FSX would yield some benefit... but I'm not convinced. Some day when SSDs are 1$/GB or less, I will buy a massive SSD for FSX.

I just did that!Had the OS on the 1 Tb WDC, and FSX on the Vertex 120 Gb...The actual size of the SSD is only 111 Gb, and I could fill that up in no time...So right now I´m keeping the OS on the SSD, and FSX on the "clunk, clunk, grrrr... grrr..." mechanical harddisk!

Honestly this question is a moot point with Intel's newest chipset, Z68 and Rapid Storage Technology. Get a small SSD and pair it with a large mechanical drive and let the software manage it for you - best of both worlds.

Can you expand on how you would use Rapid Storage Technology with a small SSD and pair it with a large mechanical drive?Thanks!Cheers,- jahman.

From Overclock3D's Z68X-UD5 review regarding IRST:

It's phenomenally easy to set up. Set the SATA mode to RAID(XHD), install Windows as normal to your HDD, install the IRST driver and set, in the little utility that comes with it, the SSD to be a Cache drive which takes a couple of clicks. And that's it. It's entirely idiotproof.

I believe once you set the SSD as a cache drive, it's not even visible any longer from within Windows. It's also limited to a 64GB SSD or smaller. A larger dedicated SSD will obviously be better, but IRST may be a good compromise if you're on a tight budget.

Very interesting but we really need someone to test is out on FSX and see if it makes any difference.Mark.

Very interesting but we really need someone to test is out on FSX and see if it makes any difference.Mark.

If a standalone SSD doesn't help, then IRST certainly isn't going to do anything. IRST is a budget option to a standalone SSD and it will never be as fast.

I believe once you set the SSD as a cache drive, it's not even visible any longer from within Windows.

Exactly, that's the whole point of a cache.This type set-up could be a boon for FSX start-up times: Keep using cheap HDDs for scenery while getting the benefit of fasd start-up time via a small SSD.Alternatively, is there a way to get FSX to save the scenery cache files specifically on an SSD?Cheers,- jahman.

If a standalone SSD doesn't help, then IRST certainly isn't going to do anything. IRST is a budget option to a standalone SSD and it will never be as fast.

So are you saying that aside from load time there is no performance difference between say a wd black hd and a ssd?

So are you saying that aside from load time there is no performance difference between say a wd black hd and a ssd?

That has been my experience

That has been my experience

Same here Mark

Great, finally got to the bottom of that one. I will then stick with two Cavair Black drives, one for OS, one for FSX. That will certainly help the budget.Mark.

@TechguyMaxC:Agree, but I´m brainwashed by your "Old Pal" or "Old Grumpy" aka NickN, who apparently is stuck somewhere between 2009 and 10, and don´t intend to move forward!If you look over at "his" forum, then my combo is no good:"You also do not want to mix SSD and mechanical on the motherboard SATA ports (other than dead backup storage) in other words either 2 SSDs, one for OS and one for FSX with addons, or, 2 mechanical drives." http://www.simforums...topic38947.html

What Nick is saying is that to run an SSD at optimum performance you need the SATA port set to AHCI. Mechanical hard drives run at optimum performance when the SATA port is set to IDE. That is why you do not want a SSD and a mechanical HD that you want the best performace out of on the same SATA port. If set to AHCI the performance of the mech HD will suffer, if set to IDE the performace of the SSD will suffer.If you have a mech HD that is only for storage then you can have it on the same SATA AHCI SSD port since you do not care about performace for a mech hd storage drive.

Not according to OCZ...The Vertex 2 should be used in IDE for best performance, so this SSD is the best buy when used as OS drive in combo with a mech. disk for FSX.

Not according to OCZ...The Vertex 2 should be used in IDE for best performance, so this SSD is the best buy when used as OS drive in combo with a mech. disk for FSX.

I would like to see a link to an offical OCZ statement on this because IDE does not support trim and right here OCZ is advertizing that the Vertex 2 supports trim.http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-agility-2-sata-ii-2-5-ssd.htmlAny guides that I have read suggest setting the SSD SATA port to AHCI for best SSD performance if the MB's SATA ports will support AHCI. Also keep in mind that I am referring to Win7 and SSD's available now, not SSD's available two or more years ago.Anyway, it is your SSD and if you want to set it to IDE you will not have trim.

Ok, you´re right, and I´m wrong, sorry...In post #11 I linked to OCZ, but it was about Vertex, not Vertex 2, big difference apparently.TRIM is possible with Microsoft IDE drivers, if you have an "old" Vertex - 2 years is ages in this tech.!Now reinstall, this time with ACHI, wonder how this will influence perf. of the WDC?NickN: "Do not mix SSD with HDD"!

Now reinstall, this time with ACHI, wonder how this will influence perf. of the WDC?NickN: "Do not mix SSD with HDD"!

If you want to now how it will affect your WDC get HD Tune and run the bench mark while the port is set to IDE and rerun HD Tune after you have set it to AHCI.http://www.hdtune.com/download.htmlIf FSX is installed on your WDC then what you are interested in is the random access benchmark since FSX is mostly randon reads.