RIght now I have FSX and FS9 installed together with Windows 7 64 on a Velociraptor 300GB. I consider getting an Samsung SSD 830 series but I am not sure what setup would be the best from a FSX and FS9 point of view. I have SATA 6GB connectors on my P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mobo.

 

Should I

1) get a Samsung SSD 830 256 GB and install the OS and the sim there or

2) the OS on the SSD (then a Samsung SSD 830 128 GB would suffice) and the sims on the 150 GB velociraptor. Or should it be the SSD for sim and the VR for OS?

 

I've tried to read as much as I can but there doesn't seem to be a consensus on this. I notice Word Not Allowed opted for 2 , is that because you hade the VR hanging around anyway and decided there isn't much of a performance gain putting everything on a SSD and you could save some money on a smaller SSD or? Or was it purely a performance decision? I THINK I read that the newer VR's perform better than my 300 GB.

 

And a probably stupid question, but can I use an imaging software like Norton or Acronis Trueimage to backup the SSD to an extra HD without having trouble restoring it later? I backup my VR that way splendidly but figured an SSD might possible behave differently?!

 

Regards,

Krister

Hi Krister,

 

My plan for my next system build is to put both OS & FSX or P3D on one larger Sata III SSD, perhaps 480Gb since they are selling for around $370 US. I like the idea of having everything on one drive so that once installation of OS/FSX is complete one can make an inexpensive clone/image on a HHD for rapid restoration in the event of a failure. Of course you can do the same on separate drives, but it's messier and you always have to clone BOTH drives at the same time for that approach to work well. Near as I can tell, you will have great I/O performance on an SSD w/ that approach, whereas in pre-SSD days you would be better off splitting OS & sim on separate HHDs for decent performance.

 

Noel

Noel, that's exactly why I've always put everything on a single HD so I could easily make a clone, actually clones at different stages (plain windows, windows with all drivers and extra, windows + fs with some basic can't live without add-ons and then finally with everything installed. I will probably go the big SSD route with everything on it, but I am curious why others have chosen differently!

I went for the 250 GB SSD so I'll use a single disc for OS and the flightsims. I don't know if I'll see any effect in FS9 but perhaps ORBX-sceneries will lot a bit faster. Not that they really load slowly with the VR either. hmm Why do I always do these silly purchases!