Hello all,

 

 

I have tried looking for similar topic on this but have not had luck. So i will just go ahead and ask my question. I have been doing FlightSim for several years but have now decided to add 2 new HDDs to my new system and reinstall everything from scratch. I have a Samsung 830 128gb SSD and a Western Digital Velociraptor 500GB HDD. I want to use only these two on my system now but what I want to know is this: Is it a good idea to put OS and FSX on the SSD and than use the Velociraptor for REX, GEX, FSDT, and all addons from aircraft to textures? let me know what you guys think.

 

Thank you,

Sorry Word Not Allowed but what is VR - FSX? or better VR?

 

cheers,

I have Windows 7 on a dedicated SSD and FSX on another one. All other addons (REX, OpusFSX, Plan-G, whatever) are on a regular HD which doesn't have to be that fast: it only had to be cheap. ^_^

 

I would put the OS and FSX on that SSD but also (if possible) all scenery and planes (so everything that FSX actually loads and uses during a flight). Having the scenery not on that SSD would be a shame because that is what's being loaded all the time while flying so you need the speed from the SSD for that. Having all that on the SSD also means you will not have to defrag everything anymore. But stuff like REX can stay on the HD: it would be a waste of precious space indeed to put that on the SSD.

I have 1TB HDD for FSX and 2TB for OS and 1TB for storage. If I had SDD I would have 512GB for FSX only and 128 to 256GB for OS and HDD to store my games, download, etc, etc.

I did some reasearch into this using task manager resource monitor

 

It shows total

 

cpu usage

Ram usage

disk access

network usage

 

While in fsx, of all of this variables, the only graph bursting the roof of its chart was disk access. This is with dedicated OS and fsx drives, and addons on sperate drives making 4. But only one was SSD, which is FSX drive (if only one ssd should be OS drive, as i found out later)

 

 

1.

Win7 Drive where only OS is stored is barely able to cope with acceses required to it, so Win7 needs its own drive with notyhing else running at same time as fsx on that drive, if you can.

 

2. Fsx scenery folder simobjects, ai traffic texture folders, are accessed like crazy so that you dont want anything obut FSX on FSx drive cause access to FSx alone is nearly too much for my Velociraptor. You can see disk access bars going thorugh the roof from time to time, and often this is same time as stutter in fsx.

 

 

3. So its best for OS and FSX drives to be seperate and SSD fast, but then 2 other HDD for addons scenery

 

Best way is to check process monitor disk access page yourself while flying, then you ll see what your system needs.

 

Disk access is definatly a bottle neck in your system if fsx and OS are on same drive.

 

In summary fsx and OS, do an immense amount of disk access, so dedicate drive to each seperatly with nothing else used same time as fsx on those drives.

 

Then seperate HDD drives for for addons and scenery.

 

Generally check the disk graphs, and distribute the load acroos the disks, so that no disk access wait list is going through the roof.

 

This can be done using win7 task manager resource monitor disk page.

But stuff like REX can stay on the HD: it would be a waste of precious space indeed to put that on the SSD.

 

I'm a bit new here and just following along and trying to learn. Just out or curiousity...Aside from REX, what sorts of things are the types of things that aren't necessary to be on a disk with lighting fast access?

 

Also, as a sidenote, how much memory will FSX allow you to use for FSX? Is a RAM Disk an option for use...or someone simply can't make one big enough? How about a HDD cached to a small SSD?

I'm a bit new here and just following along and trying to learn. Just out or curiousity...Aside from REX, what sorts of things are the types of things that aren't necessary to be on a disk with lighting fast access?

 

Well, I have all my addons on a regular HDD and only textures, scenery, planes, etc. that are installed into FSX automatically (like REX installs its texture there) on the SSD. Weather engines, planners, FS Water Configurator, camera addons, etc, all go on the HD on my PC.

 

I could also say that whenever an installer gives me an option to install something elsewhere, I don't install it on the SSD.

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I'm a bit new here and just following along and trying to learn. Just out or curiousity...Aside from REX, what sorts of things are the types of things that aren't necessary to be on a disk with lighting fast access?

 

Also, as a sidenote, how much memory will FSX allow you to use for FSX? Is a RAM Disk an option for use...or someone simply can't make one big enough? How about a HDD cached to a small SSD?

 

weather programs, atc programs, flight planners, sim enhancers like rex latitude and fscaptain.

 

Anything to do with scenery would be better off on fast access, and its not just fast access, but also distributing the addons evenly accross various disks.

VR - Velociraptor.

 

Thanks Word Not Allowed.

 

Another question, do SSD's still have a limited life span as compared with HDD's? Or have SSD's overcome this shortcoming?

 

Cheers,

Thank you for the answers.

 

Another question I'll throw out there: Between FSX and the type of addons (Scenery, etc.) that you'd install on the SSD alongside FSX, how much drive space do you think that might take? Now, I realize thats extremely subjective because different folks have different stuff.

 

The reason I ask is because I currently have a 512 GB SSD with my OS, Programs, and FSX as well as all necessary add ons. For Add Ons that don't require the SSD, I have a 3 TB HDD that is cached to an SSD so its still fairly quick...but certainly not SSD quick. However, that 512GB SSD is used for ALL programs...not just FSX. I have other games there (Battlefield 3, Batman, etc) and other sims (DCS World, P-51D, Black Shark, A-10) installed there as well. I still have plenty of space left but I only just started FSX and I want to plan ahead.

 

I'm trying to determine whether I need to pick up another 512GB SSD, uninstall FSX and reinstall it and any AddOns to a new SSD. Or whether I'll be fine with just the lone 512 GB SSD?

 

Another question, do SSD's still have a limited life span as compared with HDD's? Or have SSD's overcome this shortcoming?

 

This might help you. About the same time I configured the aforementioned 512GB SSD (Its a Crucial M4) I e-mailed their support to ask if they recommended any over-provisioning on it. In case you don't know (If you already know this, just ignore) Over-Provisioning on an SSD is leaving extra unpartitioned space at the end of it...usually in the neighborhood of 7-10%. They way an SSD works is that, unlike a HDD, the data you write to a SSD doesn't stay in the location on that drive that it is initially written. It is constantly moving around to different memory locations on the SSD and being swapped around. The reason is that each "cell" in the SSD has a limited lifespan. Each cell can be written to a finite number of times. The SSD can increase this lifespan by making sure the "cells" wear evenly so it does this by transferring that data around. The more "empty" space there is...the more space that is available for it to swap around with. The more free space you have on an SSD, in general, the healthier and faster the drive remains. As the drive becomes more "full" it may begin to slow down and wear faster.

 

On other SSD's I'd set up on other PC's, the manufacturers (Samsung for instance) recommended using their included software to Over-Provision and tweak the OS for an SSD (Windows 7 handles most of the 'tweaking' automatically but many still recommend turning off indexing on the SSD).

 

Now, on the flipside, the support folks at Crucial wrote me back and told me that Over-Provisioning is entirely unnecessary on their SSD's. They told me that their SSD's will long outlive the useful lifespan of the PC they are installed in, provided I'm not doing some sort of industrial grade/scientific grade data transfers (Hundreds of gigs per day). They informed me that alot of the information about SSD's floating around out there is dated and based on when the technologies were first becoming mainstream....most of those no longer apply.

 

So I figured I'd share what the manufacturer told me and you can make of it what you will

 

As far as an opinion goes, holy cow....not even including running FSX or any other game for that matter...just the load times into Windows itself is worth the price of admission.

Thanks.

 

I guess is getting better and better. But I can still wait a little longer though. No rush.

 

Cheers,