Thinking of buying and SSD, but what would I put on it?

[Aviator81 0]

I'm doing a core upgrade to my system (Q9550 w/ 8GB DDR2 800 to i7-4770K w/ 16GB DDR3 2400) and I've been thinking about possibly including an SSD as part of the upgrade. The catch, though, is that my budget is pretty tight after the purchase of a new cpu, mobo, and ram, and the planned purchase of three new monitors (all identical because I have a mishmash now) and a better video card later on in the year, so I certainly won't be able to get more than one, or anything much larger than about 120GB. The question then would be, does it make more sense to buy a smaller one for windows only, or a little larger one for FSX only, keeping in mind that my FSX install is usually over 80GB. Thanks for any input on the topic.

[kevinc5 15]

FSX installs, like waistlines, tend to grow over time.  A 120 GB SSD might not work for you as you'll lose a significant amount to formatting and SSD housekeeping functions. Get the 120 GB for WIN and other programs you use most frequently. It will make a world of difference. Keep FSX on its own drive for now and when you can afford it, add another SSD. Remember, it won't speed up the sim, only the load times.

[laserit 93]

I would wait with the SSD until you can afford to get a bigger one, 120gig can fill up real quick. Prices are coming down, I purchased a Crucial M500 964gig SSD on sale recently for $519.00

[Aviator81 0]

FSX installs, like waistlines, tend to grow over time.  A 120 GB SSD might not work for you as you'll lose a significant amount to formatting and SSD housekeeping functions. Get the 120 GB for WIN and other programs you use most frequently. It will make a world of difference. Keep FSX on its own drive for now and when you can afford it, add another SSD. Remember, it won't speed up the sim, only the load times.

 

I was about to dispute the space requirements for a drive containing pretty much only the OS, but then I had a look at my C drive, which is basically only windows and a few basic programs and it clocks in at 86GB used. Considering a basic Win7 Pro x64 install is just over 21GB, that's a lot of bloat over time. I guess this is also why I reformat / reinstall every 2 years or so anyway.

 

I would wait with the SSD until you can afford to get a bigger one, 120gig can fill up real quick. Prices are coming down, I purchased a Crucial M500 964gig SSD on sale recently for $519.00

 

Your one drive costs almost as much as my entire core upgrade. I probably won't be in a position to buy a drive that size until it costs under $200. That being said, I might be able to afford a 240GB, though I would say the more I'm reading at the moment, I would still need a dedicated windows SSD along with a dedicated FSX SSD, so that's going to increase the overall cost of such an upgrade by at least 100%.

 

I'm curious though, since we're on the subject, what this community thinks about hybrid drives and whether or not they are a viable stopgap measure until SSDs fall in price enough to be affordable at any capacity? Or even possibly going for a small SSD and setting it up as a manual hybrid cache for one or more of my bigger drives?

[laserit 93]

IMHO I'd stay away from the hybrids. 240gig SSD's are starting at around $150.00 and the price's on SSD's are heading down.

[Bert Pieke 7,594]

I've got a 120 GB Samsung SSD dedicated to FSX and am very happy with that setup.

[Dave_YVR 1,000]

 An SSD for your OS is a must have and a 120gb will work pretty good for that. Having your FS on an SSD wont do much besides reduce load times, you can simply add one later on.

[Bert Pieke 7,594]

There you go... you can put either the OS or FSX on the SSD and you'll

have at least one person agreeing with you  :rolleyes:

[Aviator81 0]

There you go... you can put either the OS or FSX on the SSD and you'll

have at least one person agreeing with you  :rolleyes:

 

Just about as definitive as it gets  . I think though that I've decided to hold off for now, but I'll probably opt for a system drive first and then another for FSX when funds present themselves. I just like the idea of turning on my computer and being on the desktop in a few seconds and load times have never been that much of an issue for me with FSX.

[SAAB340 28]

Put both the OS and FSX on a single SSD. Around 256GB in size sounds like a good size for you. There's no need to spend money on separate drives for FSX and the OS when it comes to SSD

[JHolst 2]

IMHO I'd stay away from the hybrids. 240gig SSD's are starting at around $150.00 and the price's on SSD's are heading down.

 

Why?

 

I have a Seagate Momentus XT 500 Gb, fast, solid, no problems.

 

I understand the OP is on a tight budget, a hybrid would be perfect for both OS and FSX.

 

1 TB @ $119.99: 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178340

[kevinc5 15]

 

 

a hybrid would be perfect for both OS and FSX.

I've always heard that you shouldn't put the OS and FSX on the same mechanical drive. That configuration may lead to too much activity with FSX and the OS hitting up the drive simultaneously. That isn't a problem with an SSD because there isn't a moving actuator arm and head.  (But I've been wrong before.)

[Flyer10 31]

If you are only getting one 120GB SSD I would recommend a Samsung 840 Pro.

Put the operating system on it. Windows will load up super fast.

Based on my experience up to 4 times faster!

 

The other advantage is no need to defrag am SSD.

 

In my experience Flight sim loads up faster off a regular SSD

but there is not much of a difference when compared to WD VRaptor.

 

If I could only have 1 x 120GB SSD that's what I would do.

 

1. Windows on the SSD for super fasting system start up and never defrag

2. FSX on 600GB WD VRaptor for fast loading time but will occasional

need defrag.

[martin-w 3,267]

I've always heard that you shouldn't put the OS and FSX on the same mechanical drive. That configuration may lead to too much activity with FSX and the OS hitting up the drive simultaneously. That isn't a problem with an SSD because there isn't a moving actuator arm and head. (But I've been wrong before.)

 

 

 

Yes you will hear all kinds of things. Super complex "bibles" that you must follow. Must place FSX hear, must place FSX there, etc etc etc.

 

I have always had FSX on the same drive as the OS... no issues at all, sim runs great.

[JHolst 2]

I've always heard that you shouldn't put the OS and FSX on the same mechanical drive. That configuration may lead to too much activity with FSX and the OS hitting up the drive simultaneously. That isn't a problem with an SSD because there isn't a moving actuator arm and head.  (But I've been wrong before.)

 

Like martin-w says, there are many "Bibles" to follow, or just to dismiss and ignore!

 

Most of all the bible-stuff was written for 2.0 GHz Core2 CPU´s, DDR2 Ram and GeForce2/300+ series or ATI 4000+ GPU´s  etc. 

 

With todays hardware it really doesn´t matter that much, just turn off UAC, and then install at default location. I have that on my notebook, with no problems at all.