Hello, Forum!  After years of tolerating my Core 2 Duo system that was never quite up to the task of running FSX with more complex scenery and aircraft add-ons, I am taking the plunge and building a new system around the i7 4790K processor, with high performance memory and a GTX 770 video card, and of course a very decent cooler.  But I also wanted to incorporate an SSD into the mix, for the smoother operation, faster boot times and loading, and to avoid the defragging and other maintenance required for mechanical HDDs.

 

I have purchased a Samsung 512 GB Pro SSD for this system, believing this would give me plenty of storage overhead for Windows 7 (64bit), FSX and related add-ons, and for other programs that I run frequently.  However, in reviewing Nick Needham's guide for setting up and tweaking systems for maximum FSX performance (a guide that has served me well over the years!), I notice that Nick recommends a separate high performance drive for FSX, rather than installing FSX on the Windows drive.  Hmmm.

 

For those who have already been down this road, will I really see any performance hit or other issues if I install FSX and Windows 7 to the 512GB SSD?  I have other mechanical HDDs in the system as well, but I'd rather not purchase another SSD if not necessary, and installing FSX to one of the HDDs would seem to be a step backwards.  Any advice?   Thanks  -- Rich LaShier

I would most certainly have my OS on an SSD

 

It will lighten your OS loadings for sure and should not IMHO hinder your FSX performance if it were to be on that same SSD

His recommendation for a separate drive for FSX refers to Hard Drives not Solid State Drives... so me thinks

 

Just put your Virtual Memory elsewhere than on the SSD and make it as small as possible

Currently im using 162 GB for windows, and 120 gb for FSX..

 

Im not sure why he wants to seperate FSX and Windows-

 

Just install the entire thing on the same drive?? Your own reasoning comes down to the same conclusion; using an mechanical drive is surely worse..

Yeah I've been doubting that advice for a while.

 

FSX installs all the cfg stuff on the OS drive. Why not have it on the same drive as your install?

I did the same rebuild you are planning with a 4790K, 512 GB SSD and GTX 770.

 

I am not running an overclock and put the OS and FSX on the same SSD.  I did put FSX in a separate folder on the SSD, have FTX Global, ORBX PNW, NCA, NRM, CRM, SAK, ASN, PMDG NGX and 777, MJC DH8D Q400, QW 757 and a bunch of add on airports all on the SSD.

 

With all that on the SSD, I still have about 300 GB of free space and do not seem to have any problems (crossing fingers...).

If you use FSX that much, I would suggest you get a supplementary 64 or 120GB SSD and dedicate it to FSX. Nothing worse than when your windows drive gets full (it eventually will) and your trying to delete FSX things you don't need. 

 

Just have to remember to switch the drive when you load add-ons. 

I second golfpilots recommendation. The OS is always causing some disk I/O, even if it´s apparently idling, that may place FSX further back in the I/O cue, thus causing a intermittent bottleneck. Even if the SSD blows a conventional disk out of the water performance vise, it may still lag for a short while. 

I run the OS on a separate SSD, and FSX, P3D and X-Plane on 3x240GB Samsung EVO SSDs in a RAID0 configuration (fakeRAID). The performance is - well - very good, although a RAID0 created with the motherboard Intel-controller is heavily CPU dependent, and also a potential FSX-bottleneck - although haven´t detected any yet... 

I have FSX & my OS on one SSD (i also use a 1tb hdd for none esential FSX items/storage and a 2nd 2tb HDD for backups).

 

Using a single SSD works ok, i still get the added benifit of a SSD ... but ... i will at some point add a 2nd SSD for my OS, when i originally upgraded to a SSD i wish i added a second for the OS cuz i think it would have helped my system even more.

I too run P3D and OS on separate SSD , mainly because P3D requires a lot more space, and the OS has only 120G, the P3D one 240G

I started off with a 256GB for FSX only but when P3D started to be used too, then this was not sufficient.

In the end, I used the 256GB SSD for Windows 7 and the 500GB SSD for FSX/P3D

Thanks for all the helpful advice.  The general consensus is that the install of both the FSX and OS on the same SSD will be OK, but there could be some bottlenecks, and at some point, I might wish I had another SSD, since add-ons could eventually crowd the drive.

 

I'll give this some thought while I assemble the system, and look around for a good price on another SSD!

 

 

Either the Samsung 840 Pro or 840 Evo are good choices in my book.

There really is no problem with your OS and FSX on the same drive, however, for disaster recovery it makes sense and life easier if  the OS is on a separate drive for a cleaner set up. I use a 120GB SSD for the OS and my FSX and other games and apps are on a 1TB Samy Evo.  Shove your OS on a 120GB SATA 6 SSD, they are cheap enough now.

 

If you do put everything on one drive, do not install FSX into its default installation path.  Follow this guide from the well respected PMDG for a hassle free and clean installation.

 

http://support.precisionmanuals.com/kb/a87/how-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-fsx.aspx

 

Buster.

Another good reason to put fsx on its own drive...

When you really screw something up and FSX seems like its ruined, just reformat the drive and re-install. It isn't the best thing but sometimes its better than looking all through a drive for one mistake. I've done this once or twice..