FSX SSD

[molina28 0]

If I buy a ssd for my computer should i store fsx only on it or my whole operating system?

[Capt Speirs 52]

If I buy a ssd for my computer should i store fsx only on it or my whole operating system?

I run FSX on one SSD and my operating system on another SSD and addons that are accessed a lot like Scenery on an HDD.

[mistercoffee1 26]

I run my Operating System and FSX on the same SSD.

 

I have big scenery files on a separate HDD.

No need to keep FSX and the operating system on separate SSDs unless space is an issue.

[stans 702]

With an SSD, it is best if FSX and the OS can be on the same SSD.  As mentioned, scenery can be placed on another drive.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,903]

With an SSD, it is best if FSX and the OS can be on the same SSD

 

Where's the proof behind that statement? It's down to personal choice whether FSX is on the same SSD as the OS or not. FSX won't run any better or worse on a separate SSD or one also used by the OS.

[alhefner 28]

Where's the proof behind that statement? It's down to personal choice whether FSX is on the same SSD as the OS or not. FSX won't run any better or worse on a separate SSD or one also used by the OS.

I agree...using one or two SSD drives will not make a bit of difference in how FSX runs... HOWEVER, for the sake of simplicity, using one SSD for OS and applications is my personal preference...put the data files on a regular HDD and configure windows accordingly...

[cianpars 1,158]

It all depends how big your SSD is.  I have a 250 Gb SSD and I keep my operating system and FSX on it.  In fact I keep almost everything on it except my music, photographs and videos.

 

You really want your OS on the SSD as that's where the SSD can make a big difference to your boot times and general operating times.

 

You want FSX on the SSD too as this helps FSX to load faster and run better.

 

Ideally, keep your scenery on the SSD if you can as well.  However, if your SSD is small and you have a lot of scenery, that may not be practical.  No problem if you want to split your sceneries between different drives though if you need to.  I wrote a fair bit of photoscenery using FSEarthTiles and it takes up too much room on my SSD, so I keep some of it on the old HD.

 

I use a fair bit of photoscenery and it loads up much faster from the SSD.

 

However, you might not get the full benefit of the SSD if your mobo and SATA ports are not fast.  Whilst my SSD has been a big improvement on a mechanical HD, I don't get the full benefit as the SSD is faster than the SATA throughputs.

 

From a practical perspective, My old mechanical drive was partitioned and I therefore cloned it to the SSD as it was (so my SSD has the same partitions).  After cloning it with Acronis, I simply ensured that my system was reading the new drive C & E rather than the old drive and it fired up and worked perfectly immediately.

 

Be sure to test the speeds of your HD and SSD once installed.  I think I used Crystalmark for that and if you clone your drives and keep the old ones connected, just make sure that your system is booting from the SSD rather than the old drive.

 

Hope this is of help.  Ian

[jetsmell 45]

Never defragment your SSD. I've heard some people say it can damage it, others say it won't. Can someone chime in on this and set us all straight?

[Ray Proudfoot 8,903]

Never defragment your SSD. I've heard some people say it can damage it, others say it won't. Can someone chime in on this and set us all straight?

Correct. They should never be defragged. Unlike a conventional hard drive where files placed on the outside are loaded quicker than those near the centre all files on a SSD are loaded at the same speed - fragmented or not. You'll shorten the life of an SSD very quickly by defragging and it won't load files any quicker.

[Capt Speirs 52]

Where's the proof behind that statement? It's down to personal choice whether FSX is on the same SSD as the OS or not. FSX won't run any better or worse on a separate SSD or one also used by the OS.

 

I have been toying with the idea of putting OS and FSX on one SSD and Scenery on another SSD, any comments? I know the SSD life will be shortened with frequent access, but really, by how much and is the loading speed worth it?

[troyboy66 66]

With an SSD, it is best if FSX and the OS can be on the same SSD.  As mentioned, scenery can be placed on another drive.

I understand putting FSX on a seperate drive particularly an SSD benefits in someway, which is how I have my system setup. But I have never heard of putting SCENERY on a seperate drive fron FSX. How is this beneficial and how do you do it? Can this be done by removing already installed scenery to a different drive and mapping it somehow or do I have to reinstall each scenery over again?

 

 

I run my Operating System and FSX on the same SSD.

 

I have big scenery files on a separate HDD.

No need to keep FSX and the operating system on separate SSDs unless space is an issue.

How do you install scenery on a sperate drive?

[troyboy66 66]

Nevermind. I found this link that talks about it: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/438234-installing-fsx-orbx-scenery-on-separate-drives/.

However, I do have another question. My current setup is Wndows 7 and other apps on an HDD and my FSX + all FSX addons on a seperate 500GB Samsung SSD and currently still have 140GB free on that drive. If I split FSX sceneries to a seperate SSD, will I expect to see any improvements in loading time? I guess I'm just trying to understand the reason for spliting FSX.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,903]

 

 

I have been toying with the idea of putting OS and FSX on one SSD and Scenery on another SSD, any comments? I know the SSD life will be shortened with frequent access, but really, by how much and is the loading speed worth it?

 

When you install - for example - Aerosoft Mega Airports - you don't get a choice where it's installed. The installer reads the Registry to find the root FSX folder and will install scenery in a sub-folder named Aerosoft.

 

You would need to physically move the folder to your chosen location and manually edit scenery.cfg to point to the new location.

 

Not sure it's worth the hassle really. SSDs come with software which manage them quite effectively so I wouldn't worry too much about the same files being accessed more frequently than others. W7 does a good job too. Remember every time you launch FSX you're accessing the same block of memory on the SSD. Or are you? Maybe that's what the SSD management software does.

[cianpars 1,158]

Accessing files does not wear out a SSD, It's writing to a SSD rather than reading from it that will eventually wear it out.

 

However, modern SSDs will probably last many years, so don't worry too much.  Yes f you can set things up so that there are very few writes to the SSD then that's great.  However the best use for a SSD is to speed up the operating system and Windows does result in a number of writes to the disk.

 

Since I put my OS onto a SSD, I would never go back to a mechanical hard drive. I only use mechanical hard drives for backups, photos, videos and music now and some of the photoscenery I can't fit onto my SSD.

 

IAN

[ryanbatc 12,770]

Idk what's scientifically better , but as you know FSX / P3D reach out to your OS for certain cfg files and profile settings. If both are on the same SSD wouldn't it be faster than if they were on separate SSD's?