Is it best to have a separate ssd for P3D?

[KeithyGeorge 1]

Hello

Having used fsx for 7 years I'm going to go for p3d.

Have been reading forums about this but can't determine definitive answer.

 

I am going to buy a new pc to run P3D on and am wondering if people are getting better experience with a dedicated ssd just to run P3D?

 

Thanks

[vgbaron 3,496]

Simple answer - yes. As to how MUCH better - that will depend on the system but if you're thinking 20 - 25% better - not going to happen with JUST an SSD change.

 

I look at it as a combination of a lot of small "fixes" - better video card - faster cpu - SSD drives, etc. No one will be the complete fix but together they make a difference.

 

If you are asking SHOULD you install to a dedicated SSD - the answer is still yes.

 

 

Vic

[KeithyGeorge 1]

That's great Vic thanks for the reply

Much appreciated

Separate drive it is then

[CW46 101]

I run P3D on a SSD, my hard drive has been has been great since day one.First SSD died after six months, replaced under warranty about five months ago... the clock is ticking!  :smile:

[denali 74]

I use Primocache:

 

https://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/primo-cache/

[Dave_YVR 968]

 Having P3d on the SSD won't improve it's actual performance mind you, but the sim loading times will be greatly decreased.

 SSD's these days as well should last longer than we'll have a use for them. Failures happen, whether it's an SSD or a spinning drive.

[Slayer 190]

P3D will still put a bunch of stuff on your C: no matter what....by default about 20 gigs or so. You can cut it down but unfortunately it's not all self contained in it's own folder like X-plane. Should either drive fail your install is tanked.

[G MIDY 101]

I doubt you would notice any difference if they were on different drives. SSD's are extremely quick and whilst P3D is running the OS does practically nothing H/D wise in the background. If you load up performance monitor and click Disk, you will see that I/O is nothing at idle.

 

Obviously it makes sense for storage reasons because you lose the space Windows takes up which pushes past 20GB and that is a lot on a smaller SSD. Personally I'd get a bigger, higher quality single SSD over justifying the cost of buying another one to put P3D on. Over here you can get a 512GB Samsung 850 Pro for £150 which is nothing compared to spending the same amount on two inferior drives.

 

I think a lot of people use a main SSD for their C drive and then use something like a mechanical drive for large format storage. All my megasceneries and the heavy stuff all sit on another 2TB drive.

[Guest]

It doesn't really have to be a separate ssd. I personally only have ssd's in my PC (a few 500 GB ones): I am totally done with old fashioned hard disks. I only have two external ones for backup reasons. Ssd's simply make your system more snappy and a bit faster. Loading times improve too. After a few years your PC will still feel as new. You also never have to defrag anymore. I will never ever go back to hard disks. But anyway, to enjoy the advantages of ssd's you do not have to put P3D on a separate one. It will perform fine with other stuff on it too. I have to add though that since I have a few ssd's I do have one that is reserved for P3D when it comes to software (the other stuff on my P3D ssd are all my downloads and archives).

[KeithyGeorge 1]

That's great thanks for everyones input.

[virtualstuff 751]

That's great thanks for everyones input.

 

I have a dedicated SSD drive for P3D and one for Scenery :rolleyes:

[John_Tavendale 453]

P3D will still put a bunch of stuff on your C: no matter what....by default about 20 gigs or so. You can cut it down but unfortunately it's not all self contained in it's own folder like X-plane. Should either drive fail your install is tanked.

Err what? Stores about 30mb of data on the C drive between AppData and ProgramData

[Gemelli 0]

i installed 2x samsung evo (250 go each) in raid 0 ans installed only P3d on it and work flawless, faster then a normal SSD and the texture loading a bite faster to .

[newtie 533]

Everything on one Samsung 1TB Pro.

 

Works perfect.

 

Mark

[Slayer 190]

 

 

Err what? Stores about 30mb of data on the C drive between AppData and ProgramData

 

You forgot about the packagecache folder...contained within the programdata folder. Numerous threads about the space the installer gobbles up.