Deciding if an SSD is worth it....

[speedy2]

Here is a setup I have currently

- GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard
- Antec earthwatts EA430 430W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor BX80562Q6600
- G.SKILL 2GB (3 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
- XFX PVT88SFDF4 GeForce 8800 GS 384MB 192-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card


This is running XP 32-bit. And rather sluggish currently. I have an aftermarket cooler which I had the Q6600 running at 3.0ghz with acceptable temps. I would probably OC again after I wipe it and install Win7.

I plan on using it for photo editing.(photoshop CS3, DPP, etc.) I at least plan on getting Windows 7 64-bit and doubling or tripling the RAM.

My question is, with the age of the board and CPU, would it be worth it to add an SSD as a boot drive?

 

[TemjinGold]

Yes.

 

[speedy2]

lol. Short and sweet. Thanks.

Ok, went to newegg and added a few things up.

Windows 7 Pro 64-bit - $139.99
Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CT040G3K5 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - $89.99
G.SKILL 4GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL6S-4GBMQ - $69.99

Total - $299.97

Not bad, considering I was going to try and come up with money(that I don't have) to build an i7 machine. SSD and all. lol

And input on a specific SSD besides what I found?

I only need to run Windows, Photoshop, a few other programs. And internet use.

No gaming.

 

[zCypher]

Yes, it's the biggest upgrade you can make for your system by a long shot. You made an excellent choice with the Intel drive. The Crucial M4 is another (I believe similarly priced) drive that you might want to consider, has a great track record and is very fast.

 

[sequoia464]

Windows 7 uses much more space than XP. I'm up to nearly 22 gb's. Windows 7 has a file called winsxs that never seems to stop growing. You might want to consider a larger SSD if you are pairing it with Windows 7.

 

[Brunnis]

Like the poster above me, I'd strongly recommend you to choose the 80GB version over the 40GB version if you intend to run Windows 7 64-bit. You also get the added bonus of much better performance with the 80GB version.

 

[corkyg]

Windows 7 uses much more space than XP. I'm up to nearly 22 gb's. Windows 7 has a file called winsxs that never seems to stop growing. You might want to consider a larger SSD if you are pairing it with Windows 7.

Good points, however, 22 GB for Win7 is very conservative. I would allow 35 to have everything functioning. WinSXS also exists in XP - mine is 12.6GB all by itself. Go with the 80 GB suggestion and then use a disk HDD for data and some programs.

 

[Shmee]

yes, an SSD would definitely help. and an OC'ed Q6600 is still an awesome proc. My only concern is making sure you have AHCI enabled.

 

[jacktesterson]

I wouldn't go smaller than 60GB personally for Windows 7

 

[Coup27]

Do not get the 40GB drive. You will soon regret it if this is your main machine. Windows 7 64bit and a reasonable amount of programs will be around the 25GB mark. That 40GB drive will only give you ~37GB useable capacity in Windows.

If you want to keep costs down, you may get by with a 64GB SSD. In which case, consider the Samsung 830 or Crucial m4 in 64GB. If you want 80GB, the Intel is there.

The Samsung is the fastest out the three but as you will be limited to 3Gbps speeds it won't really make any difference unless you upgraded to a 6Gbps system later on.

 

[bryanW1995]

The intel 80gb should cost about the same as the samsung/crucial m4 64 gb models, and as Coup27 mentioned they'll have very nearly identical performance on your sata II connectors. In fact, the larger intel drive will probably be slightly faster than the others for you, though you're unlikely to notice any difference b/c any of them will be such a huge upgrade for you.

I just set up last month a 57gb OS partition on my ssd, and I have to continually fight to keep 20gb free (down to 18 gb right now). Apparently when you install all of the DAO dlc it automagically goes on your OS drive and you can't move it, and many other programs like to dump stuff on the OS drive as well. It's a major hassle trying to keep the OS drive clean, I'm going to get a much larger ssd (or 2) with my next build.

edit: btw, keep your eyes open for deals. I've seen recent deals on good quality drives (like the intel 320 series) for less than $1/gb up to 160gb size in the past few weeks. If you can wait a while for a deal like that again you could snag a 160 gb intel or 128 gb crucial m4/samsung drive instead of having to settle for 64/80gb drives.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I plan on using it for photo editing.(photoshop CS3, DPP, etc.) I at least plan on getting Windows 7 64-bit and doubling or tripling the RAM.

I do video editing and IO is the biggest bottleneck in my system. More RAM and faster drives, do help.

 

[Smoblikat]

I dont think SSD's are useful at all for just gaming machines, or even machines that do photo editing. unless the program is on the SSD it doesnt matter. My friend has an SSD and he says he wouldnt get another one, his machine boots up 5 sec faster than mine, and thats it.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I dont think SSD's are useful at all for just gaming machines,

You obviously haven't played the games that tremendously benefit from faster IO.

You like waiting? Fine, some people don't

 

[Mars999]

I dont think SSD's are useful at all for just gaming machines, or even machines that do photo editing. unless the program is on the SSD it doesnt matter. My friend has an SSD and he says he wouldnt get another one, his machine boots up 5 sec faster than mine, and thats it.

Really?
You got to be joking right?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-rift-ssd,3062-12.html

And to the OP, I would get at least a 64GB SSD IMO, The Crucial M4 is a nice drive newegg.com has it for $109 and from the reviews doesn't take much of a hit when you run on a Sata2 controller.

Also no matter what drive you get make sure you do this to dump that dam hibernate file that SUCKS up so much space on the SSD

run a shell prompt and type in "powercfg -h off" this should free up 8-12GB of space....

Also unless Win7 Pro has something you need, I would get Home edition of Win7 64bit, cheaper and unless you are doing some kind of networking or Data locker or need more than 16GB of RAM worthless IMO....

 

[Coup27]

I dont think SSD's are useful at all for just gaming machines, or even machines that do photo editing. unless the program is on the SSD it doesnt matter. My friend has an SSD and he says he wouldnt get another one, his machine boots up 5 sec faster than mine, and thats it.

Either your friend has a very early SSD or he hasn't used a PC with a HDD as the boot drive in a while. When I've assembled systems using a HDD the Windows update process used to take hours. Now it takes minutes.

 

[speedy2]

Thanks for all the input guys. I guess I will definitely get a bigger SSD! Maybe I can snag a deal on a 100+GB model. Can't wait to get this system updated!

 

[sequoia464]

Thanks for all the input guys. I guess I will definitely get a bigger SSD! Maybe I can snag a deal on a 100+GB model. Can't wait to get this system updated!

Best money I have spent computer wise has been on my SSD's - you will really enjoy having one in your system.

 

[speedy2]

Best money I have spent computer wise has been on my SSD's - you will really enjoy having one in your system.

Thanks. I don't know why, but over time the current setup has become very slow. Boot time into windows where I can actually open something takes forever!! And even opening an Explorer folder(my documents, my pictures, etc) seems to take awhile too. As well as "not respond" sometimes. I've learned to live with it. But, even new I could tell XP was holding it back. Even the Win 7 64 Bit laptop at home, with a Celeron 900, blows away that desktop on boot times and internet. Not to mention the RAM limit as well.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Thanks. I don't know why, but over time the current setup has become very slow. Boot time into windows where I can actually open something takes forever!! And even opening an Explorer folder(my documents, my pictures, etc) seems to take awhile too. As well as "not respond" sometimes. I've learned to live with it. But, even new I could tell XP was holding it back. Even the Win 7 64 Bit laptop at home, with a Celeron 900, blows away that desktop on boot times and internet. Not to mention the RAM limit as well.

SSD won't help much to cut down your boot times, if there are things holding you back. Like bad drivers, services, etc.

 

[Coup27]

speedy2, how many running services do you have?

ctrl+alt+del and go into task manager. bottom left corner.

 

[speedy2]

SSD won't help much to cut down your boot times, if there are things holding you back. Like bad drivers, services, etc.

That's probably my issue now. But, at least a new install of 7 on an SSD, will feel like a HUGE jump in performance to me. Hopefully I can keep it that way, unlike it has become now.

 

[Magic Carpet]

That's probably my issue now. But, at least a new install of 7 on an SSD, will feel like a HUGE jump in performance to me. Hopefully I can keep it that way, unlike it has become now.

When you're done installing and setting things up, just image it. Should you have problems in the future, rolling back to an early image, can save up a lot of your time.

 

[speedy2]

That's what I need to do. Does Windows 7 have something built in to do that, or do I need a certain program?

 

[jiffylube1024]

An SSD will be a colossal upgrade. Get one with at leat 60+ GB. You don't want to fill up your SSD completely - leave some free space to extend its life.

Plus, the 250GB 7200.10 is getting a little long in the tooth anyway; the 7200.11 series increased sequential transfer rates by 30-40%, and that came out like 4-5 years ago!