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How many users here use an SSD in their gaming desktop?

Do you use an SSD in your gaming desktop?

  • Yes! And it's great!

  • Yes! But it's not as good as I expected

  • No! But I plan on it (or could if could afford it)

  • No! There's no point

Results are only viewable after voting.
htwingnut

htwingnut

Member
Just curious how many users here utilize an SSD in their gaming desktop, primarily one used as an OS boot drive? I haven't found any serious advantages so far. Sure the OS boots faster, but games are on the hard drive so what difference does it make? I have installed Stacraft 2 on the SSD, and it helps load levels a little more quickly, but IMHO big deal.

I think until 250GB+ SSD's become reasonably priced will it really help with any kind of gaming desktop configuration.
 
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im in the same boat i just got mine installed and updated windows 7 64 bit and my main game i play on same drive "world of warcraft" and i must say i dont see any noticeable change over running what i was .. which in trun im super sad right now
 
You don't buy an SSD for gaming. You spend the money on a better CPU and GPU if you want a serious gaming machine.

It's hard to tell that the SSD makes any difference, but it's noticeable if you go back to a HDD. I know because I occasionally use spare computers with HDDs and they're just painfully slow. (Athlon II + 2GB ram + Windows 7, so its not an old machine)
 
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fffblackmage said:
You don't buy an SSD for gaming. You spend the money on a better CPU and GPU if you want a serious gaming machine.
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if your CPU and GPU already give you smooth graphics, then getting an SSD for faster load times can help... especially in games with atrocious load times.
 
My "gaming desktop" is also my main rig that I do everything on at home, so of course I see a benefit. I notice a difference when switching to my LAN party rig that has a VelociRaptor, and notebooks with HDDs are painful sometimes when Windows decides to rattle the drives for a bit.

Melanie said:
"world of warcraft" and i must say i dont see any noticeable change over running what i was ..
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You didn't notice a difference in WoW? That's strange. WoW is the one game that benefits the most with an SSD. Which SSD did you buy?
 
taltamir said:
if your CPU and GPU already give you smooth graphics, then getting an SSD for faster load times can help... especially in games with atrocious load times.
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Case in point: Fallout 3 texture stuttering (mostly due to the 2048x2048 texture packs, new models, etc things that I added). Moved the entire folder to SSD, stuttering goes down 80%. Unfortunately, I have barely any space left on the drive 🙁

In general, if lowering graphics settings doesn't help, and you're sure that your CPU isn't completely stressed out, it's probably the hard drive. People ignore it at their peril.
 
depends on the game. some have very noticeable improvements in load time and helps with the occasion frame rate dip during in game texture loads, others no so much.

short version: your mileage may vary.
 
I jumped on the SSD wagon a while back. I mean I actually had my OS on an OCZ Core for the longest time. Then got the Vertex, then Vertex Turbo and now Vertex 2. I also, cause I don't know any better and just have to have it, got a OCZ revodrive.
With all said, most of the SSD drives I have trickled down to other duties, such as gaming or other systems. I now have a Vertex 2 as my OS and the Revodrive as my gaming drive. All downloads and backups are on my WHS.

I moved my Vertex 1 to my laptop and my Vertex Turbo to my XMBC Live system. I can't stop... 🙂
Anyhow, at the end of the day, for OS purposes it smokes. As for games, honestly it sure 'feel's good.. levels feel like they load faster, however no noise, low power usage and no heat are other benefits... heck i will NEVER go back to a regular hardrive just for those reasons alone.
 
right now no i dont have one. the performance IMO can not justify the cost of the larger drives. the sub 80gb drives are useless to me. This is changing however. the Gen 3 drives will hopefully bring the prices down to an acceptable level.
 
I have a 128GB Indilinx, so I am able to have some of my games on the SSD. Certain games it's definitely noticable if you move them off of the SSD, others it's really not. Surprisingly, it helps quite a bit for Minecraft. Also for some bigger strategy games like Europa. Games with large textures benefit as well.
 
i've been through 3, high end SSD's now. low end ssd's suck.
their awesome for OS use, for games they may load up a bit faster, some more than others but its pretty pointless.
 
IMO, the ideal configuration is:
- SSD for OS + common applications (Office, Photoshop, browsers, etc.)
- Fast 1TB (or similar) drive for games
- Slow 1-2TB drive for documents and media

So no, a SSD will not make a night-and-day difference if all you do is game. If you use your computer for a little of everything, however, SSDs are a blessing.
 
I have a OCZ Agility on my main/gaming desktop and liked it so much I picked up a Vertex 2 for my netbook. From this point on any system I own will have a SSD in it.
 
No Point. Everything eventually goes into RAM and theres no thrashing and game runs on CPU and GPU speed not hd speed. 🙂
 
tweakboy said:
Everything eventually goes into RAM and theres no thrashing and game runs on CPU and GPU speed not hd speed. 🙂
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That is not certain. The game might have be written to load from disk on every entry to a different game level. Sure, there might be some data to read repeatedly that caching by OS would, well cache, but there is only limited about of RAM to cache in.
 
mv2devnull said:
That is not certain. The game might have be written to load from disk on every entry to a different game level. Sure, there might be some data to read repeatedly that caching by OS would, well cache, but there is only limited about of RAM to cache in.
Click to expand...

You must be new here.
It's easier to just always assume he's wrong.
Enjoy your stay.
 
had velociraptors. most games, noticed zero difference. hell, most things, noticed no difference. but it sure makes less noise and lots less heat =)
 
Puddle Jumper said:
When your hard drive manages 50+mb/s 4KB random write performance let me know. Until then I think I'll stick with my SSDs.
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How large is your SSD? I have 550GB+ of Steam games alone. Granted I probably only will use a half dozen of those games at any given time, but I'd still probably consume a good 150GB with games I'd play. Heck Microsoft Flight Simulator alone with expansions will run a good 40GB, and that would probably benefit most from an SSD since it loads textures dynamically.

On my laptop where I'm much more selective as to what's installed at any given time, just these few games consume about 75GB! And that doesn't even include Starcraft 2 which is just shown there for ability to load through Steam.

steamlaptop11082010.jpg
 
@htwingnut: do you actually have a point?
don't install all your games on the SSD at once, only install the few games that need it the most and you are currently playing. The fact that all your games combined are 550GB is irrelevant. good for you, enjoy your games, don't buy an SSD.

Anyone else in the same boat as you should be able to figure it out for themselves. Don't buy/not-buy an SSD because someone tells you to; look at what you are getting and decide if that is what you want and need to be happy. I manage perfectly by using up to and no more than 40GB of the SSD for games that really need it and I play a lot, and the rest of my massive collection is either on a spindle disk or not installed at all at the moment. If you can't, psychologically, bring yourself to create two separate games directories then an SSD might not be for you.
 
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That's the thing Taltamir some people just can't they must have all 600GB's of Games installed on the SSD even the ones that don't benefit from it. These also happen to be the same people that want 500GBs for $1/GB ratio and if not the drives all suck etc etc.

Not specific to you htwingnut just general comments I see on multiple forums.
 
My gaming system is still a 2008 build with E8400, 4 GB and WD 640GB drive. I just upgraded the 4870 to a 6850, but that was more from annoyance at the noise of the 4870 than a need for more performance.

I'll move to SSD when I do a full new build next year, after the next generation (smaller than 40nm) of video cards come out.
 
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