How much does having the OS on SSD improve game loading times?

[Altus7]

I have a 60GB SSD on which I'll be able to fit like 3-4 modern games on.

Currently my "Windows" takes 25GB and "Users" 20GB.

I pretty much have to put the system partition on my regular HDD and reserve the SSD for game files only. How much better would game loading times be if I had Windows 7 on SSD as well?

 

[mikeymikec]

Probably not a great deal I think - a game will probably make some win32 and DX calls, but I'd assume that those DLLs would then get loaded into RAM from that point onwards.

Game loading times will be mostly affected by (usually) having to read enormous data files and processing overhead for that data, IMHO.

Having the pagefile on the SSD is a good idea if you don't have oodles of RAM.

 

[BSim500]

Quite honestly if I were in that position, I'd put everything on the HDD then setup the 60GB SSD as an SRT cache. You'll typically get 80-85% of the equivalent "pure SSD" performance for the OS + whatever single current game you're playing without having to mess around juggling / uninstalling or put up with the sluggish feeling of having the OS on the HDD. In fact, a 60GB SSD is actually the perfect size for precisely that usage:-
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4329/intel-z68-chipset-smart-response-technology-ssd-caching-review/2

 

[rchunter]

meh.. I keep all my games on a fast 7200rpm hdd. Other than that I can just be patient and wait. It doesn't really bother me if it takes a few more seconds to load than what it would on an ssd.

 

[Omar F1]

Personally I'd place the pagefile on the SSD, if Windows isn't.
Look out for a good deal on 256GB SSD at ebay, they keep getting cheaper.