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SSD for Games only - Sandforce or Other controller

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Deanodarlo

Senior member
Searched Google but not come across this discussion.

I've just done a few tests on gaming folders - zipping them up they seem quite compressible (50-75%) and I want to add a second SSD to my gaming PC just for most played games off my HDD.

Am I right in thinking that a Sandforce based SSD like an Intel 530 will be the best to fill up with games?

If it compresses the data, it should increase provisioning on the drive automatically and reduce write amplification. Should help with those huge install sizes of modern games as it will need to write a lot less. Also should give a little boost to read speeds as the data is compressed.

I've had a good read and modern Sandforce controllers only really suffer from pure incompressible data write speeds, which is not important on a gaming only drive. I'd imagine any SSD when loading games is going to be quite similar however.

Is this correct? Thanks guys. 🙂
 
I wouldn't worry about writes to the SSD.
You will not be writing 100GB to the SSD on a daily basis, so... if you find a SSD from a reputable company, and it is at the size/price you want, get it.
 
I think you may be over thinking it a bit for just gaming. I use a 3 year old Crucial M4 as my secondary HD that I store my Steam Library on. I can't tell any difference in load times from the M4 than I can when I had the same game loaded on my primary Samsung 840 Evo.

Just get the 840 Evo (or Pro if you have a few extra dollars to burn) and call it a day.
 
Yeah, you guys are right not much difference in any SSD and modern ones will last forever. Price and size are the deciding factors.

I just enjoy looking into the technical side of things as part of choosing and building a system.

Some of these modern game installs are hitting 50GB (Titanfall I'm looking at you!!) but I've found the game directories are hugely compressible so sandforce seems liike a great controller to use.

It hits some great numbers (both read and write) with compressible data whilst reducing write amplification down. eg a 50GB install might only write 30GB and use the saved space for wear levelling.

Sandforce and other controllers are all similar priced SSDs for the size so I might as well go Sandforce.
 
You don't see any compression. It takes the same amount of space to you whether it compresses well or not.

With time and free space, performance and lifespan won't matter. Like has been said, the amounts you'd need to write, every day, day after day, to wear the flash out, are far more than you will.

Frankly, I don't see Intel or Toshiba SF SSDs as cheap as other good non-SF SSDs.
 
Last edited:
Cerb said:
Frankly, I don't see Intel or Toshiba SF SSDs as cheap as other good non-SF SSDs.
Click to expand...

Why do you think that is, especially in the case of Toshiba? I bought an Intel 530 for a build and I'm pretty fond of it... it renews my trust in the SF controller (coming off my OCZ Agility3, which I've always been scared to death to put in sleep mode for fear it wouldn't wake up. 😵 ) At the time it was about as cheap as the then-new 840 EVO ($99 at MC for the 120GB vs I think $89 for the Samsung) but it seems like the 530 has gone up... and the EVO down. 😕

But it boils down to money... why pay more for an Intel vs an equally capable... in real-world use... Samsung/Seagate/Crucial SSD, or even Kingston/PNY/Adata/etc?
 
Yeah, just what i was thinking. There are absolutely no differences that functions as a deciding factor for me except for price. Now Sandforce is in the news lately for their sf37xx controllers. is it a game changer? idk. lets see...
 
I have a 330 series ssd from intel, bought it after all the good i have heard about them and can tell you out of the 4 ssds i have owned that this one is the best by far. Zero issues or hiccups here as where some older sandforce ssds honestly used to piss me off.
 
I compress the partion I use for gaming in Windows and you really don't save that much. For me my Steam directory is reading:

Size: 316GB
Size on disk: 289GB

So I don't think games are quite as compressible as you may think. I would also imagine Winzip/Winrar is much better than the on the fly compression a controller or Windows would do.
 
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