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Geek Culture / SSD - a new lease of life.

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BatVink
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Posted: 16th Jul 2015 10:55
I had a "value" HDD in my main PC that has been slowing me down no end. So I've invested in a 240GB SSD just for the OS and Program files. It's the best thing I've ever done to speed up a machine!

Bootup has gone from about 3 minutes to 20 seconds. Every program starts within 2-3 seconds. The start menu is instantaneous even when searching. Games run at higher frame rates. Carmageddon Reincarnated levels have gone from a 90 second+ load time to 10 seconds.

If you haven't made the change yet, I highly recommend it. They are much more resilient now, and cheap. I paid £60 (in the UK a 2TB HDD is about the same). I used this guide to swap the OS over. Use the Easus option with the OS copy wizard, Clonezilla results in an unreadable disk.

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur
TutCity is being rebuilt
Van B
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Posted: 16th Jul 2015 12:11
They are pretty great when used properly. I had a 32gb one going spare, so ended up installing it in my media PC to run an ARK server - works great, considering that to get the same (actually worse) performance I'd have to rent a server for £20 a month. Plus it means I can connect to it through LAN for ultimate connection performance.

So yeah! - even a tiny SSD can make a big difference. I'm planning on getting a new one for Win10 OS install and a separate one for frequent games. Things like Battlefield4 and GTA5 work so much better on an SSD it's a no-brainer really - it provides more benefit than any other single upgrade you can do.

bitJericho
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Posted: 16th Jul 2015 12:38
Yep I recommend it as the number one criteria for anybody shopping for a pc/laptop. "What kind of pc do I need", "One with an SSD".

Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 16th Jul 2015 20:42
I have been really tempted to do this myself. They decided to upgrade most of our PC's at work (including mine) with SSD's and the difference is phenomenal. We used to complain a lot about how long stuff takes to load - especially as we might have to load a lot of things, but generally not all at once. You could be twiddling your thumbs waiting for Acrobat, then various Libre Office programs (we're too cheap for MS Office) and so on.

But I am generally lazy, so, there's likely a number of stuff I'd have to reinstall, but I've got a holiday coming up, so might be tempted and then reinstall everything I need.

BatVink
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Posted: 16th Jul 2015 21:07
Quote: "there's likely a number of stuff I'd have to reinstall"


I tidied up my OS drive (C:\), CCLeaner'ed it and Defraggled. Then used Easus Partition Manager (free). It has a Copy OS to New Drive wizard. Worked first time with Easus No new install required. Reports are that because SSD is so fast, there is little if any advantage in doing a fresh install.

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur
TutCity is being rebuilt
Chris Tate
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Posted: 17th Jul 2015 21:13
I felt the same way when I bought my SSD for the OS and program files. Another attractive benefit is its durability, less worry about it crashing and loosing important data between backups

The Zoq2
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Posted: 17th Jul 2015 22:08
Quote: "Another attractive benefit is its durability, less worry about it crashing and loosing important data between backups"


Except for the limited reads/writes pssoble on an SSD.

Say ONE stupid thing and it ends up as a forum signature forever. - Neuro Fuzzy
BatVink
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Posted: 17th Jul 2015 22:36
Quote: "Except for the limited reads/writes pssoble on an SSD."


That used to be the case, but the technology is a lot better now. An SSD lasts as long as a HDD if not longer. But it has the advantage that you don't get wear and tear on the physical parts, which is unpredictable and often catastrophic.

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur
TutCity is being rebuilt
Dar13
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Posted: 18th Jul 2015 01:35
Quote: " Except for the limited reads/writes pssoble on an SSD."

Higher-end SSDs can have close to a petabyte written/read from them before failure. The technology has come a long way in the last couple of years.

Seditious
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Posted: 18th Jul 2015 04:26
I added an SSD some time last year and it's greatly improved the performance of the OS and certain programs. Games, however, seem to load more or less exactly the same. Perhaps because I also have a fairly recent HDD, or because the CPU is the bottleneck.

Clonkex
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Posted: 19th Jul 2015 14:50
Yeah, absolutely! I've had an SSD for a while now and I could never go back! I could do to buy another one, though...

Phaelax
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Posted: 20th Jul 2015 16:40
I been telling you guys to buy SSDs for years! I have a 240gb as my primary drive, and a secondary 120gb I use as a temporary/scratch disk. Both have been running flawless for 3 years now. And last year I put a 240 in my laptop.

What brand/model did you get?


"I like offending people, because I think people who get offended should be offended." - Linus Torvalds
BatVink
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Posted: 20th Jul 2015 17:29 Edited at: 20th Jul 2015 17:36
I got a San Disk SSD Plus 240GB. It is not the best performer, but looks reliable. From my baseline of an almost unusable PC, this was an acceptable level for me.

I don't really know how to give it a real test. I copied a 400MB file from the disk to the disk (read and write at same time). It peaked at 203MB/s write and 227 MB/s read. But as it was over in under 2 seconds it wasn't a fantastic test.
My HDD did the same at 3MB/s!

[EDIT] My max SATA throughput is 3Gbps so my theoretical max is 300MB/s

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur
TutCity is being rebuilt
Seditious
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Posted: 20th Jul 2015 18:51 Edited at: 20th Jul 2015 18:52
Quote: "My HDD did the same at 3MB/s!"


It sounds like you have a pretty old HDD, since modern (new) ones can do transfer speeds comparable (or sometimes better) to SSD's.

The Zoq2
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Posted: 21st Jul 2015 02:12
Quote: "
It sounds like you have a pretty old HDD, since modern (new) ones can do transfer speeds comparable (or sometimes better) to SSD's."


I doubt that, perhaps if they are some kind of SSD/HDD hybrid but a mechanical (consumer) drive can probably not get close to the speeds of an SSD

Say ONE stupid thing and it ends up as a forum signature forever. - Neuro Fuzzy
Clonkex
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Posted: 21st Jul 2015 02:53
I have a Samsung 840Evo 250GB and it's been an excellent drive so far. Very speedy and puts me in the small group of those who can load the next BF4 level BEFORE the game starts

Seditious
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Posted: 21st Jul 2015 08:12
Quote: "I doubt that, perhaps if they are some kind of SSD/HDD hybrid but a mechanical (consumer) drive can probably not get close to the speeds of an SSD"


That's what I'd imagine. Judging by the graphs I've just seen on performance it seems I was wrong, or maybe at the time the info I looked at was for really crappy SSD's. Hmm...

BatVink
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Posted: 21st Jul 2015 11:00 Edited at: 21st Jul 2015 11:01
I've recently been involved in specifying hardware for a commercial environment. My part was describing the requirements of the software. The resulting storage was:

1.6TB of RAID 5 HDD for images
40GBx2 of SSD for database and thumbnail images (The requirement for faster access)

There was also flash memory for another client-facing part of the system (fastest access)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur
TutCity is being rebuilt
Van B
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Posted: 21st Jul 2015 12:29
Seditious - can you post any proof of this?

I don't see how a mechanical HDD can ever be as fast as an SSD, not unless it's some sort of hybrid drive. From what I've seen, the fastest HDD struggles to compete with the slowest SSD.

Clonkex
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Posted: 21st Jul 2015 15:26
Quote: "Seditious - can you post any proof of this?"


He's already admitted he may have been wrong, or looking at hybrid drives.

Van B
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Posted: 21st Jul 2015 15:38
Ahh, missed that post. I asked because I looked into it, and was finding news of SSD's giving upwards of 1800mb/s, that's just crazy speeds - no idea how fast a disc would have to spin to achieve those sorts of figures

BatVink
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Posted: 21st Jul 2015 18:30
Quote: "no idea how fast a disc would have to spin to achieve those sorts of figures"


This fast?

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur
TutCity is being rebuilt
Chris Tate
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Posted: 21st Jul 2015 19:26
lol

Seditious
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Posted: 21st Jul 2015 20:48
Quote: "Seditious - can you post any proof of this?"


No. In retrospect I believe what I may have seen before was older SSD's not having as fast sequential write speeds as HDDs at the time, but even then I'm not 100% sure. In either case, modern SSD's seem to be faster in every way, which logically should be the case for a solid state device.

MrValentine
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Posted: 21st Jul 2015 22:02
For future builds I am looking at M.2 based boards....... the shear speeds..........

Also there are PCIE based solutions for existing boards that you can put in an x1-x16 slot which should satisfy your speed hunger of more than SATA 2 1.5Gbps/SATA 3 6Gbps in other words you can get 10Gbps+ in M.2 solutions...

///
Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
For single-lane (×1) and 16-lane (×16) links, in each direction:
v1.x (2.5 GT/s):
250 MB/s (×1)
4 GB/s (×16)

v2.x (5 GT/s):
500 MB/s (×1)
8 GB/s (×16)

v3.0 (8 GT/s):
985 MB/s (×1)
15.75 GB/s (×16)

v4.0 (16 GT/s):
1969 MB/s (×1)
31.51 GB/s (×16)
///
^ I kid you not!

Just take a look here: [Read the description]
http://www.amazon.co.uk/HyperX-Predator-PCIe-Gen2-Internal/dp/B00V01C376/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1437503650&sr=8-3&keywords=M.2

At sub £200 it is very affordable at 240GB! [Currently discounted!]

Note it is only on an x4 card....... that is PCIE3 985 MB/s (×1) * 4 [PCIE2 500 MB/s (×1) *4] [Although if you read the description you will find it looks to be more than enough]

I like the new boards that come with an M.2 connector built in, leaving your SATA ports open for something like a RAID 0 collection of other cheaper SSDs, and yes you can boot from the on board M.2!

Most new boards have between 2-6 SATA 3 connectors and a couple of maybe 2-4 SATA 2 ports...

With the above M.2 as your boot...

Now imagine grabbing a bunch of 60-120GB+ SSDs and raiding those for your games or applications to run on... not to mention a scratch disk... that is 500MB~*4 or 6 Read and 500MB~*4 or 6 write... [If you picked out a drive that had balanced read/write speeds] obviously other factors such as RAM or CPU would potentially slow down your shiny new 4-6GB/s data rates... not to mention the ratings on the SSDs themselves [Sometimes larger capacity SSDs are actually slower for various reasons] but anything above 1GB/s is like being in Computing Nirvana [or as close to it as we can get right now lol]

Essentially you could use the SATA 2 ports to raid a scratch disk and the SATA 3 for data storage... or the other way around...



BatVink welcome to the club

[My Surface Pro 2 512GB has never slowed me down one bit, all systems in my house use SSDs]

Also a side note I bought the Netgear PTV3000 WiDi/Wireless Display thing last year... god what a waste of money... and a week ago bought the Microsoft Wireless Adapter, Money Well Spent! [Note you need to like 30hz refresh but I can still own in CSGO...]

Van B
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Posted: 29th Jul 2015 19:56
Just snapped up 2x 256gb SSD's for £20 from a friend

Ortu
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Posted: 29th Jul 2015 20:03
nice

Clonkex
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Van B
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Posted: 30th Jul 2015 21:26
Not sure yet Clonkex, away training so I won't get them til tomorrow. I'm sure they'll be decent, he plays on my ARK server, so he knows it's for the common good

Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 8th Aug 2015 17:02
Hmm, I've never bought an SSD but figure I should upgrade to one. However, I am not so familiar with what I should be looking for in one and what's considered good and reliable with a decent life and what to avoid.

If anybody is able to offer any advice on choices, it'd be appreciated. I am essentially looking for between 250gb and 500gb and want it to be a reasonable price - not looking for top price range. I use SATA-III on my current HDD and would be looking to use the same.

I was looking at one of these:
http://www.ebuyer.com/581256-kingston-ssdnow-v300-480gb-sata3-2-5inch-ssd-sv300s37a-480g

MrValentine
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Posted: 8th Aug 2015 20:11 Edited at: 8th Aug 2015 20:12
Let's see here... first you will want a tray as I assume you want to put it in a desktop tower case... so something like this allows you to add a second drive in future...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Akasa-AK-HDA-03-2-5-3-5-Inch-SSD-Adapter/dp/B005ZWGFAC/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439053441&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=akasa+ssd+tray

And that [Your above SSD] one and this one below are your decent bets... but you might also want to look into M.2 solutions as well... especially if you got a spare x4/x8/x16 slot available... or even better an actual M.2 slot...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00P73B1E4/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

500 vs. 480 in the same ballpark... you decide...

Oh and this http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007R9M6PO/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_10?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE assumed for gamers and professionals...

bitJericho
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Clonkex
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Posted: 9th Aug 2015 03:14
Yeah, Kingston doesn't have the best track record.

I highly recommend the Samsung 850 Evo, either 250GB ($169 AUD) or the 500GB ($279 AUD). They're well-priced, extremely reliable and very fast. I've got an 840 Evo 250GB and it's been amazing. You'll be amazed at how much faster your PC can be with an SSD, and I wouldn't pick any SSD other than a Samsung Evo/Pro line (unless I was going for that insane 1TB M.2 drive that Intel makes... that'd be freakin awesome!).

Also, unless you don't have a lot installed and can deal with a full reinstall of Windows, I strongly recommend you use Paragon Migrate OS to SSD 4.0 to move your OS and programs over to your shiny new SSD. It's a really good program and worked perfectly for both myself and my brother when we got our SSDs. It lets you select which folders to move over and which to keep and tells you how much space you'll use to do it. What I did was move everything except the biggest games/programs and a few big video files. That way the vast majority of your software continues to work, and you only have to update shortcuts and (sometimes) registry values for the few largest programs or games that wouldn't fit on your SSD.

The awesome thing with modern SSDs is that you can pretty much treat them as normal HDDs - I use mine as a scratch disk for video editing, I keep my page file on it, I hibernate my computer onto it frequently, etc. The only thing I would recommend is that SSDs can fail more suddenly and destructively than HDDs, so keep an up-to-date backup going to a normal HDD (and for that I recommend Bvckup 2 - cool minimalistic Swedish program that outdoes Acronis TrueImage in every way).

Dar13
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Posted: 9th Aug 2015 11:25
Quote: " I highly recommend the Samsung 850 Evo, either 250GB ($169 AUD) or the 500GB ($279 AUD). They're well-priced, extremely reliable and very fast. I've got an 840 Evo 250GB and it's been amazing. You'll be amazed at how much faster your PC can be with an SSD, and I wouldn't pick any SSD other than a Samsung Evo/Pro line (unless I was going for that insane 1TB M.2 drive that Intel makes... that'd be freakin awesome!)."

Depending on his budget, PNY Optima drives can be very cheap and have competitive performance. Intel drives are incredibly durable as well, though most SSDs are now that durable(able to have a petabyte or so written to it before dying, IIRC).

Phaelax
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Posted: 9th Aug 2015 18:20
I've had very good performance from my Mushkin ssd, and it's over 3 years old now.


"I like offending people, because I think people who get offended should be offended." - Linus Torvalds
Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 9th Aug 2015 18:37
Cheers for the advice then. And thanks for the heads up on Kingston, that's crazy. I might look at something like a Samsung then. But will look at Mushkin and PNY.

Chris Tate
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Posted: 9th Aug 2015 20:49
Quote: "But will look at Mushkin and PNY.
"


Quote: "Over the past few months, we’ve seen a disturbing trend from first Kingston, and now PNY. "


That article indicated that PNY have acted shady too!

I was going to recommend Samsung or Sandisk. Crucial have some decent ratings but I'd opt for the former.

My Kingston SSD did not perform as well as many alternatives out there when I benchmark tested it; however my system performance is good overall because of the switch from HDD to SSD; although I still use HDDs for large capacity storage.

MrValentine
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Posted: 9th Aug 2015 20:53
I don't have any Kingstons', but aiming for Intel in future... Samsung are not too bad either...

Dar13
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Posted: 9th Aug 2015 22:27
Quote: " That article indicated that PNY have acted shady too!"

The PNY "shady" thing was a change in the microcontroller, not in the actual memory used. It was not a straight up downgrade like Kingston's was, and might even be a slight upgrade. Reddit post on the topic

Chris Tate
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Posted: 10th Aug 2015 01:14
I see

Clonkex
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Posted: 10th Aug 2015 09:58
Samsung's hardware, in our experience, has always been fantastic. We've never had a Samsung product we didn't rave about. That's part of the reason I so strongly recommend the 850 Evo drives.

Indicium
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Posted: 10th Aug 2015 18:18
I've been running a Crucial SSD in both my PC and my MacBook. Fantastic performance and no complaints.
budokaiman
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Posted: 10th Aug 2015 23:28
Quote: "Depending on his budget, PNY Optima drives can be very cheap and have competitive performance"


I would never recommend PNY. I've had nothing but trouble with their hardware. I've used Samsung 840 & 850 drives as well as a crucial M4 and all have been fantastic.

"Giraffe is soft, Gorilla is hard." - Phaelax

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