64 GB SSD -- Paging and Photoshop -- wow

Hi all
I ponyed up a few dollars fot a 64 GB SSD drive to use as a paging drive and as a Photoshop scratch area

what a HUGE difference -- Even running 4 VM's on a 4GB machine is possible without grinding the whole thing to a halt. (Will of course be adding another 8GB later- I need to run a whole slew of VM's).

This is definitely the way forward -- I'm not usually an early adopter of this type of technology but in this instance knowing how slow I/O is ALWAYS overlooked in any discussion of computer systems I though I'd try it.

The prices WILL come down so don't rush out and spend your 200 USD just yet -- I can claim some of this money back on taxes so its worth testing this stuff in my case.


For price / performance look at the OCZ drives - great reviews as well

OCZ
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/solid_state_drives/ocz_vertex_turbo_series_sata_ii_2_5-ssd


cheers
jimbo

I think upgrading the RAM to 8 GB would be more economical? Two more sticks of 2 GB would cost less than $50.

satchmo said:

I think upgrading the RAM to 8 GB would be more economical? Two more sticks of 2 GB would cost less than $50.

Click to expand...

Hi there

Of course you are correct but I wanted to try out SSD technology -- I'm looking for the 250 - 300GB disks when the prices drop a bit.

The SSD is also "Swappable" -- I can test it in a laptop as well. I can't (yet) get 8 / 16 GB RAM into a laptop. I can use 40 GB for the OS and the other 24 GB for paging / otherstuff.

64 GB is too small for permanently keeping in a laptop for everyday use unless your OS is Linux / XP but its fine for doing a "functional or a proof of concept test"

Cheers
jimbo

satchmo said:

I think upgrading the RAM to 8 GB would be more economical? Two more sticks of 2 GB would cost less than $50.

Click to expand...

That is not at all the same thing. Nothing beats the SSD for overall performance improvements dollar by dollar. The 8GB of RAM will still not boot the system in 10 seconds like the SSD.

Good to hear! I will definitely be looking into this when prices come down. Can't justify $250+ for 128GB drive, just now.

jimbo45, for the Vertex make sure you have firmware level 1.4. That's the one that supports Trim. Discussion AGILTY and VERTEX FW update 1.4/1.41... VERTEX EX and AGILITY EX FW 1.3/1.31 EX - OCZ Forum Else, you will get a performance degradation over time.

I am just waiting for the price of SSD to drop.
I predict that within 24 months, a 500 GB SSD would cost about $100.

satchmo said:

I am just waiting for the price of SSD to drop.
I predict that within 24 months, a 500 GB SSD would cost about $100.

Click to expand...

That would be nice, but I would not bet on it.

In 1990, 1 megabyte of RAM cost nearly $100.

In 2009, 2 gigabytes of RAM cost $30.

That's more than 6,000 times drop in price in two decades.

...or about 300 times price reduction annually.

Well, right now the prices for SSDs are going up. In March 09 I bought a 60GB OCZ Vertex from Newegg for $185. The same one costs $235 at Newegg today. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227394

whs said:

The 8GB of RAM will still not boot the system in 10 seconds like the SSD.

Click to expand...

SSD likely won't boot the machine in 10 seconds either. I've got an Intel SSD and I think I'm around 18 seconds on my boot.

pparks1 said:

whs said:

The 8GB of RAM will still not boot the system in 10 seconds like the SSD.

Click to expand...

SSD likely won't boot the machine in 10 seconds either. I've got an Intel SSD and I think I'm around 18 seconds on my boot.

Click to expand...

10 seconds is what it takes for my Vertex with win7 RC. Maybe your Intel is slower than the Vertex. But 18 sec. is still pretty good.