SSD's-Are they really worth it?

[F1FAN]

Hi, my system has a pretty good boot up time atm with a normal HDD, ranging from 17 to 20 secs from "starting windows" but i think it's bottlenecking my quadcore, i think i can get more out of my system, start up 15secs all the time and programs like photoshop cs5 to open allmost instant. I have seen all the vids on youtube, the intel x25m g2 mostly, i am aiming to get the 80gb version as they are very expensive and this is what i can afford, and will pay for a hard drive.

Questions:

Because i am only getting an 80gb (normal HDD will be used for data, ssd for os and aps) will it slow down because it will be about 35-40% full when i have put the aps and os on it?

What do i have to do to keep it's speed? i heard of trim? Does this work good and how is your ssd overtime?

Thanks for your advice.

 

[zzz2496]

Yup, they're really worth it... Read The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

zzz2496

 

[whs]

Is it worth the money? Good question. I bought 3 SSDs for 3 systems and think it was worth my money. But if you are happy with your system, it may degrade to a toy. General consensus is that it is the best investment per Dollar or Pound to speed up your system. It will help in boot time and calling the programs. It will also help if you image your system as I do every day and the system will feel snappier all together. Is it really neccessary? - I would say no. But it is a nice addition.

 

[noyb]

I've been wondering ....
Other than Bootup time .. and CS5 loading quicker .. What else is quicker ??

My computer seems fast enough for me .. (usually quicker than I am) ..
For a couple hundred dollars .. I'll wait a few seconds for CS5 to load

 

[HMonk]

Worth it: considering what?

I suggest a little window shopping at Amazon. Based on my brief observations, the per GB cost of an SATA HDD is $0.24. For the same size SSD, that cost is $2.61. Is 10 times the cost per GB worth it to you under any circumstance? It's not to me but then again, I am poor old man whose money goes for motorcycle gas (and superfluous pieces of chrome, and the blue-eyed . . . oh never mind).

Monk

 

[Sanvean]

SSDs are for enthusiasts like myself, now I know some folks, who spend thousands of dollars on aftermarket chrome motorcycle parts. Do they need those shiny parts, no they can just do without, but they buy them because they are enthusiasts.

If an individual just surfs the Internet, emails or does basic usage, there is absolutely no "performance" need for an SSD. In a similar vein, why do folks build platter RAID setups, same reason for SSD.
It is actually a cheap upgrade for ones aging system to run quicker, as opposed to buying a new motherboard, ram, CPU, PSU combos. My Intel X25-M 80GB SSD cost $212.00. I was on the proverbial fence for awhile and took the plunge two months ago. After months of usage, I can honestly form an opinion for my situation, after the wow factor has wore off.
I will never go back to platter boot drives again.

Anyway, they aren't really needed, but for an enthusiast they are definately worth serious consideration or a must have.

 

[tw33k]

For me the price of my SSD was well worth it. Everything is much much faster than with a standard HDD.

 

[win7clutz]

For me the price of my SSD was well worth it. Everything is much much faster than with a standard HDD.

+1

 

[HMonk]

@Sanvean: You are, of course, absolutely right; I appreciate your perspective.

Monk

 

[Wishmaster]

Yes!

Without a doubt, the first upgrade in a very long time I actually seen a immediate, and quite noticable gain in overall performance.

I only run a 40GB SSD for the OS (which is plenty for me) with most everything else on mechanical drives and its still a huge improvement.
With the exception of a couple Games on a 30Gb Vertex.


Certainly worth the investment. The results are immediatly apparent.

 

[surfasb]

Worth it: considering what?

I suggest a little window shopping at Amazon. Based on my brief observations, the per GB cost of an SATA HDD is $0.24. For the same size SSD, that cost is $2.61. Is 10 times the cost per GB worth it to you under any circumstance? It's not to me but then again, I am poor old man whose money goes for motorcycle gas (and superfluous pieces of chrome, and the blue-eyed . . . oh never mind).

Monk

I'm with you on this one. For me, storage, CPU, and peripherals trump load times. I personally spend the money on a better graphics card, extra monitor, dock for the XT2, etc etc.

 

[TVeblen]

Because i am only getting an 80gb (normal HDD will be used for data, ssd for os and aps) will it slow down because it will be about 35-40% full when i have put the aps and os on it?

I believe you would only be limited by the NTFS. It is recommended that a drive formatted NTFS not be over 75% to 80% full. So you would be good, by far, at 40% or more.

The drives are a huge improvement over the spinning disk, no doubt.

In the future, the systems you could buy in the big box store will all come with SSD's. The price will come down as the drives become more common, manufacturing scales up, and competition ramps up. You can pay more to be there now, or wait and be there for less.

"It hurts on the bleeding edge of technology!"

 

[steve-pressman]

Once you have one and use one you'll never look back I have a dual boot Rig, Win 7 on the SSD and Win XP Pro on my Seagate 1TB. After spending all day on my XP scanning photos ( No driver for my scanner for Win 7 64 ) I was so glad to get back to my Win 7 and the SSD to edit them in Photo Shop. I am always amazed at the speed of it Just my pennies worth.


Steve

 

[mpcrsc562]

"Worth it" is very subjective, but for my two cents... yes.

I have a RAID 0 SSD setup on my Windows 7 machine and a single SSD on my Vista machine. In my opinion, I see better performance in my Vista machine: Operating System load, application load & overall system responsiveness. That's not to say that my setup on my Windows 7 machine is not worth it, though. It's just that I really see it on the Vista machine.

 

[CarlTR6]

Worth it: considering what?

I suggest a little window shopping at Amazon. Based on my brief observations, the per GB cost of an SATA HDD is $0.24. For the same size SSD, that cost is $2.61. Is 10 times the cost per GB worth it to you under any circumstance? It's not to me but then again, I am poor old man whose money goes for motorcycle gas (and superfluous pieces of chrome, and the blue-eyed . . . oh never mind).

Monk

I'm with you on this one. For me, storage, CPU, and peripherals trump load times. I personally spend the money on a better graphics card, extra monitor, dock for the XT2, etc etc.

+ 1. On a limited budget, there are other things I can do that are much more cost effective. I would much rather invest in extra storage.

 

[noyb]

Where are the SSDs with SATA III (6GB/sec) ..
or would that help any in a newer Mobo ??

 

[F1FAN]

ok thanks guys, i guess its a bit like going form a prentium 4 to a quad core. Looks like i will be getting the intel one then and using the 640WD for storage (music,vids docs etc.)

so how does this trim work then? does it come with the firmware?

 

[HMonk]

Worth it: considering what?

I suggest a little window shopping at Amazon. Based on my brief observations, the per GB cost of an SATA HDD is $0.24. For the same size SSD, that cost is $2.61. Is 10 times the cost per GB worth it to you under any circumstance? It's not to me but then again, I am poor old man whose money goes for motorcycle gas (and superfluous pieces of chrome, and the blue-eyed . . . oh never mind).

Monk

I'm with you on this one. For me, storage, CPU, and peripherals trump load times. I personally spend the money on a better graphics card, extra monitor, dock for the XT2, etc etc.

Great point! The aforementioned enthusiast, while she or he may consider an SSD, is likely to pour hard-earned dinero into just those things mentioned by Surfasb. If one still has change left over after all of the other essential purchases, they probably drive to work in a Bentley and, as such, the cost/benefit ratio is a moot question.

Monk

 

[F1FAN]

Worth it: considering what?

I suggest a little window shopping at Amazon. Based on my brief observations, the per GB cost of an SATA HDD is $0.24. For the same size SSD, that cost is $2.61. Is 10 times the cost per GB worth it to you under any circumstance? It's not to me but then again, I am poor old man whose money goes for motorcycle gas (and superfluous pieces of chrome, and the blue-eyed . . . oh never mind).

Monk

I'm with you on this one. For me, storage, CPU, and peripherals trump load times. I personally spend the money on a better graphics card, extra monitor, dock for the XT2, etc etc.

Great point! The aforementioned enthusiast, while she or he may consider an SSD, is likely to pour hard-earned dinero into just those things mentioned by Surfasb. If one still has change left over after all of the other essential purchases, they probably drive to work in a Bentley and, as such, the cost/benefit ratio is a moot question.

Monk

i guess it's what you really want from your pc, i dont play to many pc games, mainly modern warfare 2 and LFD2 so my gpu is ok for that, allready have a quad core, monitor is fine. I think the last step for me would be a SSD, plus i am really fussy when it comes to load up times. os and aps. Dont ask why im just a bit wired like that Some people it won't bother but to me it does.

 

[F1FAN]

also looking at that article it states that ssd's get slower over time? has this now bwwn fixed?