Solid State Drives, any good??

[43367]

Hello all,
My computer is running a bit short on memory and I was wondering is it best to invest in some more memory for my computer, I currently have around 1TB of memory on my computer and just debating whether or not to double it to 2TB, which should see me right, or to invest in a Solid State Drive, which I have been advised about
Now my questions are: Are SSD's any good and are they suitable for gaming??, I mostly play Train Simulator??
Does anyone on here use SSD's and if so which ones would you recommend as I believe there are some that are best for storage only and not suitable for gaming.

As you can tell I'm not really technically gifted, so any help is greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance

 

[Bletchleyite]

SSDs are quick and robust. Only real downside against a physical disk is cost, but they're getting cheaper all the time.

 

[jon0844]

They're great, and modern ones designed for so many read/writes that you don't need to worry about them failing before you'd likely replace it anyway (and hopefully you'd back up vital documents, photos and video in the cloud or a secondary storage device so even that's less of an issue).

The pricing is indeed coming down, but if you need loads of storage with fast access for system files (makes a massive boost for boot times etc) then there are hybrid drives you can consider too.

 

[Crossover]

SSD's make the world of difference for boot times and general responsiveness of a PC - I haven't bought one at work without an SSD for a good while now, but then storage capacity for us isn't a concern.

I wouldn't bother with hybrid drives myself - we've had a few but can't say I have noticed them being particularly great performance wise

However, for sheer capacity, you cannot beat a spindle and platter still. If you wanted to do SSD and needed capacity, if your device can take it, I'd suggest having both - an SSD for the operating system and program files, with spindles for raw storage

 

[ainsworth74]

However, for sheer capacity, you cannot beat a spindle and platter still. If you wanted to do SSD and needed capacity, if your device can take it, I'd suggest having both - an SSD for the operating system and program files, with spindles for raw storage

Yes my current laptop is like this. A reasonably small SSD (120GB) which has the Operating System and some other odds and sods on it and then a larger traditional hard drive (500GB) to stick things that take up room on (games, media and what have you).

I've always been impressed by the speed at which this system loads. It leave my work laptop in the dust. Both run Windows 10 but my personal with SSD leaves the works laptop with a traditional HD for dead.

 

[aar0]

SSD's make the world of difference for boot times and general responsiveness of a PC

I run very intensive software on my laptop, and run it hard, and it is now over 4 years old. Fitted a SSD two years ago, boot up is still far, far faster than it was - mere seconds from hibernate, few more from a cold start. Best thing I've done to it!

 

[Crossover]

Yes my current laptop is like this. A reasonably small SSD (120GB) which has the Operating System and some other odds and sods on it and then a larger traditional hard drive (500GB) to stick things that take up room on (games, media and what have you).

I've always been impressed by the speed at which this system loads. It leave my work laptop in the dust. Both run Windows 10 but my personal with SSD leaves the works laptop with a traditional HD for dead.

The difference in laptops can be quite marked as most laptops only have platters which rotate at 5400rpm (most desktops would be 7200rpm) and can be quite slow. Indeed, with Windows 7 I have seen SSD machines boot before the flashy Windows logo has had time to finish doing its flashy stuff!

At work (in an IT role, for context for the benefit of those who don't know) I don't believe we have Windows 10 running on anything other than SSD storage and I have a small pile of SSD's to retrofit into devices that get rebuilt as it makes life a lot easier and can rejuvenate a PC which was otherwise a bit lacklustre. At around £70 + VAT for a 250GB one its a bit of a no-brainer (and it seems to keep my users happy). Local storage isn't a concern for us though as most stuff goes on our server farm with limited data on the device itself

 

[Crossover]

I run very intensive software on my laptop, and run it hard, and it is now over 4 years old. Fitted a SSD two years ago, boot up is still far, far faster than it was - mere seconds from hibernate, few more from a cold start. Best thing I've done to it!

I SSD'd my old work laptop around 4 years ago, mostly as on the spindle it was getting progressively slower, especially on boot. With the SSD it booted very quickly as you suggest and even by the time I stopped actively using it (about a year ago) it was still just as good. I still use it occasionally for troubleshooting and it's still pretty good

The most impressive I think is an old laptop of mine which I SSD'd - it is now 10 years old (only a Core 2 Duo with 3GB RAM) and it runs Windows 10 reasonably enough and boots in about 20 seconds!

 

[jyte]

+1 for SSDs from me.

I have two laptop computers, one with a 512GB SSD and one with a 512GB HDD and the difference in speed is phenomenal.

 

[AM9]

Hello all,
My computer is running a bit short on memory and I was wondering is it best to invest in some more memory for my computer, I currently have around 1TB of memory on my computer and just debating whether or not to double it to 2TB, which should see me right, or to invest in a Solid State Drive, which I have been advised about
Now my questions are: Are SSD's any good and are they suitable for gaming??, I mostly play Train Simulator??
Does anyone on here use SSD's and if so which ones would you recommend as I believe there are some that are best for storage only and not suitable for gaming.

As you can tell I'm not really technically gifted, so any help is greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance

As all the posters above have said, an SSD will rejuvenate a PC when it replaces a electromechanical HDD carrying operating system and programs. This is increasingly so as applications comprise multiple sub-programs that are launched and closed during run-time whilst their features are used. The need to access the file allocation tables or journals to determine where a file or program is physically located results in much stepping of physical heads across the disk surface of an HDD whereas an SSD does this electronically at far greater speed.
As far as storage of data is concerned, the gain is much less and 1TB of SSD storage does not come cheap,... yet. However, some SSD data storage is worth the additional cost for such applications as video editing where repeated read and write access is needed both in the edit task, and subsequent rendering where near real-time speeds are often necessery. For most other applications, data access at HDD speeds is not a constraint to applications.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Particularly a Windows PC, which (unlike MacOS/UNIX) loads a program by mapping it into the virtual memory space. It's quite clever as it gives quick load times, but does cause the disk to hammer somewhat for the first few minutes of use.

 

[snail]

I currently have around 1TB of memory on my computer and just debating whether or not to double it to 2TB

Computer disk capacity is not memory - be careful what you ask for! I would second the support for SSDs. They are more expensive than the equivalent spinning disk but much faster.

Make sure though that you have a good backup in place. If an SSD fails it probably won't give any warnings. I had one give up on me last Christmas - a boxing day trip to PC World to get a new SSD while the old one was sent off to the Czech Republic for repair (all paid for by the manufacturer). Fortunately I had an external USB drive so I could restore files to the new disk.

 

[Class172]

Yes my current laptop is like this. A reasonably small SSD (120GB) which has the Operating System and some other odds and sods on it and then a larger traditional hard drive (500GB) to stick things that take up room on (games, media and what have you).

I've always been impressed by the speed at which this system loads. It leave my work laptop in the dust. Both run Windows 10 but my personal with SSD leaves the works laptop with a traditional HD for dead.

My laptop has a similar setup. It came with a 500GB 7200rpm HDD when I brought it a couple of years ago, and since upgraded it by adding a 128GB SSD. The SSD is of the M.2 form factor and fits into the slot that, for my laptop at least, was designed for a 4G WWAN module. As it's not an official upgrade the BIOS cannot see a boot-loader unless it's on the HHD, so I have the rather bizzare situation where I have Windows 7 on the HHD (the original system), and Windows 10 and Linux reside on the SSD. I don't mind this solution as if for some reason the SSD breaks or needs removing, the laptop is still fully functional

 

[Bletchleyite]

Computer disk capacity is not memory - be careful what you ask for! I would second the support for SSDs. They are more expensive than the equivalent spinning disk but much faster.

Make sure though that you have a good backup in place. If an SSD fails it probably won't give any warnings. I had one give up on me last Christmas - a boxing day trip to PC World to get a new SSD while the old one was sent off to the Czech Republic for repair (all paid for by the manufacturer). Fortunately I had an external USB drive so I could restore files to the new disk.

Online backup is a good idea these days, not least because you don't have to remember to do it. MozyHome is decent, or Google Drive will do it these days too.

 

[D365]

The best deal I’ve seen on an SSD is 512GB for a basic SanDisk 2.5” about this time last year (Black Friday). Sadly it seems prices haven’t hit that same low again since. Best I saw this year was £60 for 240GB.

I would love to refit my 2012 MacBook with one, but I’ll be looking at replacing it sooner or later anyway.

 

[Bungle37]

Have SSD laptop and PC, so much faster than HDD. The PC one didn't come with it, was a later addition. Just don't order from China, took forever to arrive!

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Amazon have got a 2TB SSD 2.5" for £90.93 I don't know if that's just a Black Friday promo

 

[Class172]

Amazon have got a 2TB SSD 2.5" for £90.93 I don't know if that's just a Black Friday promo

Even for amazon deals I don't believe that. It surely must be a hybrid drive (ie SSHD) at the price you've described.

 

[CarlSilva]

I haven't tried one yet but am thikning of getting one. Coulndlt you clone your original hd onto it, then run it solo and compare the dffrerence ?

 

[D365]

Even for amazon deals I don't believe that. It surely must be a hybrid drive (ie SSHD) at the price you've described.

Definitely going to be an SSHD. I’ll give SpacePhoenix the benefit of the doubt for this one as it’s not a type of storage that is well known. I can’t think of any computer other than a number of Apple iMac models that comes with a variant of these as standard.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Definitely going to be an SSHD. I’ll give SpacePhoenix the benefit of the doubt for this one as it’s not a type of storage that is well known. I can’t think of any computer other than a number of Apple iMac models that comes with a variant of these as standard.

Looked again it's indeed a SSHD. I didn't know before yesterday that there was such a thing as a SSHD. Can they be set so that the SSD portion is treated by Windows as one drive and the 'traditional' hard drive as another?

 

[D365]

Looked again it's indeed a SSHD. I didn't know before yesterday that there was such a thing as a SSHD. Can they be set so that the SSD portion is treated by Windows as one drive and the 'traditional' hard drive as another?

No, they show up as a normal hard drive to the user but have a flash storage ‘cache’ (typically 8-32GB) which is written to dynamically. The benefit is essentially that they bridge the gap between HD cost and SSD speed. However they do have limited support on some hardware.

 

[CarlSilva]

2nd thoughts, forget it. Just seen the prices. Far too expensive

 

[Crossover]

Looks like the SSD's I have used have been superseded and now a slightly larger capacity for the money (275GB)

A 2TB Crucial (the brand I have mostly used) SSD is around £500 inc VAT for client systems*. Whilst this is a lot, it is significantly less than they used to be.

*Enterprise (i.e. server) storage you cannot use these as they would wear too quickly with read/writes

 

[Yew]

Indeed, I agree that a small SSD for the OS and commonly used programs is an excellent solution to improve usability. I am Currently running a 128GB Samsung 830 SSD, my original 512gb HDD from when I built the computer, and a new 1tb HDD for extra storage.

TLDR: SSD to speed up responsiveness of a PCs OS and key programs, HDD for increased storage, due to cost.

 

[43367]

Hi chaps, thanks for your feedback, so I guess its not as easy as opening up the computer and plugging it in.

I have been searching the web and found this: https://www.seagate.com/www-content.../firecuda/files/firecuda-ds-1903-1-1606us.pdf.
I had trouble with my computer the hard drive wasn't well, so I had another one installed however it wasn't as big as my previous one, so when i re-installed Railworks there was not enough space to load all the files, so I thought if I'm going to get another hard drive I might as well do it properly, so would the above be suitable for using with Railworks,

Thanks in advance as always

 

[D365]

Hi chaps, thanks for your feedback, so I guess its not as easy as opening up the computer and plugging it in.

What do you mean by this?

Your link does not work, by the way.

 

[Crossover]

Hi chaps, thanks for your feedback, so I guess its not as easy as opening up the computer and plugging it in.

I have been searching the web and found this: https://www.seagate.com/www-content.../firecuda/files/firecuda-ds-1903-1-1606us.pdf.
I had trouble with my computer the hard drive wasn't well, so I had another one installed however it wasn't as big as my previous one, so when i re-installed Railworks there was not enough space to load all the files, so I thought if I'm going to get another hard drive I might as well do it properly, so would the above be suitable for using with Railworks,

Thanks in advance as always

One thing I don't think we know at the moment is what PC/laptop you currently have? The link you have provided is 3.5" disk (thus desktop sized) so no use for a laptop. I still wouldn't bother with a hybrid SSHD - funnily enough I was thinking about this thread only the other day as one of the laptops we have which had an SSHD was reporting a failure (after about 3 years of use) and my general experience of the laptops we have with SSHD's hasn't been all that great to be honest - some are quite slow now. The SSHD in question was replaced with an SSD.
The drive in the link will work fine work Train Sim as such (realistically, any drive will as long as it has a great enough capacity) - whether it is the optimum though, I'm not sure

Actually replacing a drive in a PC (assuming desktop, laptops are sometimes a bit more involved) isnn't too tricky in itself (desktops usually have space for multiple unless it is small form factor) but the difficulty comes in either needing to clone the data from one disk to another or rebuilding entirely. The former is a little involved, the latter not too tricky as long as you have install and driver disks/files to hand*

*Disclaimer being I work in IT so none of this particularly phases me, but possibly would the average user

What do you mean by this?

Your link does not work, by the way.

The link works fine for me!

 

[Skie]

Depends how tight your budget is, but I'd recommend the Crucial MX500 that comes out in a few days time. ~£230 for 1TB, which is a good deal for that sort of storage (23p/GB, better than the 30p average) and it's a bloody good performer too. If you can, avoid getting a smaller SSD as it becomes a pain when you have a lot of games, 250GB is the bare minimum but ideally you'd go larger as the drives will last you a long time so they are a decent investment.

The performance boost of an SSD over a hard drive can't really be beaten, it's like getting a whole new PC.