SSD for PC Gaming?

[king3pj]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=vg_cx_c..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1G6BVN8228TMHPT5Z0MG

Amazon is currently doing a sale on SSDs at 40% or more off. I have decided it's time to finally upgrade my gaming PC to SSD to take advantage of this. The problem is that I know nothing about SSDs so I was hoping someone here could help me get the best bang for my buck. I am currently using 503GB on my 1TB 7200RPM drive. A little bit over 150 GB of that is music that can stay on my current drive. Almost 100% of the remaining usage is the OS and my games.

From my limited research, it sounds like the easiest thing to do is delete stuff on my 1TB drive until I get down to something that would fit on a SSD and clone the drive. Then I can remove the 150GB of music from the SSD to free up space for games. Uninstalling games for this process isn't a big deal because most of them are from steam and they make it easy to download them again in the future.

I don't think there is an easy way to separate your steam library between two drives so I will probably be limited to what fits on a SSD even though I also have a 1TB drive. I want my games on the SSD anyways because load times for games is the reason I am doing this.

I was thinking I should stick to 240GB or more. Obviously, bigger is better but I don't want to break the bank and drive space means nothing if the drive is low quality. I would like to limit this to the $200-$250 range. I can go a little higher if a little more money will make a huge difference but I don't want to get crazy here. Do any of the drives in amazon's sale fit the bill for me? Keep in mind that I have Windows 8 on my machine. The first drive I was about to buy before coming here had a review saying the firmware was incompatible with windows 8.

 

[king3pj]

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Force...iewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

After reading lots of amazon reviews, I think I am going with this one unless someone gives me a reason not to. I plan on making the purchase in the next hour or so.

 

[dfergie]

I've been eyeballing those also for my OS ... shaving 2 TB's down to fit will be a son of a gun though.

 

[king3pj]

I've been eyeballing those also for my OS ... shaving 2 TB's down to fit will be a son of a gun though.

You might be better off doing a clean install of windows on the SSD instead of cloning. I think the general consensus is that you want your OS and the programs you use most on the SSD. Music, movies, and other documents can stay on your 2TB drive if you have an extra drive bay and SATA port for it. Of course, that's if we are talking about a desktop. I don't think most laptops have space for two drives.

My my situation is a little different because games are what takes up most of my drive space. They are also the software that will see the most benefit from an SSD drive so keeping them on my 1TB HDD doesn't make sense.

 

[yourbeliefs]

SSD? Yes.

THIS SSD? NO. I got mine for $159 last year. Just be patient.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Also, as far as your games go, don't forget with each game you specify where they are installed. Yes, games get a nice performance boost when on the SSD, but don't feel like ALL your games need to go there. If you have games that are like 3+ years old or you know aren't very "intensive" (like say, Brothers or Gone Home) you can set up a directory on your bigger HDD and just throw those games there. If you try and put everything on your SSD you'll run out very quickly.

Try this drive instead:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007R67FTY/?tag=satell01-20

 

[king3pj]

SSD? Yes.

THIS SSD? NO. I got mine for $159 last year. Just be patient.

To late. I already pulled the trigger. I guess I assumed they were a good price because they were today's cyber Monday week deal but I didn't know what standard prices actually are. They say it is normally $499 but today it was $231. Of course that could easily be the classic mark up and then tell people they are getting a deal tactic. Oh well, it will be here Wednesday and I have wanted to do this upgrade for a while. Even if it isn't the best deal I'll probably be sticking with it. I guess I could do an amazon return if something better pops up.

 

[yourbeliefs]

To late. I already pulled the trigger. I guess I assumed they were a good price because they were today's cyber Monday week deal but I didn't know what standard prices actually are. They say it is normally $499 but today it was $231. Of course that could easily be the classic mark up and then tell people they are getting a deal tactic. Oh well, it will be here Wednesday and I have wanted to do this upgrade for a while. Even if it isn't the best deal I'll probably be sticking with it. I guess I could do an amazon return if something better pops up.

Just cancel the order and get the other one I posted above.

 

[king3pj]

Also, as far as your games go, don't forget with each game you specify where they are installed. Yes, games get a nice performance boost when on the SSD, but don't feel like ALL your games need to go there. If you have games that are like 3+ years old or you know aren't very "intensive" (like say, Brothers or Gone Home) you can set up a directory on your bigger HDD and just throw those games there. If you try and put everything on your SSD you'll run out very quickly.

Try this drive instead:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007R67FTY/?tag=satell01-20

Thanks! This is a much better price. The Corsair drive hadn't shipped yet so I was able to cancel that order and grab this one instead. I didn't know I could split my steam library between drives. That makes me feel much better knowing my fairly new 1TB won't be useless.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Thanks! This is a much better price. The Corsair drive hadn't shipped yet so I was able to cancel that order and grab this one instead. I didn't know I could split my steam library between drives. That makes me feel much better knowing my fairly new 1TB won't be useless.

Yup. Just remember to check the drop down that comes up when you tell it to install your game..

 

[king3pj]

So what's the best way to migrate over to the SSD? Should I cut down data on my old drive until it's small enough to clone or just do a clean install of Windows 8 on the SSD? I understand how to pick which drive to install new games to now but what about games I'm already playing? Say I want to move Borderlands 2 and Skyrim from the HDD to the SDD. Do I uninstall from the HDD and redownload and install to the SDD. Is it as simple as finding where the game folder is and then cutting and pasting over to the SDD? What about save files. I assume the executable and save files need to be on the same drive.

Maybe I'm overthinking this. Most of the games installed on my HDD haven't even been started yet so deleting and doing a clean install would be no big deal. I do have lots of games I'm part way through that I would like to see the speed increase on though.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[yourbeliefs]

So what's the best way to migrate over to the SSD? Should I cut down data on my old drive until it's small enough to clone or just do a clean install of Windows 8 on the SSD? I understand how to pick which drive to install new games to now but what about games I'm already playing? Say I want to move Borderlands 2 and Skyrim from the HDD to the SDD. Do I uninstall from the HDD and redownload and install to the SDD. Is it as simple as finding where the game folder is and then cutting and pasting over to the SDD? What about save files. I assume the executable and save files need to be on the same drive.

Maybe I'm overthinking this. Most of the games installed on my HDD haven't even been started yet so deleting and doing a clean install would be no big deal. I do have lots of games I'm part way though that I would like to see the speed increase on though.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Well, it's probably "best" if you do a clean install, but that can be a pain. I cloned my drive and everything worked fine. If you decide to take that route I would advise besides just deleting what you don't need to also defrag your drive, twice, with a good defragger like Auslogics Disk Defrag before you make that image as you won't be able to defrag it (or rather, you shouldn't) once it's on a SSD so if stuff isn't in good placement, it's going to stay that way. Also it isn't hard to backup your save games. Just google "<Game Name> Save file location" and you'll find what you need.

 

[king3pj]

Great. I'll probably clone then. This sounds like it is a pretty painless process compared to what I was expecting.


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[Stargazer]

Are SSD's a bit more reliable now or do they still have some reliability issues? Are their life expectancies at least those of a hard disc drive now?

 

[king3pj]

Are SSD's a bit more reliable now or do they still have some reliability issues? Are their life expectancies at least those of a hard disc drive now?

I can't answer that but I think the one I bought came with a 3 year warranty. If I can get at least 3 or 4 years out of this drive I will probably be ready for an upgrade anyways. Hopefully by then I will be able to get a 1TB or bigger SSD in this price range.


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[Stargazer]

I read the specs on one of them at 4 million hours and that equates close to 500 years. If they are supposed to last that long then why are they failing? There used to be an issue with them lasting very long due to the limit of how many writes.

 

[king3pj]

I read the specs on one of them at 4 million hours and that equates close to 500 years. If they are supposed to last that long then why are they failing? There used to be an issue with them lasting very long due to the limit of how many writes.

From what I've read it sounds like reliability isn't much of a concern anymore.

 

[JAG72]

Great. I'll probably clone then. This sounds like it is a pretty painless process compared to what I was expecting.


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Just make sure you us a cloning tool that will align the data on the SSD correctly. SSD has a different offset than a traditional hard drive. This is critical to maintain the SSD perfomance.

 

[king3pj]

Just make sure you us a cloning tool that will align the data on the SSD correctly. SSD has a different offset than a traditional hard drive. This is critical to maintain the SSD perfomance.

Thanks for the tip. I plan on using this guide to help me out while I do the upgrade.

http://lifehacker.com/5837543/how-to-migrate-to-a-solid+state-drive-without-reinstalling-windows

The guide says to use software called EaseUS Todo Backup to clone to the SSD. They mention needing to select an option called optimize for SSD for the cloning process. It sounds like doing that takes care of the alignment issue you were talking about.

 

[JAG72]

That guide should work. The only piece I am not sure of is running the windows experience to turn on trim support or for defrag. Just double check those after the clone.