Considering buying an SSD

[Deadfast]

Hi guys,
I am seriously considering buying an SSD disk. I'm looking into using it as a system disk and for some games (namely ARMA 2). I don't exactly plan to blow all my savings on it so it really is the value for money I'm looking at.

So far the most interesting candidate seems to be the Kingston SSDNow V-Series (64GB) which for the price offers a fairly large size and the performance doesn't seem to be too bad either.


But of course I am going to be stuck with it for a while so I'm open to any input

[Psyrus]

I'd go for a sandforce controller personally as they're a bit more bleeding edge than the V-Series, although budget wise it's hard to beat the V Series

The Gskill Phoenix 60GB would be comparable, but with better performance. I'm going to be upgrading my Corsair P64 to a Gskill Phoenix 120GB when I get back from Africa in a few weeks, as with Win7 + BC2 + PR + CS5 + Office 2007 + a few other things, I only have 20GB free on my SSD, and my ARMA2 directory (Combined Operations + ACE2) is ~23GB.

At the end of the day though, all SSDs will make a fair amount of difference, you just want to be sure you have TRIM enabled and you're basically set

Edit:
This is a great read and a goldmine for information
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-re ... ?t=1510966

[BloodBane611]

I've been looking at anandtech reviews, but mostly they're looking at the high end drives. However, from what I've read the V-series drives are the cheapest $$/GB of space by a fair margin, so if you're looking for affordability I think that's it

[SnipingCoward]

A little heads-up which might save you some disappointments (which I personally went through):

I recentrly built a PC with 1 SSD (C:\) and 1 HDD (D:\).
I installed Win7 Home Prem x64 on the SSD and only formatted the HDD.
Knowing about the SSDs limited life due to writing/deleting I thought it would be smart to move "C:\Program Files" to "D:\Program Files" so all programs that do not ask for installation directory will be by default installed onto the HDD thus sparing the SSD from unimportant programs.
However it is officially not supported by Windows 7 to move the "Program Files" folder. A possible work-around and a common one too suggests to creating a "Junction" and move "Program Files" using "robocopy /XJ". This will only copy regular files but not "Resource Points" like junctions effectively crippeling the this folder (virtually losing hundreds of files/hardlinks) and eventually disabling windows updates (at least partially).

So do not even try to move "Program Files" unless you can live without updates.
If you want to know more consult this article with paying special attention to "TheMan"'s comments which explain why the suggested "solution" does/will not work. http://tuts4tech.net/2009/08/05/windows ... partition/


Anyhow, I suggest puting all startup programs onto the SSD as well. (Win7 boots in under 2 min and is fully operational for me).

[JohnnyTheIED]

Just go for the fastest and cheapest. Make sure you buy it locally from a store whos been here for a while and intent to keep it that way. Keep your receipt and everything will be fine.

If anything goes wrong before the warranty expires youre covered and will get replacement in a matter of minutes.