Getting an SSD... : Othor Games

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 8:43 am

Hello guys! Hope that y'all are doing good today. So, I've been upgrading my computer peripherals, got a nice new mouse (minoix castor, my favorite mouse I've ever used), my first mechanical keyboard (G910 Orion Spark. Read a lotta reviews about how all these people hate it, I happen to love this thing. It's what I'm typing on now and it's amazing lol) and a nice new Acer monitor thats HD (couldn't afford 4K and my PC couldn't run it anyways). So now, I'd like to build a new PC, however, I can't afford that just yet. So I've been reading up on ways to upgrade my current computer, and it seems like the best upgrade would be investing in a Solid State Drive. The thing is, I'm not sure where to start. I've been reading about how you can't use just any SSD on your PC, something about PCIE lanes or something? Now, I have a 4 year old PC, and I'm not even sure how I would go about finding out which SSD I would need. I read on an article about something saying this.

" If your machine is an older computer with an IDE or parallel ATA drive interface, the speed benefit you'd realize from investing in an SSD isn't big enough to justify the expense. To find out what interface you have--assuming that you're not up for digging around in your system's Device Manager menus and that you don't have your computer specs handy--grab Crystal Dew World's CrystalDiskInfo download and open it up; if CrystalDiskInfo says that the interface is serial ATA, you're good to go."

The link the article is broken. So obviously, I don't want to buy a SSD that I can't use. How can I find out what kind of SSD I need? And do you guys have any particular brands that you can recommend to me? Thanks in advance!! =)

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 2:12 pm

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1574094-the-community-tech-thread-no-153/ thread should be able to answer your question. A good start would be to give us a dxdiag so we know what hardware we're dealing with. To do that just press your windows key and type "dxdiag" without the quotation marks, run the utility and save the information, then paste it as a reply here.

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 10:40 am

You need to have, at least SATA II (3 Gbit/sec) ports to bother with SSD drives. SATA III (6Gbit/sec) required to take full advantage of SSDs (SATA based). I recommend drives from Samsung or Intel, but many other manufacturers are decent like Corsair, Sandisk, KIngston, etc...

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 12:34 am

Time of this report: 2/7/2016, 13:13:47

Machine name: DANNY-PC

Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 10586) (10586.th2_release.160104-1513)

Language: English (Regional Setting: English)

System Manufacturer: System manufacturer

System Model: System Product Name

BIOS: BIOS Date: 09/09/10 10:32:17 Ver: 03.05

Processor: AMD Phenom™ II X4 965 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.4GHz

Memory: 16384MB RAM

Available OS Memory: 16384MB RAM

Page File: 6787MB used, 25980MB available

Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS

DirectX Version: 11.2

DX Setup Parameters: Not found

User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)

System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)

DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled

Miracast: Not Available

Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported

DxDiag Version: 10.00.10586.0000 64bit Unicode

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 5:34 am

That isn't the entire report...

Do you know the motherboard's make and model (e.g. MSI Z170A Gaming M7)?

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 3:45 am

Most obviously your mobo uses Sata II ports, as your Bios is dated from 2010.

If that's the case, you can use an SSD. If you are short of money just buy an affordable one, with decent space.

There is no need for an expensive 6Gbit/sec SSD, except you wanna upgrade your RIG in the future.

Even so, an SSD will be faster than a HDD drive, let alone the access times. (near 0ms vs ~14ms on a fast HDD)

Of course there is the reliability and stability factor of an SSD drive. Samsung makes very good SSD drives.

-------

Conclusion: Either way, (if you buy an Sata II or Sata III SSD), a typical user probably will not notice any difference in real world performance!

Worth to read some reviews before you buy your first SSD drive. Recommended!

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 7:11 am

I have a 500gb Samsung Evo 850 and I would recommend it. My computer starts in about 30 seconds, maybe less.

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 5:35 am

I've also been tossing up the idea of upgrading to SSD for my boot drive, only thing that's got me holding back is it's an Alienware Aurora R4 and it has some weird boot partition setup, and the thought of re-installing all my programs leaves me feeling cold.

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 1:11 am

30 seconds... really. A SSD should allow the computer to start in 5 seconds or so (after initialization). Granted, if you don't have Windows 10 and a fully UEFI compliant system (CPU, Motherboard, O/S, and GPU), you cannot enable fast boot.

***

SATA II limits bandwidth to ~300MB/s (minus overhead) so you won't max out SSDs (SATA based) which can get more than 550MB/s read, 520MB/s write.

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 3:24 am

Fast boot is enabled. 5 seconds is nonsense though. Maybe 10 seconds to the login screen, another 5 to the desktop and 10 or so to get Steam updater finished and everything done and happy.

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 5:21 am

I said 5 seconds after initialization *to the login screen*. You cannot completely control initialization because it is dependent on the motherboard and how many devices are present. It shouldn't be 30 seconds, as that's a normal boot time for a standard HDD.

Also if it takes 5 seconds between the login screen to the desktop, then something is messed up. Obviously, not counting time to enter a password manually.

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 12:15 am

OK. for what's worth.

I measured the time from the initial POST procedure, until i get to my desktop. (I haven't any password)

It took 08 sec. Very good for an old Samsung 840 SSD. (not EVO)

------

Note: I have an Sata II interface.

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 7:52 am

Maybe not 5 seconds. It takes a second or two for the auto login on Windows 10 to sign me in. I don't bother wi the pin, turned that feature off.

From pressing the power button to being in Steam and selecting a game to play is abut 30 seconds. Maybe 20 I haven't timed it. Actually give me a minute I will go downstairs and time it myself. It might even be more than that! But it's been that speed from the moment I bought the PC.

Edit:

Okay so I timed it. It took about 10 seconds from pressing the power button to getting to the PC Specialist logo. The logo was there for about 10 seconds, then it took a further 2 seconds to display a picture of a little window. That picture was there for about 10 seconds when it then went to the login screen. The automatic password input lasted about 2 seconds, if that, when the desktop then appeared. It then took another 20 seconds for the Steam installer updated verification thing to finish and for Steam to appear in my task bar. All in all it took exactly 1 minute from pressing my power button to being in Steam. So maybe the SSD I have isn't the best... I dunno. It may have been quicker when I first bought it 1 year ago. It's still faster than any standard HDD I've ever owned. Samsung magician does a speed test and it blows my WD Caviar Black out of the water. But if there is a way of speeding it up please enlighten me, I will be very very grateful!

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 12:08 am

I went ssd last year and can never imagine going back. From pressing the power button to login takes 7 seconds and then 3 to 6 seconds to desktop. It's my boot drive and I have a few games on it like skyrim and gta5. Will be removing gta though to add FO4 when I get it.

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 8:01 am

Nonsense. I have no password login and I am straight to google chrome opening instantly 9 seconds after pushing my power button. 6 seconds to desktop everything done. 120gb evo

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 5:20 am

Yeah there's definitely something up with your SSD. My best friend bought me a 500gb SSD for my birthday(he's flipping awesome), and after he installed it and set everything up for me, the boot time from a complete shutdown to reaching the main screen with all programs loaded is approximately 9 seconds(yes I've timed it). It's also made a huge difference in load time for games, for example, Path of Exile used to take 3-5 minutes to load to the log-in screen(it was such a monumental wait that I'd have to alt-tab out while waiting for it to load so I wouldn't get bored), and now it's about 4 seconds flat.

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 3:26 am

I bit the bullet a few weeks back and replaced my drive with a 1TB 850 EVO, wasn't all that much hassle after all. One thing but it has thrown my morning routine out where I would start the computer then go make a cup of coffee and return before the system had finished booting up.

» Sat Mar 05, 2016 4:52 am

It sounds to me like he installed the solid-state drive, and didn't transfer his OS to it. Because what he's explaining is a HDD start up, not solid-state. You do realize that you actually have to transfer your operating system right?