Crucial C300 64gb $100 shipped WARM

Not 20GB. That's because of hard redirects in the windows folders. Though after a few updates, the windows side by side folder will grow to about 6 or so GB. Total? about 15GB.

But some games, like SC2? 8GB for the base install, then after the required updates? About...11 GB. Downloaded maps will also add to the size.
 
Thanks guys. Does installing games on an SSD only improve load times? If that's all the noticeable improvement I guess I could just use this for the OS and install games on a backup hard drive, Think that'd be best?
 
OS + Office apps is where is really shines. Like Excel.... Peachtree (silly POS software by Sage).
 
holy shit those writes are terrible. I could see this for a laptop/netbook/htpc/basic use machine, but not for a main gaming rig/server/vm host machine. you can get better writes with a mechanical drive... a mediocre one, at that.
 
sabregen said:
holy shit those writes are terrible. I could see this for a laptop/netbook/htpc/basic use machine, but not for a main gaming rig/server/vm host machine. you can get better writes with a mechanical drive... a mediocre one, at that.
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Dunno, it will always be *this* much better than the fastest HDD. 4K random IOPS is where SSD shine, and HDD's suffer, along with seek latency...

Well, that and I have no 2.5" HDD left for my new mITX build :p So all this fits perfectly :D
 
sabregen said:
holy shit those writes are terrible. I could see this for a laptop/netbook/htpc/basic use machine, but not for a main gaming rig/server/vm host machine. you can get better writes with a mechanical drive... a mediocre one, at that.
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What games are you going to be more concerned with writes than reads? Serious question.
 
Katalysis said:
What games are you going to be more concerned with writes than reads? Serious question.
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I was going to make a point about how some people like the fast writes for large file transfers (home network, etc)...but then I realized it's pretty difficult to make an argument based on slow write speeds when the drive's entire 64gb capacity can be written in just under 15 minutes at 70 mb/s.
 
Crispy002 said:
I was going to make a point about how some people like the fast writes for large file transfers (home network, etc)...but then I realized it's pretty difficult to make an argument based on slow write speeds when the drive's entire 64gb capacity can be written in just under 15 minutes at 70 mb/s.
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lol :eek: come to think of it... I have a gigabit network, but my wing's local node is FE.... I need to upgrade it, too :D
 
Katalysis said:
What games are you going to be more concerned with writes than reads? Serious question.
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when I think of my main gaming rig, it's the most used PC in the house. it (in my personal usages) needs to be able to do everything that any of the other machines in the house can do, and it needs to be able to do them faster. not that I am doing any specific thing on it that it would need the substantially faster writes, but that's my preference to have it.

i think of my main gaming rig as the lamborghini of my rigs. i may have other rigs, but this is the fastest bitch I drive.
 
sabregen said:
when I think of my main gaming rig, it's the most used PC in the house. it (in my personal usages) needs to be able to do everything that any of the other machines in the house can do, and it needs to be able to do them faster. not that I am doing any specific thing on it that it would need the substantially faster writes, but that's my preference to have it.

i think of my main gaming rig as the lamborghini of my rigs. i may have other rigs, but this is the fastest bitch I drive.
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So you don't have an answer. :p
 
Sandforce SSD's get around 100mb/s new and gradually drop to 60-80mb/s over the course of a month from my own experience.

Sandforce drives that claim 270mb/s writes are basing that off of ATTO write speeds. If you based the C300 off of ATTO then you'd see it gets over 215mb/s...

Crucial's RealSSD advertises the real speeds you'd see; not the speeds you'd see from a single benchmark.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
So you don't have an answer. :p
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Good call. There's no game I can think of that's doing writes over reads (ratio of one over the other). I just think of my primary rig as the machine that needs to be able to do it all in case something happens to any of my other ones... someone's gonna have to take one for the team.
 
sabregen said:
Good call. There's no game I can think of that's doing writes over reads (ratio of one over the other). I just think of my primary rig as the machine that needs to be able to do it all in case something happens to any of my other ones... someone's gonna have to take one for the team.
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Like I said earlier, I have never owned an SSD before. I tried to keep up with the difference between the chipsets, but I didn't fully research it, so I wasn't sure if the slow writes were going to be that big a downside compared to mechanical.

I'm still not sure how to set this thing up when it gets here. I guess put the OS, Office and other frequently used programs, and then whatever games I want to play that will fit? My steam folder would eat that space, so I guess that is going on one of the other HDDs.
 
Highly recommend this one. Best SSD I have had, OCZ agility and vertex 2 has nothing on this for a system drive.

Wish I got the 128GB version instead though, twice the sequential write.
 
Yeah, Micron likely only used half the open channels on their controller, like Intel does for their X25v-40 "value" parts :p
 
Chowder Head said:
I've been waiting for a deal on a larger SSD drive but I'm thinking about buying this. Just had some questions for anyone who's willing to help me out.

Realistically, once you put Win 7 and disable hibernation mode (heard that feature really eats up space), how much usable GB's are left? If I keep my music, videos, other media on my storage drives, approx how many games could I install? I haven't really been a big PC gamer in the past but with the new 2500K and everything else I have waiting to be installed, I will certainly make an attempt. I'd of course like to install the games on the SSD but I don't know how many gigs new games take up these days.

Lastly, the C400. Does anyone know how much of an advantage these drives will have over the C300's? And pricing hasn't been released yet....right?

Thanks!
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jeremyshaw said:
Not 20GB. That's because of hard redirects in the windows folders. Though after a few updates, the windows side by side folder will grow to about 6 or so GB. Total? about 15GB.

But some games, like SC2? 8GB for the base install, then after the required updates? About...11 GB. Downloaded maps will also add to the size.
Click to expand...

it depends on which version of windows 7 ur talking about, for my SSD company image i was able to slim it down to 11GB with just drivers and all windows updates loaded (nvidia 266 drivers eat a big chunk)
 
What I don't understand is when people say to use a drive like this for OS + Program Files... 64GB!? Not happening. Is it OK to have Program Files stored on an external drive? And if so, is there really any point to upgrading to have a faster calculator and notepad??
 
Picked up one of these when I built my new SB system. Installed Windows 7 Home Premium, MSE, Windows Updates, STEAM (BC2) and I have approx. 25GB left on the drive to work with. The map load times in BC2 are crazy fast and boot times and system response are definitely much better than my old Raptor X. In hindsight, I think I should have opted for something larger than 64GB...but at $99 this is a pretty good deal. Paid $125 for mine I believe...
 
YamahaAlex37 said:
What I don't understand is when people say to use a drive like this for OS + Program Files... 64GB!? Not happening. Is it OK to have Program Files stored on an external drive? And if so, is there really any point to upgrading to have a faster calculator and notepad??
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Lol. At least put your web browser on the SSD. A super upgraded calc, like Excel also loads much faster on a SSD :p
 
jeremyshaw said:
Lol. At least put your web browser on the SSD. A super upgraded calc, like Excel also loads much faster on a SSD :p
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Yes, and this should be enough for office and maybe some other stuff, but my Program Files is over 300GB, and I heard you shouldn't move Program Files away from the OS drive... so what is the usual workaround?
 
I mounted a second drive inside a folder.

So I have a 96gb ssd as my c drive, but my steam folder is contained on a 36gb ssd which is mounted inside program files.

Works like a charm.
 
jebo_4jc said:
I mounted a second drive inside a folder.

So I have a 96gb ssd as my c drive, but my steam folder is contained on a 36gb ssd which is mounted inside program files.

Works like a charm.
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So I can just mount my terabyte into Program Files?
 
YamahaAlex37 said:
So I can just mount my terabyte into Program Files?
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hmm. that might get a little tricky because once you install Windows, Program Files will already exist on your SSD. Not to mention, you would lose a lot of the benefit of an SSD by moving your entire Program Files folder off the SSD.

It would be better if you could mount individual folders inside Program Files to your 1TB drive.

What apps do you have that take up so much space?
 
jebo_4jc said:
hmm. that might get a little tricky because once you install Windows, Program Files will already exist on your SSD. Not to mention, you would lose a lot of the benefit of an SSD by moving your entire Program Files folder off the SSD.

It would be better if you could mount individual folders inside Program Files to your 1TB drive.

What apps do you have that take up so much space?
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Steam = 150GB, and I guess the other 150GB is just spread throughout, probably mostly games, maybe Photoshop, Flash, Premiere Pro, 3dsMax, Maya, etc.

How does that work mounting individual folders on another hard drive? Do I need a separate partition for each folder?
 
YamahaAlex37 said:
Steam = 150GB, and I guess the other 150GB is just spread throughout, probably mostly games, maybe Photoshop, Flash, Premiere Pro, 3dsMax, Maya, etc.

How does that work mounting individual folders on another hard drive? Do I need a separate partition for each folder?
Click to expand...

You can move the folders to your second drive then drop symbolic links to them on your first drive. The OS will think the folders never moved.


With Link Shell extension it is literally as easy as moving the folder, right clicking on it and selecting "Pick Link Source". Then go back to where the folder used to be, right click and select "Drop as Symbolic Link"

http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html
 
Chrisk said:
You can move the folders to your second drive then drop symbolic links to them on your first drive. The OS will think the folders never moved.


With Link Shell extension it is literally as easy as moving the folder, right clicking on it and selecting "Pick Link Source". Then go back to where the folder used to be, right click and select "Drop as Symbolic Link"

http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html
Click to expand...

Really it's that simple :eek: WIth this information I may just look at getting the cheapest 32GB SSD I can... tight budget :/ Either 32GB Nova for $75 or the Intel X25-V 40GB for $85
 
YamahaAlex37 said:
Really it's that simple :eek: WIth this information I may just look at getting the cheapest 32GB SSD I can... tight budget :/ Either 32GB Nova for $75 or the Intel X25-V 40GB for $85
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You'll want more than 32GB for sure. At least 64GB min.
 
I dont think buying a 32gb SSD is worth it if basically 100% of your apps will have to be installed on a HDD.

Sure windows will boot a bit faster but all your apps will still have to load off the HDD.

I suggest saving your pennies for a bigger drive down the road. Prices are coming down. It wasn't that long ago that 32GB drives for $100 was a hot deal.
 
You can also change an applications install directory as well as steams install directory for games. That's what I do. Everything goes to my RAID0 2x640GB WD AALS drives instead of my 2x40GB Kignston V SSDs.

However some of my core apps, photoshop that really benefit from the speed, I install on the SSDs
 
soulesschild said:
You'll want more than 32GB for sure. At least 64GB min.
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32GB should be enough if it's only for the OS...

What do you guys think about this for $60 (with coupon):

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...ch-32GB-Value-SSD-SATA2-Solid-State-Drive-MLC

Newegg has an almost identical one with 5 stars, except there is an X in place of the L in the model number:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609392

jebo_4jc said:
I dont think buying a 32gb SSD is worth it if basically 100% of your apps will have to be installed on a HDD.

Sure windows will boot a bit faster but all your apps will still have to load off the HDD.

I suggest saving your pennies for a bigger drive down the road. Prices are coming down. It wasn't that long ago that 32GB drives for $100 was a hot deal.
Click to expand...

Whether my drive is 64 or 32GB, it's still going to be strictly for OS and not for apps, I have too many widely used apps to be picky and choosy about what goes on and what doesn't... I just tried opening Excel, it was literally instant, therefore I don't even see a need to put Office on the SSD. Photoshop, 5 seconds exactly, that's really fast enough.
 
Last edited:
32GB should be enough if it's only for the OS...
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You could get by with that but you always need to take into account that.....

1.) Generally the smaller the drive, the slower the speed
2.) The more extra space you have on the drive the more you will increase it's longevity and speed.

Any SSD will be superior to mechanical drives but their speed/durability decreases with less than optimal conditions. ;)
 
Anybody have a link to a good SSD FAQ or something? I feel like this is the first time I OC'd all over again and I am afraid I will do something to break shit.

From what was posted above, I can somehow have my programs folder in the windows directory, but only install certain ones I want to the SSD and leave the rest linked to a different mechanical? For example, WoW is a notoriously slow loader for me now. I would want that on the SSD. Something else that loads fast, I can just put on my HDD, and link the files. What about something like Steam games? Is there a way to put just some on the SSD?
 
YamahaAlex37 said:
Yes, and this should be enough for office and maybe some other stuff, but my Program Files is over 300GB, and I heard you shouldn't move Program Files away from the OS drive... so what is the usual workaround?
Click to expand...

Why the hell is your Program folders folder so big? Do you just let everything install to the default location?
 
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