SSD for FC2.0/DCS

[*Rage*]

I picked up a 30gb OCZ the other day($129 on newegg dot com w/30MIR). I wanted to put BS on it and ARMA 2. Loading times are faster however did not make any other improvements. I've never had a micro-stuttering issue in BS (that I can tell).

 

What did make an improvement, albeit small(1 fps) was going from a AMD 720BE three core o/c to 3.4ghz to a AMD 965BE 3.4 quadcore.

 

Now the interesting part is when I run the 965 o/c at 4.0ghz. There is a 4-5 increase in FPS, which I suspected.

 

I picked up a 5870 as well, not specifically for BS, but that made zero difference, which I suspected.

 

Going back to the ssd drive, I did quite a bit of research and if you go over to the OCZ forums, there seems to be a lot of maintenance required to keep these ssd drives up to speed. Using TRIM, GC(garbage collection) and firmware updates, which wipes all your data off the drive. I'm sure in time they will get better and the prices will come down.

 

If you're pure geek and like fiddling with hardware you'll find nirvana for sure.

 

As I always like to say YMMV. This is just my personal experience.

 

Thanks...some useful information;)

 

What was your previous card and what resolution monitor sized do you run at?

[*Rage*]

I did have an X25 SSD for about a month until the thing died on me. Even the installation gave me fits. I will probably hold off a year or two before getting another to let the tech mature and the costs come down.

 

While loading times were certainly improved, simulation runtime was not much different. I did not suffer any stutters before or after the SSD.

 

Thanks. Will give SSD a miss for now;)

[Kuky]

I did have an X25 SSD for about a month until the thing died on me. Even the installation gave me fits. I will probably hold off a year or two before getting another to let the tech mature and the costs come down.

 

While loading times were certainly improved, simulation runtime was not much different. I did not suffer any stutters before or after the SSD.

 

wow, it died on you? :huh: what a bummer :noexpression:, hope you got your money back

[mrbinkels]

Thanks...some useful information;)

 

What was your previous card and what resolution monitor sized do you run at?

 

I had/have a 4870X2 sitting in my closet that I was using. I run 1920x1200 res

[Total]

In my recording studio, circumstance had me running my project files (50+ tracks of 24b/96KHz audio) from the same drive my OS was on. There was a point where the system had all it could take and the audio engine would drop unless I turned up the lateny (non-desired).

 

I was finally able to put my project files back onto a seperate drive. No dropouts and back down to 128 max on the latency (that's with 12 audio channels in and 12 channels out with a stereo monitor).

 

When you keep your OS and your files (ie games in this case) on seperate drives, then you are going to have less of a problem.

 

In the case of my studio computer, it's an AMD 4200+ dual core with only 2GB of DDR2-667 memory.

 

In the case of my gaming rig, having ArmA2, FC, BS, etc running from my slave drive has a positive impact.

[MackTheKnight]

Running 2 OCZ Agility 120 GB SSD's in RAID0 here and loving it...

 

Main difference is load times. All my games launch and load levels much much faster than my old mechanical hard drive ever did. Some games, like Dragon Age for instance that used to take forever to load between maps, now take only a second or two.

 

When launching games, it's as if I've just maximized them from a minimized state.

 

I still use one 500 GB Mechanical drive for data, music, etc but all my apps are on the SSD's.

 

Not for the faint of heart cost wise, yet.... Hopefully prices will continue to decline.

 

-Mack

[Pilotasso]

Of course, using SSD will almost always imply the use of a larger mech drive for data. :)