SSD vs 7200 HD for running games

[Katlan]

Been wondering this for a while. I use an SSD for my C drive but keep it exclusive to the OS, and house everything else on a 7200 RPM (16M Cache) 1TB HD (partitioned in 1/2). What would be the benefit of installing an MMO on the SSD over the HD? I know its faster, but would it make a big enough difference to be worthwhile? Thanks!

[Jefe]

Worthwhile as in giving you and advantage? I mean SSD's have better performance but when you introduce servers, lag, and so on, eh.

[CoronA1979]

With something like XI where you are extremely dependant on the server connection, an SSD will not benefit you that much in the game.

When I had WoW on this PC I had it on the SSD and the main noticeable features where it booted the game up damn near instant and when logging in, near instant. Other than that I was still stuck waiting on the game server to load everything else.

On Call of Duty, my maps would load in mere seconds while doing Co-Op with someone I would have to wait 15-25 seconds or so for the other person's map to load up while my loading bar sat @ 100%.

Basically.... Anything on your side will move fast as hell - Anything not on your side, will not. I just left XI on my 2x 500gb 7200rpm RAID0

[Katlan]

Yeah, just wondering if ppl would recommend it given the cons of how often the SSD will be written over. Does it offer any other benefit then just loading stuff into RAM faster?

Thanks Coron, that's basically was what I assumed. Not sure if thats worth the con's of deteriorating the SSD drive over time even faster... even w/ the self healing function

[CoronA1979]

You know... I don't use my SSD for that much which is kinda stupid considering I paid like $379 for a 120gb drive many months ago. My OS and only a few other things are on it. I think it still has around 80gb free.

Anyways... Every so often I throw a 4gb file or so onto the drive and then delete it which is supposed to cause the drive to activate a TRIM command. I test the drive with a benchmark program every couple of weeks and after 4 months or so my drive is just as fast as when I bought it and in some cases 4-5k faster, lol. Maybe it's cause I don't have that much stuff on it, I don't know.

[Katlan]

mine doesnt support TRIM, ur supposed to cold boot the comp and let it idle for over an hr, at w/point it starts to "self heal" and delete unused space. And yeah, my SSD has 95 gigs free lol.

I have a Benchmark tool but never used it before. lol

[Deadgye]

With something like XI where you are extremely dependant on the server connection, an SSD will not benefit you that much in the game.

Loading characters and mobs was client side.. so yeah.

[CoronA1979]

Loading characters and mobs was client side.. so yeah.

Then it's hard to notice a difference for whatever variable reason there may be between the machine and SE's servers.

[Deadgye]

Then it's hard to notice a difference for whatever variable reason there may be between the machine and SE's servers.

Eh? Correct me if I'm wrong, but a ssd should make everybody load in whitegate much, much faster. Same thing for any situation where you're loading a lot of characters/mobs/animations at once.

[Kaisha]

Eh? Correct me if I'm wrong, but a ssd should make everybody load in whitegate much, much faster. Same thing for any situation where you're loading a lot of characters/mobs/animations at once.

I don't know if it's me, but I always found FFXI on PC to load models in at a fixed rate, unlike the PS2 release which crunched the hard-drive to get everything on display as fast as possible.

[Katlan]

So mobs and PCs r client side? Always figured server side, if client side then a SSD would make a noticeable difference, no?

[Deadgye]

Mobs and equipment are stored on your computer, they're the .dat files and the main reason ffxi takes up so much space. To have them load from the server would be silly. The server sends a message to your client to load 'this stuffs', and then your computer searchers for the files and loads them.

I don't know if it's me, but I always found FFXI on PC to load models in at a fixed rate, unlike the PS2 release which crunched the hard-drive to get everything on display as fast as possible.

I wouldn't know from experience ~.~ I always ran ffxi with minimum in-game settings.. including character models displayed lol.

[Weeks]

Slight improvement once you're in the game. I remember camping King Arthro after upgrading my computer and the difference was a solid second more I had to delay to stand any chance of claiming.

Booting the system and loading the games and other programs is where the SSD really shows up though.

[levish]

Most of the improvements come in the form of higher min FPS / less stutter and lag and won't do anything if much for your AVG FPS.

If that is worthwhile for you to invest in a SSD, then go ahead.

*side note* the Kingston V+ series (not the plain V series) is fairly cheap that I would buy one and install OS/Games on it. You are looking at ~$160 for 64GB and ~$320 for the 128GB model.

Of course if your Video Card / Processor / RAM was in any way lacking I'd upgrade those instead.

[SaviorSelf]

Edit: Nevermind.