Running Arma2 from SSD

[Baff1 0]

Explain?

I just noticed your sig, for the record, you can buy an external GFX card to upgrade your laptop with if you wish to use it play ArmA.

[Tankbuster 1733]

I just noticed your sig, for the record, you can buy an external GFX card to upgrade your laptop with if you wish to use it play ArmA.

A laptop external GPU to play ArmA? You think that would represent value for money? You think it would work well?

[Baff1 0]

Always a good idea to ask Tom, in my opinion.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Graphics-Upgrade-Solution-ATI-External,news-33562.html

Reviews in PC Format were favourable.

[Tankbuster 1733]

That's hardly a review, more a rehash of the manufacturer supplied marketing spiel.

Besides, you know as well as I do, it's go to be shit for ArmA. Deep down, you do.

[lao fei mao 21]

? PCI? or PCI-E? And thats not really true. Onlytime i see any real improvement over IHC10 is with a "real" controller card in raid.And thats just benchmarks.

Or did you mean a Full SSD PCI-E card. either way they both cost more than most " good" computer systems.

Also on the 6% FPS gain... 6% of a Vsync 60hz? Or 6% of some 30fps. which is basically nothing.

---------Of course I meant PCI-E. The reading speed of a PCI-E SSD is 3 times faster than a SATA2 SSD. You may consider an OCZ 80G PCI-E SSD,about 400$.

[infiltrator_2k 29]

I'm beginning to wonder if SSD offers enough improvement over HDD to warrant the upgrade ATM.... I mean, how much faster should I expect ArmA2 to load from that of my 7200 SATAII HDD?

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Your answer is in the 1st post.

I use a Kingston 128GB SSD and i have to say that its not only how faster you boot ArmA2 and missions, its also how fast the LOD switching is. 99% of my former stuttering is gone. Its only in AI intensive fights where i get some stuttering back. For that i'd a faster cpu.

All in all an SSD is really worth it. Since you only need ArmA2 installed on it 32GB should do.

[bangtail 0]

I'm beginning to wonder if SSD offers enough improvement over HDD to warrant the upgrade ATM.... I mean, how much faster should I expect ArmA2 to load from that of my 7200 SATAII HDD?

It will load noticeably faster, and while I don't agree that 99% of LOD switching is alleviated, it is also noticeably reduced.

---------- Post added at 05:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:42 AM ----------

---------Of course I meant PCI-E. The reading speed of a PCI-E SSD is 3 times faster than a SATA2 SSD. You may consider an OCZ 80G PCI-E SSD,about 400$.

That doesn't translate very well in real world applications though.

Unless you are talking solely about large file transfers which is not a reason to spend $400.00 unless you work with large video/audio files or something else that involves moving around big chunks of data.

[sickboy 13]

120 GB OCZ Vertex-2 here, for me the best investment of 2010 :)

Operating the PC, programs, preparing releases etc all goes smoother.

I have a lot of small files and running the game with filepatching to work on the mods without having to rePBO for every change, but makes it slower to load, especially the unbinarized models.

SSD makes my life as developer a lot nicer :-)

The SSD got Windows, Pagefile, everything ArmA, and my projects, usually leaving about ~15 GB space free.

Other games I have on a velociraptor hdd, and all other data on my fileserver's hdds.

IMO it's not yet very bang-for-buck, certainly not if you need a lot of space (hence combining it with HDD for simple storage), therefore if you think you can wait; just wait a little longer until everything is cheaper and even better than it already is now.

But if you want to give yourself a nice x-mas gift, it's certainly a useful, but expensive one.

Edited December 21, 2010 by Sickboy

[bangtail 0]

Agreed

In terms of making your overall system feel more responsive, it is one of the best upgrades around.

The prices really need to come down to make them accessible to everyone. They have dropped a little bit over the last few years but they remain fairly expensive, especially where larger capacities are involved.

[flattermann 12]

Would you recommend buying a Kingston V100 SV100S2D 64GB?

http://www.kingston.com/ukroot/ssd/v100.asp

Thanks... :)

Edit: I'm gonna answer myself, the OCZ Agility 2 60GB is at the same price and a lot faster

Edited December 21, 2010 by Flattermann

[infiltrator_2k 29]

120 GB OCZ Vertex-2 here, for me the best investment of 2010 :)

Operating the PC, programs, preparing releases etc all goes smoother.

I have a lot of small files and running the game with filepatching to work on the mods without having to rePBO for every change, but makes it slower to load, especially the unbinarized models.

SSD makes my life as developer a lot nicer :-)

The SSD got Windows, Pagefile, everything ArmA, and my projects, usually leaving about ~15 GB space free.

Other games I have on a velociraptor hdd, and all other data on my fileserver's hdds.

IMO it's not yet very bang-for-buck, certainly not if you need a lot of space (hence combining it with HDD for simple storage), therefore if you think you can wait; just wait a little longer until everything is cheaper and even better than it already is now.

But if you want to give yourself a nice x-mas 'gift, it's certainly a useful, but expensive one.

Yeah thanks Sickboy :rolleyes: Thanks to you I just spent more money! I had ordered a Crucial C300 64GB, but the read speed and size made me realize how inferior it was to OCZ's Vertex 2, so I cancelled the order and ordered the Vertex instead :D (never saw the point of having SATA III if my mobo only supports SATA II thus only getting 300 MB/s read max)

[sickboy 13]

Yeah thanks Sickboy :rolleyes: Thanks to you I just spent more money! I had ordered a Crucial C300 64GB, but the read speed and size made me realize how inferior it was to OCZ's Vertex 2, so I cancelled the order and ordered the Vertex instead :D (never saw the point of having SATA III if my mobo only supports SATA II thus only getting 300 MB/s read max)

Sweet :)

I was going to add that the OCZ Agility series seems to give a neat price/performance ratio; nearly the speeds of Vertex2, but at lower cost.

However the IOPS (measured with 4 KB, aligned) are only 10.000 versus 50.000 of the Vertex :D

BTW, you also have to watch out with the sizes, under 50 GB usually have lower IOPS and read/write speeds than their bigger brothers.

[Mr. Charles 22]

Guess i have to trim my arma2 installation down before i think about a ssd:o

54,6 GB of pure win :p

[mosh 0]

Edit: I'm gonna answer myself, the OCZ Agility 2 60GB is at the same price and a lot faster

Just got one of those myself a couple weeks ago (120 GB) and it is fast. You won't be disappointed.

[Baff1 0]

I have a Vertex also.

No problems with it so far. It seemed like the best bang for the buck at the time.

[infiltrator_2k 29]

Just got one of those myself a couple weeks ago (120 GB) and it is fast. You won't be disappointed.

I'm just glad I also went for the 120 GB and nothing smaller :)

[ht-57 0]

For myself I went with two x-52 intel 80g. OS on one, game on the other and I am more than thrilled!

[flattermann 12]

Just got one of those myself a couple weeks ago (120 GB) and it is fast. You won't be disappointed.

How did you align it?

create partition primary align=1024 ?

Thanks :)

[mosh 0]

How did you align it?

create partition primary align=1024 ?

I didn't. :oh:

I guess this is something I need to look into for my next format maybe? To be honest, this is the first I have ever seen that mentioned... just briefly reading up on it shows a lot of differing opinions on the subject.

[flattermann 12]

Perhaps then it's not necessary if it's not explicitly mentioned in the manual. If your performance is good, you most certainly won't need to...

I have zero experience with that so I thought it'd be better to ask :D

Edited December 22, 2010 by Flattermann

[johncage 30]

needs a list of qualitative and quantitative differences between traditional and solid state drives.

120gb is a rip off.

[infiltrator_2k 29]

needs a list of qualitative and quantitative differences between traditional and solid state drives.

120gb is a rip off.

I'm not sure I follow you :confused: Are you saying the price for a 120GB SSD drive is a ripoff? You cannot compare a HDD to a SSD with regards to performance. A decent SSD will give you faster boot times, game load times, smoother gameplay with no having to wait for textures to load etc...

[mosh 0]

needs a list of qualitative and quantitative differences between traditional and solid state drives.

120gb is a rip off.

Yes, I read your informative and unbiased post and threw away my 2 SSDs, such ripoffs. Why did I even buy them? I had a couple 8 GB IDE ATA 100 drives sitting here I should have been using the whole time.

Thanks for setting my priorites straight... :j:

[Tankbuster 1733]

hehe @ Mosh.