SSD for Arma 2

[papoose244 10]

Hi guys

I want to get a SSD for arma 2 to get it to load faster Im torn between these two models which one would you guys recomend maybe someone has experience with these models intel x25-m G2 160gb or the kingston v+ 128gb toshiba controller 230read 180write version.

[qwertz 10]

Hi guys

I want to get a SSD for arma 2 to get it to load faster Im torn between these two models which one would you guys recomend maybe someone has experience with these models intel x25-m G2 160gb or the kingston v+ 128gb toshiba controller 230read 180write version.

Go with the x25. For 90% of real life applications (incl. loading games), sustained write bandwidth is irrelevant. The most important is random read, followed by random write, both with rather small file sizes. The Intel G2 rocks in this regard.

For around $400, you can also buy two G2 80GB and do a RAID0, that doubles the sustained speed and also has a positive effect on IPOS.

[papoose244 10]

thank you qwertz if i get 2 G2 80GB and do RAID0 will I still get trim?and is putting two ssd in raid gonna be much faster then a single ssd at loading games?

Edited April 12, 2010 by papoose244

[Leon86 13]

Or you can get 4 40 GB ssd's in raid0 for 4x the performance :D

If you want to use the trim command (it deletes unused data so writespeed stays high) you can't use raid I believe.

The price of ssd's is dominated by the price of the flash memory so the price/GB of every drive is more or less the same. Intel only makes ssd's with very good performance in almost all situations, it's not worth having a slightly cheaper drive that doesn't have the iops of the intel's.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Leon86

[qwertz 10]

It depends - Intel has announced that they will release a storage driver that enables TRIM on raided drives soon (for Intel chipsets, that is). For normal use, the Intel drives have shown to be very stable performance wise even without TRIM, just using the firmwares automatic garbage collection. And yes, 2xG2 Raid0 will be noticeable faster.

[AnimalMother92 10]

I have the Intel X-25M G2 160gb and I love it

[Serg.k 10]

I have the Inel X25-V 40Gb - less expensive but gives notisible performance boost in comparison with mechanical drive. Win 7 64 + Arma 2 on SSD, all other stuff went on old drive.

[Alex72 1]

Im going with 1x SSD for windows and 4xHDD's in raid0 for ARMA2 and other progs. The cost, space and performance seems to be great compared to SSD. If your rich though - go for SSD's all over. :)

[Tankbuster 1746]

Go with the x25.

This = true

[MavericK96 0]

I just ordered an X25-M 80 GB and am getting it Tuesday! :D

I didn't get it JUST for ArmA2, though...

Wait...Yeah, I pretty much did. :cool:

[AnimalMother92 10]

It's so worth it, trust me. Your computer will feel brand new and have "teh snappeh" :bounce3:

[evilfury 0]

We want some test when u get it. Im tempted to get one to. :D

[W0lle 1051]

I second that. Please let us know about the performance boost you have. Have a X25 on my list as well.

[Dead3yez 0]

Meh. I bought a cheaper SSD. OCZ 30gb Agility series. Around £100.

Better lods, everything is in pretty mode. Faster loading times, smoother transitions, little bit more FPS. Nothing more to say. Worth it - sure, if you love playing ArmA2. :)

[thebarricade 7]

I agree, an ssd is totally worth it for the "flow" it brings to ArmA2!

[bangtail 0]

Meh. I bought a cheaper SSD. OCZ 30gb Agility series. Around £100.

Better lods, everything is in pretty mode. Faster loading times, smoother transitions, little bit more FPS. Nothing more to say. Worth it - sure, if you love playing ArmA2. :)

They don't affect FPS. The only possible exception I can see here is that your old HDD was several years old and/or extremely fragmented. I think alot of people find there is a huge difference because they are coming from slow HDDs. I don't find SSDs do anything for gaming beyond slightly faster loading times vs RAID0.

I'm not trying to 'rain on anyone's parade', but even on Crucial's C300 drives (which are the fastest SSDs around) games play the same as they do on HDDs.

Edited April 18, 2010 by BangTail

[RogueBlade 0]

They don't affect FPS. The only possible exception I can see here is that your old HDD was several years old and/or extremely fragmented. I think alot of people find there is a huge difference because they are coming from slow HDDs. I don't find SSDs do anything for gaming beyond slightly faster loading times vs RAID0.

I'm not trying to 'rain on anyone's parade', but even on Crucial's C300 drives (which are the fastest SSDs around) games play the same as they do on HDDs.

I thought the whole point it to have textures and objects load faster when when your running around or flying you don't see textures on the walls of buildings popping up long after you've looked in their direction

[bangtail 0]

I thought the whole point it to have textures and objects load faster when when your running around or flying you don't see textures on the walls of buildings popping up long after you've looked in their direction

I've never seen a difference between SSDs and fast HDDs in A2 when it comes to texture loading etc and I've done a lot of tests.

I often hear people claiming this 'night and day' difference and it's a myth unless you are coming from very slow hardware.

SSDs are definitely better in certain aspects of computing but just not in gaming. I know several people who ran off and bought multiple SSDs thinking it would speed up their FPS (despite the fact I repeatedly told them that the only thing they would speed up is loading times) and they weren't particularly happy when they got them hooked up and realised that nothing had changed.

If all I did was game, I would never have bought SSDs. Hundreds of dollars for slightly faster level loads is something I wouldn't be able to justify but to each their own at the end of the day :)

[Dead3yez 0]

They don't affect FPS. The only possible exception I can see here is that your old HDD was several years old and/or extremely fragmented. I think alot of people find there is a huge difference because they are coming from slow HDDs. I don't find SSDs do anything for gaming beyond slightly faster loading times vs RAID0.

Well, I think you're wrong here. With an SSD you get smoother LOD changes which can significantly reduce stuttering when compared to a normal HDD.

[bangtail 0]

Well, I think you're wrong here. With an SSD you get smoother LOD changes which can significantly reduce stuttering when compared to a normal HDD.

Nope.

Quite simply untrue against fast HDDs. I've tested this pretty thouroughly. Against Green HDDs or slower/older HDDs, I'd agree with you but not against performance HDDs. If you came from a slow/old HDD, obviously you are going to notice a difference but if I gave you 2 x 2 TB WD 'Black' RAID0 in place of your old drive, you'd notice a difference there as well (Talking specifically about ArmA 2 here).

I'd love it if SSDs were the 'night and day' difference some people who buy them insist on claiming they are, especially given the cost associated with them. Sadly, where gaming is concerned, SSDs are only really a consideration if you don't have anything else that needs upgrading.

Edited April 18, 2010 by BangTail

[Punisher5555 0]

If you just change the engine over to 64bit this would all be a moot point. RAM is always light years faster than HD/SSD.

Specs for this is game with a 64bit engine should be minimum 6GB RAM, blah-blah HD space, blah-blah CPU, ... Then this whole game would smoke.

[bangtail 0]

If you just change the engine over to 64bit this would all be a moot point. RAM is always light years faster than HD/SSD.

Specs for this is game with a 64bit engine should be minimum 6GB RAM, blah-blah HD space, blah-blah CPU, ... Then this whole game would smoke.

/QFT

That is why a RAMdrive will provide a significant performance advantage over HDDs/SSDs.

[Alex72 1]

Went with your words bangtail as you know and ordered a small SSD (intel X25) for the OS wich i think is the modern way to go, and ontop of that i go RAID0 for ARMA2/games/progs. And to top it off i get 12GB ram so ramdrive will be used for the special moments.

I think that will be good as the space/cash/speed with raid0 seems smarter than bigger expensive SSD's for gaming. Unless you got overload of cash ofcourse. In that case it doesnt matter. :)

[bangtail 0]

Went with your words bangtail as you know and ordered a small SSD (intel X25) for the OS wich i think is the modern way to go, and ontop of that i go RAID0 for ARMA2/games/progs. And to top it off i get 12GB ram so ramdrive will be used for the special moments.

I think that will be good as the space/cash/speed with raid0 seems smarter than bigger expensive SSD's for gaming. Unless you got overload of cash ofcourse. In that case it doesnt matter. :)

SSDs are indispensible as OS drives. In that respect, they really do help :)

Edited April 19, 2010 by BangTail

[InFireBaptize 0]

SSDs are indispensible as OS drives. In that respect, they really do help :)

we don't have to buy every single new technology that they throw at us. I think SSD are over price/rated. I use two SATA2 drives in RAID0 and they give me great boost and another separate SATA2 just for OS. I would rather have more memory and use RAM DISK to load game/application files from RAM.