As the title suggests, I would like to thank both Seagate and Western Digital for keeping hard disk drive prices at their presently inflated levels. I understand there was a flood in Thailand and some supplies of critical parts would be interrupted for a time. Lots of opinions and speculation floating around re: whether the flooding really caused any shortages but that's a moot point now.
I was not a big fan of SSD drives, at first. I believed that the "tried and true" mechanical drives were superior due to their "set it and forget it" ease of installation and maintenance. Trim support? Garbage collection? Tuning your system for efficient use a much smaller capacity? 17 times the price per gb (I Bought 1tb drives for as low as $50 and 60gb SSD's for the same). I thought that I could wait till the technology got a little more affordable and the drives a little easier to integrate into my system. I also understand that a lot of enthusiasts LOVE the challenge and the chance to tinker with their rigs. I like to tinker but I'm NOT a big fan of being frustrated.
My 3 gaming rigs each had a SSD for boot and a mechanical drive for data and that has served me well for the past 6 months or so. Rather than wait for drive prices to drop back to pre-flood levels to upgrade my rig(s) I decided to try an "All SSD" gaming rig. SSD prices have dropped dramatically lately and the technology such that only minor tweaks to a few windows settings are enough to ensure smooth, trouble-free operation.
My backup gaming rig now sports an OCZ Agility III 64GB boot drive and a raid 0 of an OCZ 60GB Agility II and OCZ 60GB Vertex II for data. I was stunned at the speed my rig booted and loaded games. I draw a few watts less than the mechanical drives I had in a raid and the 3 SSD's fit into a hot-swap bay in a single 5 1/4" slot. Now how cool is that?
Needless to say, I am saving for a 240GB Agility III or 256GB Plextor SSD for my main gaming rig. The mechanicals?......... they're acting as bookends on a shelf. I still need them for my server for the sheer capacity, but for my gaming rigs, goodbye mechanical!
Thanks again Seagate and WD, I owe it all to you.
I was not a big fan of SSD drives, at first. I believed that the "tried and true" mechanical drives were superior due to their "set it and forget it" ease of installation and maintenance. Trim support? Garbage collection? Tuning your system for efficient use a much smaller capacity? 17 times the price per gb (I Bought 1tb drives for as low as $50 and 60gb SSD's for the same). I thought that I could wait till the technology got a little more affordable and the drives a little easier to integrate into my system. I also understand that a lot of enthusiasts LOVE the challenge and the chance to tinker with their rigs. I like to tinker but I'm NOT a big fan of being frustrated.
My 3 gaming rigs each had a SSD for boot and a mechanical drive for data and that has served me well for the past 6 months or so. Rather than wait for drive prices to drop back to pre-flood levels to upgrade my rig(s) I decided to try an "All SSD" gaming rig. SSD prices have dropped dramatically lately and the technology such that only minor tweaks to a few windows settings are enough to ensure smooth, trouble-free operation.
My backup gaming rig now sports an OCZ Agility III 64GB boot drive and a raid 0 of an OCZ 60GB Agility II and OCZ 60GB Vertex II for data. I was stunned at the speed my rig booted and loaded games. I draw a few watts less than the mechanical drives I had in a raid and the 3 SSD's fit into a hot-swap bay in a single 5 1/4" slot. Now how cool is that?
Needless to say, I am saving for a 240GB Agility III or 256GB Plextor SSD for my main gaming rig. The mechanicals?......... they're acting as bookends on a shelf. I still need them for my server for the sheer capacity, but for my gaming rigs, goodbye mechanical!
Thanks again Seagate and WD, I owe it all to you.
Sabertooth
(16 items) |
P6T Deluxe
(16 items) |
| CPU | Motherboard | Graphics | Graphics |
|---|---|---|---|
| i7 960 4.0ghz @ 1.29v 25x161 HT on | Asus P6T Deluxe | XFX GTX260 Black Edition | XFX GTX260 Black Edition |
| RAM | Hard Drive | Hard Drive | Optical Drive |
| OCZ Gold 1600 3x2gb | OCZ Agility III 64gb SSD for OS | OCZ Agility 4 128gb SSD for Data | Samsung DVD R/W 22x |
| OS | Monitor | Keyboard | Power |
| Win 7 Ultimate | Samsung 30T | Razer Black Widow | Antec TP New 750w |
| Case | Mouse | Audio | |
| Antec 1200 | iHome Laser | Xonar DX | |
| View all | |||
|
Sabertooth
(16 items) |
P6T Deluxe
(16 items) |
| CPU | Motherboard | Graphics | Graphics |
|---|---|---|---|
| i7 960 4.0ghz @ 1.29v 25x161 HT on | Asus P6T Deluxe | XFX GTX260 Black Edition | XFX GTX260 Black Edition |
| RAM | Hard Drive | Hard Drive | Optical Drive |
| OCZ Gold 1600 3x2gb | OCZ Agility III 64gb SSD for OS | OCZ Agility 4 128gb SSD for Data | Samsung DVD R/W 22x |
| OS | Monitor | Keyboard | Power |
| Win 7 Ultimate | Samsung 30T | Razer Black Widow | Antec TP New 750w |
| Case | Mouse | Audio | |
| Antec 1200 | iHome Laser | Xonar DX | |
| View all | |||
that may be my next upgrade, before I buy a larger SSD. Then again, if Crucial M4's keep dropping in price, I might pick up one of those - my current SSD is incompatible with sleep mode, but M4's are not. 
I just wish I would have stayed consistent and used all 1tb drives. Mine are a match of 1tb, 1.5tb and 2tb. Retiring my gaming rig's mechanicals would have given me another half doz "spares" 
1tb on Steam and running out of memory with 16gb?!?! I thought my game folder was big at 180+gb. That was why I was looking at the 240-256gb SSD's, just so I could get the OS + Steam on my gaming rig.
