I am wondering why people use ssds for boot drives. I understand that it takes a few seconds off of the boot and gets you to windows faster, but It seems kinda like a waste if that is the only perk. Im building a new computer and thinking of running a raid 0 config with two 2tb 7200 64mb drives for the OS and a majority of my gaming, and then using the ssd for more load intensive games I play (particularly mmos). I also would assume that I would get more life out of a ssd by doing this, as ssds do not have as long of a lifespan as a normal hdd. With using it as a boot drive it accesses it every single time i boot comp up. With using it for games, it seems it would access significantly less and last for longer due to lack of constant use. Id still get some boost out of my windows boot time and dont mind waiting a few extra seconds on boot and would rather have less load times when gaming. Someone please let me know why everyone is using ssds for boot drives nowadays and any problems or perks I may have missed. Thank you in advance for your time.
I personal use an ssd as a boot drive, yes it does improve boot times a lot, but not only that over all responsiveness is greatly increased. Waiting times on boot for start up programs to load, almost non existent.
You mentioned using it for games, particularly mmos, games get big and ssd's are only just breaking the 1tb capacity at £400. Also while running the game may need to read and write large amounts of data thus using similar number of read writes to an OS.
Also looking up figures (I would source but the sites are blocked here) rates of hhd breakdown and the life span of an SSD almost match up, making them live the same amount of time.
Yeah I was just planning to put a few games on it and I was more worried about hearing about an ssd having a limited number of writes before they typically fail. Do they typically last 3-5 years as a boot drive with constant windows and driver updates ect? Ive never had one and am new to the ssd thing so Im not challenging you, just trying to get a full picture for what is best for my needs. I at have a 128gb ssd that i will be using for either boot or for my few favorite games that id like to see some reduction in load times. I figured the raid 0 would give me enough boost through other games I play to keep me content. I realize that I will probably get only 4 maybe 5 big games on the ssd, but Im ok with that :-)
Boot up is just one bonus in speed, my system went fro booting in 55 seconds to 15.
Opening heavy applications like photoshop used to take 45 seconds to open and load all plugins to 10. Things like web browsers and lightweight apps open almost immediately.
Also depending on how much RAM you have in your system, you may need to use virtual RAM. Since SSDs read so much faster than a HDD, you will notice little slowdown due to this.
Here are some speed results from some tests I ran several months ago while researching SSDs for our company laptops.
All tests were performed on 2.5" drives in a 2011 MacBook Pro
500GB 5400RPM HDD 50-55MBPS Read
500GB 7200RPM HDD 70-80MB/S Read
120GB SATA II SSD 220-225MB/S Read
120GB SATA III SSD 540-550MB/S Read
you can see in the numbers how much faster the SSDs performed in my tests.
I play BF4 and have it loaded on my SSD and until I did that I was often starting the round and other players would have loaded in and already be running for the objective. now I am one of the first loaded and have even seen a timer that I need to wait for other players.
Well for the most part, reads really don't mess with SSD lifespan at all. So booting Windows doesn't really affect it all that much. Writing is what kills SSDs. The flash technology now though is good that SSDs can last for years. Often times being more relibale than mechanical drives because there are no moving parts.
Plus, if the SSD did fail you'd just have to reinstall Windows and a few programs. You wouldn't lose all your photos, music, games and documents.
Trust me an SSD is a much better option for a boot drive. Running 2TB mechanical drives in RAID 0 is also inherently dangerous. Because you are striping the data across two drives if one fails you'll lose all your data on both. Plus, doing frequent backups on 4TB of data is also a PITA.
Maybe look into a hybrid drive? Or if you have an Intel chipset, use SSD caching if your motherboard supports it.