PCIe SSD

[Sliceback55]

Hello,

I am currently 5-boxing on a core i5 system with 4GB RAM and a 9800GT.

Altough the game(s) run smoothly in dungeons, I often get freezes in Stormwind and any other area that is crowded with players.

I`m pretty sure this is because I run both my OS and all game clients from a single HDD (Samsung F3 7`200 RPM).

Since the only free space I have left within my PC case is a standard PCIe slot on my Gigabyte P55-UD3 mainboard I was thinking about getting a PCIe SSD:

SSD OCZ Revo-Drive 120GB - brack.ch

Would this work fine for my OS (Win7) + 5 WoW game clients?

There`s also a faster version, which also costs a bit more tough:

SSD OCZ Revo-Drive 3 120GB - brack.ch

[EaTCarbS]

Yank out the floppy disk drive and toss a 3.5" ssd in there

[Drarkan]

My suggestion would be to upgrade the Mobo to a socket 1155 and get the i7 2600k processor. I set the resolution not too high also, somewhere around 1080p and whenever in stormwind on Kil'Jaeden, a high populated server, or blackrock orgrimmar, I notice a drop in frames, but nothing below 30fps. You could keep your ram since its probably compatable, but you're looking at probably 500 bucks for the minor upgrade, which will make a huge difference. I also run on an SSD drive too, sure that helps alot. Thinking of getting a second one to run my other games on, but that will come later on.

If you don't want to ditch the system you have now, then just go the SSD route, and drop your resolution, see whats viable then go from there.

[Sliceback55]

Yank out the floppy disk drive and toss a 3.5" ssd in there

My Comp is selfmade, there never was a Floppy to begin with.

My suggestion would be to upgrade the Mobo to a socket 1155 and get the i7 2600k processor.

Seeing as my CPU normally is between 20-50% load during multiboxing and only has minor load spikes during login I have doubts that such an upgrade would bring a major improvement.

I also run on an SSD drive too, sure that helps alot.

what model exactly? And at what read/write rates? Most people told me a Raid0 with two SSDs works best, but I'd prefer if I could run 5 clients on a single SSD since I'm not familiar with Raid configurations.

[Tim]

Carbs I love your signature. Super basic but really nice.

The i7 2600K is literally a beast of a CPU, and a very affordable one. Drar is right, you definitely can't go wrong with that.

If you had that CPU and you wanted to step things up even further then I would do the PCIx SSD. I've seen some crazy good things about them, such as 800-900MB/sec on up for around $700 range.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by Sliceback55

My Comp is selfmade, there never was a Floppy to begin with.

A floppy... what is that? Just kidding. But seriously? No I'm kidding again...

[Drarkan]

I use the OCZ Vortex 3

Its not a bad one, but OCZ isn't the top of the line technology thats why its so cheap. If it was in stock, I would have gone with the intel one of the same size, and with the sale, it was the same price.



NCIX.com - Buy OCZ Vertex 3 120GB 2.5IN SATA3 6Gbps Sandforce SF-2281 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD - OCZ Technology - VTX3-25SAT3-120G - in Canada

[Tim]

Hey Drar,

What would be the best price and speed do you think for SSDs that are somewhere in the 200-400gig range? I'm pricing out a new RAID that would be comprised of just SSDs. I would need 6 of them and I don't want to spend a crapload.

So a balance of space, speed, and price. I'm thinking the speed would HAVE to be 500MB/sec. Space HAS to be 200G minimum.

Any ideas?

[Drarkan]

Well you're probably looking at putting it on a board with and LGA1156 board since you will have the i7980? or do you have the 990 now. That I will look into, but if you are running on a sata 2 as opposed to sata 3 which uses 6gbps transfer, then you will save money cause the sata 2 only uses 3gbps.

Now the board here for example has 6 SATA2 and 4 SATA3. If on a raid 0, SATA3 performs at super high speeds, but SSD drives are not recommended on raid 0 on some SATA3 ports so make sure you check with the manual to see if its compatible, so you may want to plug them into the SATA2 ports. Which is fine since this MOBO only has the 6 prots you are needing, this makes a good example.



Now looking at the different varieties, I see a Patriot SSD for 430$ comes with a MIR for 30, so you save a couple bucks, plus its a 240gig drive. It is however a SATA3 drive, which doesn't matter really cause it will only go the maximum speed that the port allows anyway.



Now this one however is 100 bucks cheaper at 299$ and that includes the instant rebate, its also a 240gig drive, but runs on SATA2 instead. So running 6 on the raid would be no problem on the SATA2 ports. This one is probably the best bet since the price is lowest, but again, I am iffy on the quality of OCZ. I have heard mixed reviews on it though, so I guess its all a matter of configuration, and how much stress you put on it. I don't know if the stripe size will matter on how long the drive will last before kicking the bucket, like the faster 32kb or the more moderate 16kb.

The sata3 version of this drive is 60 bucks more, but its unnecessary since you will not be needing that amount of speed.



Other than that, I'm finding that INTEL has drives that are 300gig, but cost in the 600$ range, which is nice to have that much storage, and the guarantee that it will be more stable on you, the price is still high.

I would probably go with the OCZ since its the cheaper way to go, and probably something I should have gone with around now instead of a month and a half ago when I paid 269$ for a 120gig...

[Tim]

Hey Drar,

It won't go into any motherboard that you'd typically know of. It does, however, have to be SATA3, that definitely will be a requirement.

I really do like the Patriot drives. I have a Patriot Torqx 128G SSD which was, at the time, the fastest SSD on the market, something like 280MB/s or so.

So yea, that drive you linked seems pretty good. Is 400 spendy though for a drive? I'd probably have to pick up 5 of them + a couple spares just in case.

I would be putting them into a QNAP RAID system:



So all 5 would be going into here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822107068 in a RAID6 configuration.

I really love the QNAP systems, I have one of their super high end 8 drive raid systems and it smokes. I get almost 1000MB/sec across 12TB drives in RAID6.

I'm pricing a 5 drive RAID6 SSD system for another project. With the QNAP and its dual 1000MB/sec NIC teaming, I should be able to sustain 2000MB/sec with some pretty insane IOPS.

EDIT: I have one of these now and I love it:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16881380020

It has 8x 1.5TB drives in it, and I'm thinking of migrating it to 8x 3TB drives, but am considering waiting for Seagate to push out the 4.5TB drives that are in development. Yes, I know somebody at Seagate, those things will be monsters! Assuming qnap releases support for 4.5tb. If not I'll just do 8x3TB