Which ssd to use for os and games?

[Wijkert]

Hi guys, I have recently bought a 120gb agility 3. My c300 64gb wasn’t large enough to have both win7 and my games on it. After doing some research the agility 3 appeared to be the best choice, because it had the most bang for my bug (1,092 euro/gb). I currently use both ssd’s in my system. Win7, program files and most played games are on the agility 3. The rest of my games are on the c300. I had some time to run pcmark07 benches today and these are the most important results:

Agility 3
System storage score: 4661
starting applications: 37.11 MB/s
gaming: 15.91 MB/s

C300
Secondary storage score: 4970
starting applications: 56.37 MB/s
gaming: 16.95 MB/s

Based on these results the best choice would be to install win7 on the c300 and also use it for the most played games and put the rest on the agility 3. Would you guys agree with me? If yes, would cloning the os be an option?

[Gilly]

Hi guys, I have recently bought a 120gb agility 3. My c300 64gb wasn’t large enough to have both win7 and my games on it. After doing some research the agility 3 appeared to be the best choice, because it had the most bang for my bug (1,092 euro/gb). I currently use both ssd’s in my system. Win7, program files and most played games are on the agility 3. The rest of my games are on the c300. I had some time to run pcmark07 benches today and these are the most important results:

Agility 3
System storage score: 4661
starting applications: 37.11 MB/s
gaming: 15.91 MB/s

C300
Secondary storage score: 4970
starting applications: 56.37 MB/s
gaming: 16.95 MB/s

Based on these results the best choice would be to install win7 on the c300 and also use it for the most played games and put the rest on the agility 3. Would you guys agree with me? If yes, would cloning the os be an option?

I doubt you would notice any difference for games on either SSD, both are a large step up over any mechanical drive. Just checking that you are using the Intel 6gbps ports, not the Marvel ones, if your board has those.

I would put W7 and any well used applications (not games) on the C300, then games on the Agility.

And I don't quite know what you mean with clone the OS drive? You mean clone your current OS drive to the C300? If so, it will work, but better with fresh install IMO.

[Tanuki]

There are some SSD utilities you can use to switch games back and forth from the SSD. The one for Steam games works for non-Steam games as well.

[Wijkert]

I doubt you would notice any difference for games on either SSD, both are a large step up over any mechanical drive. Just checking that you are using the Intel 6gbps ports, not the Marvel ones, if your board has those.
And I don't quite know what you mean with clone the OS drive? You mean clone your current OS drive to the C300? If so, it will work, but better with fresh install IMO.

Yup, are using the Intel 6gbps ports. Also tested the Marvel ones today and the difference is roughly 100 points less on the storage score, which is less of a difference then I expected.

There are some SSD utilities you can use to switch games back and forth from the SSD. The one for Steam games works for non-Steam games as well.

Indeed, I am using the Steam Mover program and I can recommend it to anyone! One of the most useful programs I started using lest year.

I am planning on doing some level loading for Battlefield 3 tomorrow. Will let you guys know if the difference between both ssd’s is noticeable.

[Gilly]

I don't think you will notice much difference actually. Games will load faster off a faster SSD, but there is a lot more going on than just reading the game files off the HDD/ SSD. The difference between SSD and HDD is noticeable, and though the difference between one SSD and another will be measurable, I doubt you could feel the difference, in the absence of a stopwatch.

[Wijkert]

So I tested the loading times of Strike at Karkand (BF3):

Agility 3: 20-21 seconds
C300: 20-21 seconds

It doesn't seem to matter on which ssd the games are running. Based on the benchies I posted earlier, maybe windows/application startup does matter, but can't be sure at this time.

Plan: Put my most played games on C300 anyway (easy with steam mover) an leave all other data on the agility 3. I tend to reinstall windows every 4-5 months, so when that time comes I will use the C300 as a boot drive and put all my game on the agility 3.

Thanks for the help guys. I appreciate it to be able to discuss these things.

[Exmortis]

I am interested in how this worked for you? Little late to the thread but I have extensive SSD experience on AMD and Intel both desktop and moble.

All 4 of my systems run SSDs as main or only drive. My desktop not runs a Revo 3 drive, I have OCZ Vertex 2 in my ASUS G73 and OCZ Agility 1 in my MSI GT735 and a Samsung SSD in my Iconia W500/

End of day, even a first gen SSD is leaps and bounds ahead of any HD, even my velocirapter cant hold a candle to the my now venerable Agility 1.

My end of day recomendation for those on budgets, go large gen1, you can pick them up now for dirt prices and it is the single biggest performance upgrade you can make bar none.

How ever not all chipsets are equal, and Intel 55 series mobile frankly suck, cant even match the performance with newer SSD then my AMD Tablet or older AMD laptop.

I woudl very much love to hear your experience with the C300.

[Wijkert]

I woudl very much love to hear your experience with the C300.

Well both the C300 and the Agility 3 perform in roughly the same way. While the Agility is lot faster when data can be compressed, the C300 performance a little better when that is not the case. Its basically an earlier version of the m4 and those are good ssd's as well. I liked the price I paid for it a year ago. I believe it was around 90 euro's for the 64Gb model. After that the prices went back up again.

[Exmortis]

Awesome sauce. It is always a hard choice, sandforce or not. Depends on what its for.

Though I wouldnt drop my Revo3, I sure would have been aweful tempted with OCZ's new hybrid 1TB drive.

[Exmortis]

well funny about this post. With Gamefly's accuisition of Direct to Drive and I am not fondm of their new site or installer or anything really, Steam is now my pruchase of choice for games.

BUt because steam with out hacks, does not allow you to choose install locations I was in a bind, my mains system boots from a Revo3 240GB. So I noticed OCZ vertex3 240 on sale locally, so went and picked up one of those bad boys and it is now my Steam Game drive. I went sandforce as game files are highly compressable, meaning I get full speed.

[Wijkert]

BUt because steam with out hacks, does not allow you to choose install locations I was in a bind

Have you ever used steam mover? Because that program rocks. It uses the junction points which are already build into windows.

[Exmortis]

Yes I have seen it. What it comes down to though, is currently I only had Skyrim, which was borked due to bad mod anyway, so reinstal on new drive was not a big deal. Now I have 240GB dedicated to Steam.