What makes a good SSD?

[Shadow Reaper]

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/ct250mx500ssd1?cm_mmc=Social-_-Facebook-_-LinkPost-_-mx500promo

Do you look at transfer rate? For a good gaming machine, can you use SSD to replace inadequate DDR ram, or should oyu buy the more expensive (seemingly) fast DDR?

 

[Montoya]

Aren't you a rocket surgeon or something? :smile:

Do the numbers!

SSD will never replace RAM, but helps a ton for fast boot and load times.

If you need to read/write a lot, then get the more expensive ones.

For normal use, the most basic will do just fine!

 

[BUTUZ]

What makes a good ssd? A free sabre raven!

Next question.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Does this mean one should only look for CPUs that support DDR4?

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/ddr4-ram-specs-release-date-future-computer-memory/

Who is using DDR4? Most of what I see for cheap is DDR2. Seems that must be why it is cheap.

 

[ColdDog]

Depends... do you have a m2 connector? if so check out the samsung evo series. It was mentioned to me... now that I have my new PC built I am happy I purchased it. Ill, update my other thread so people can check it out.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

so the connector for DDR4 is called m2, and one wants to verify it is running at full 3,200 Ghz?

 

[ColdDog]

DDR4 is the memory. The m2 connector is a new form factor (best way I can describe it) for many of the more recent mother boards that can substitute SSD with higher performance... it also costs a little more

 

[Talonsbane]

@Shadow Reaper you can find low cost PC build guides on YouTube that should hopefully fit within your budget. This being said, if you are wanting to play SC with it, you should compare the parts listed with those of the recommended requirements from CIG. Their minimum requirements will work, but you'll enjoy the experience far less than is recommended.

 

[FZD]

Does this mean one should only look for CPUs that support DDR4?

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/ddr4-ram-specs-release-date-future-computer-memory/

Who is using DDR4? Most of what I see for cheap is DDR2. Seems that must be why it is cheap.

Well, yes. Unless you have to upgrade your toaster, DDR2 has very little use. It's slow, and has inadequate capacity. Not to mention that to use DDR2, you'd need equally ancient CPU and MoBo.

Anyhow, DDR4 is good and all currently, but unless you're in a rush, DDR5 is coming out in late 2019 or 2020.
PCIe ver 5.0 has similar timetable.
So I'm pushing off my rig upgrade till 2020 or so, going for the latest and greatest with a big splurge.

As for storage, I generally have HDD for storing videos / smaller games / large quantities of stuff.
SSD with some 500Mbps read/write for larger games (games with install size at least twice the size of my ram) that have well designed asset loading systems.
And for large games which have suboptimal asset loading, the fastest storage I can get my hands on.

 

[marcsand2]

Who is using DDR4?

I do. Why? Because it was on the MOBO of my 2nd prebuild PC since 1996. It also was the weakest part, because prebuild I only had 8GB, so that was the first upgrade. Luckily for me 2 years ago when prices of RAM still were normal.

 

[FZD]

I do. Why? Because it was on the MOBO of my 2nd prebuild PC since 1996.

Your 2nd prebuild PC has had DDR4 on the MOBO since 1996? O_O

 

[Talonsbane]

Your 2nd prebuild PC has had DDR4 on the MOBO since 1996? O_O

It seems that @marcsand2 is really good at building PCs that last a long time. Congrats to him for that.

 

[marcsand2]

Your 2nd prebuild PC has had DDR4 on the MOBO since 1996? O_O

LOL, you turn my words around, but yes, my second prebuild PC has DDR4

It seems that @marcsand2 is really good at building PCs that last a long time. Congrats to him for that.

My last self build PC before the 2nd prebuild lasted for 8 years. Then came SC

 

[WaterShield]

In general get an SSD for anything you want to load fast (Operating system, Games, etc..) and a standard hard drive for other storage. As far as recommendations go you can't go wrong with a Samsung SSD. That said the Intel Optane SSD's are crazy fast o.o (I'm in love with mine... only slightly influenced by the Sabre Raven that came with it XD) Also if you are using a system that takes DDR2 you'll most likely be better off updating the Motherboard, CPU, and RAM (most likely to DDR4 RAM) because the older parts would either not work with a new SSD or bottleneck its performance significantly.

To more directly answer your question I look at load speeds over write speeds (because I'm mostly loading games not compiling software) as well as a reputation for durability / longevity. You'll get pretty good performance from just about any SSD on the market but I've noticed bottom of the barrel priced ones burning out quicker than you would expect at times. In general though expect an SSD to outlast a hard drive by a significant margin. So absolutely get one when you can.

Sorry this turned into a bit of a ramble. Let me know if this was helpful, or if you have further questions I may be able to help with.

 

[Fin_Corso]

A Samsung 850 evo SSD is just great. I have that and 16g of DDR4 ram. System runs beautifully and starts up and runs SC fast and smooth.
Well, as smooth as the servers allow, lol.

 

[Printimus]

READ/WRITE ALL THE THINGS!

 

[ThunderKraken]

Overall I've heard fortnite is a quality game over pubg

 

[Horatus]

I usually look got the SSD with the highest read/write ops.

 

[Vindictive69]

Any SSD is pretty much better than any hard drive. SSD's also multitask way better than a hard drive, youll notice when you go to load several things at once and windows still responds good.
SSD's can be bought in a couple form factors... the M2 form factor is best if you have a M/B that supports it, otherwise get one that plugs in just like a regular hard drive.

 

[Phantomoftruth]

@Shadow Reaper I have SC loaded on an SSD running SATA 3 across USB 3.1 to my laptop. the laptop is currently using 16GB ddr3 RAM and a 2.4 GHz i7. The limits i'm hitting are due to RAM and Processor, still my load time for SC is within 6 second. I only see slideshows when going to the Daymar death zone.