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Fun Stuff => CLIKC => Topic started by: Bluesummers on 28 Oct 2012, 20:29

Title: Solid State Drives
Post by: Bluesummers on 28 Oct 2012, 20:29
My parents, adorable xenophobes that they are, have commissioned me to build them a new desktop computer. Nothing fancy, they won't be playing Modern Warfare on it...probably nothing more complicated than Solitaire or Angry Birds, and browsing the web.

As such, I've perused NewEgg and TigerDirect for DIY kits, and I've come to the conclusion that I should use a solid state drive for storage, instead of a traditional hard disk. Reasoning: they're faster, more durable, and made of awesome.

I noticed that the Samsung 830 Series (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147163) was a bit pricier than some other brands, but had faster sustained read/write times. Am I looking in the right direction, or does someone know of a different brand to go with, or a different design path altogether?
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: Omega Entity on 29 Oct 2012, 00:23
Did you mean technophobes? Or are they just afraid of talking to the people int he computer department of the store?

Dunno much about SSDs, myself.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: Pilchard123 on 29 Oct 2012, 01:15
Don't (cheap) SSDs break down after a number of writes? Expensive one probably do too, but the number is  bigger, I should imagine.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: LTK on 29 Oct 2012, 02:11
SSDs have a limited lifespan like almost any electronic device, but for the average user these limitations are too far to be of concern. I think that the last test I read about indicated that the performance of a modern mid-range SSD started to drop after writing and rewriting the equivalent of ten thousand hours of movies. That's way beyond the life expectancy of a mid-range hard drive, where you can never get away from the fact that they have a lot of moving parts.

If you want to buy an SSD, you should remember that even the cheapest, tiniest SSD has maybe a five-fold performance increase over the hard drive that you already have. Restarting Windows is done faster than you can have a bathroom break, unzipping files doesn't even take a second, and you never have to wait more than three seconds for a program to start.

I bought a 60 GB OCZ Onyx SSD for myself to start with, which was one of the cheapest I could find. I think it's about 1.5 years old now, and I used it for Steam and all of my other games now. There's no noticable performance decrease. When I was running Windows off it, the limited space was really annoying, and I had to pull out every trick in the book to keep from filling it up completely. Now I've got a 120 GB Intel SSD for Windows, and combined with the other 60 GB I don't have to worry so much about limited space any more. The Intel one is supposed to have better performance than the OCZ, but I haven't really noticed any difference.

I'd say there's no reason to buy a high-end SSD if you're not so fanatic that you'll be keeping an eye on its read-write speed at all times, so Intel would be a good choice if you don't want to buy some cheap brand. Also, you always need a traditional hard drive to go with it. Always. Gigabytes are a dime a dozen these days, so get a 1TB hard drive and you won't have to worry about storage space limitations. Tell your parents to install programs on the SSD and save large files on the hard drive. You'll want to keep the SSD as lean as possible.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: Bluesummers on 29 Oct 2012, 12:10
Did you mean technophobes? Or are they just afraid of talking to the people int he computer department of the store?

Whoops...I meant "neophyte", a beginner, unexperienced...a noob, I think.

I'd say there's no reason to buy a high-end SSD if you're not so fanatic that you'll be keeping an eye on its read-write speed at all times, so Intel would be a good choice if you don't want to buy some cheap brand. Also, you always need a traditional hard drive to go with it. Always. Gigabytes are a dime a dozen these days, so get a 1TB hard drive and you won't have to worry about storage space limitations. Tell your parents to install programs on the SSD and save large files on the hard drive. You'll want to keep the SSD as lean as possible.

Sounds reasonable. Yeah, I would proly want something higher-end, but for folks who really don't do much with a computer to begin with, A standard run-of-the-mill SSD sounds good. I think it's weird though, Intel is priced higher than Samsung on Newegg's catalog.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: LTK on 29 Oct 2012, 12:36
That's entirely possible, I don't exactly know much about which brands are cheaper than others. I'd go with whichever gives you the most gigs per dollar.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: ackblom12 on 30 Oct 2012, 01:40
I love SSDs, but I have a hard time justifying spending upwards of $.80 per gig.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: Bluesummers on 30 Oct 2012, 01:48
Ooh! Newegg is have a sale (http://promotions.newegg.com/Samsung/12-3558/index.html) on SSD's, complete with Norton Ghost to move everything over smoothly. I'd say $80 for 128GB, complete with upgrade kit, is more than worth it.

Unit price: 62.5¢ per gig.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: ackblom12 on 30 Oct 2012, 01:51
Oh, well then... Maybe I can scrounge something up.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: Bluesummers on 30 Oct 2012, 02:14
Same here. I have three upgradable laptops to choose from, I can't decide which two to leave in the dust.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: ackblom12 on 30 Oct 2012, 02:25
I'm somewhat amused that they're charging an extra $20 for the "desktop" version which only adds a tray to the mix.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: Bluesummers on 31 Oct 2012, 22:02
Lol yeah...It must be a very valuable single piece of stamped metal. Very valuable indeed.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: LTK on 01 Nov 2012, 13:26
Look what just showed up! (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/11/01/hard-choices-ssd-update-samsungs-double-whammy/) Maybe you'll want to go for that Samsung SSD after all, if it gives you such a high capacity.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: Bluesummers on 01 Nov 2012, 14:04
It does look nice...and offers 100,000 IOPS read capability, but the 830 series offers a similar 80,000 IOPS read, and newegg just put it on sale for $90. Compared to the price of the 840, I think I'll snag the cheaper of the two.

EDIT: Dammit...Newegg makin' me cry, they sold out quick.
Title: Re: Solid State Drives
Post by: soren121 on 01 Nov 2012, 14:25
In my opinion, DIY kits are not always the best way to go. Choosing the parts separately gives you more control over price vs performance. If you need some more help, check out /r/buildapc (http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc) on Reddit.

And if you want a parts list to start off with, here's a decent one for $600, including KB, mouse, monitor, and Windows.

PCPartPicker part list (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mavZ) / Price breakdown by merchant (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mavZ/by_merchant/) / Benchmarks (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mavZ/benchmarks/)

CPU:  Intel Pentium G860 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80623g860)  ($68.99 @ Mac Mall)
Motherboard:  ASRock B75M-DGS Micro ATX  LGA1155 Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-b75mdgs)  ($61.97 @ Newegg)
Memory:  Mushkin Essentials 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/mushkin-memory-996586)  ($20.99 @ Newegg)
Storage:  Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7pc128bww)  ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Case:  Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/fractal-design-case-fdcacore1000bl)  ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply:  Rosewill Capstone 450W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/rosewill-power-supply-capstone450m)  ($60.00 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive:  Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-optical-drive-sh222bbbebe)  ($17.99 @ CompUSA)
Monitor:  Acer S220HQLAbd 21.5" Monitor (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/acer-monitor-etws0hpa01)  ($133.99 @ B&H)
Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/microsoft-os-gfc02050)  ($91.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard:  Microsoft Desktop 400 Wired Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/microsoft-keyboard-5mh00001)  ($15.99 @ Dell Small Business)
Total: $591.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)