SSD Install

[pickinthebanjo]

Has anyone tried installing SH3/GWX on an SSD drive yet? Apparently they are a lot faster drives, so I picked up an Intel X25-M and I am going to give it a try when my RAM gets here. I imagine it will shave some time off loading the game.

[K-61]

I'm very interested in your experiment. I just got a new gaming notebook with twin 7200 RPM SATA drives, but not RAID. I use the secondary drive as a live image disk using Acronis True Image Home 2010. It checks system changes every five minutes and backs up to a non-stop disk image. A very handy application and one that has saved my bacon more than once over the years that I have been using it.

I'd love to splurge on a SSD drive, but I need to do more research into their reliability, durability and any ancillary issues. Please, keep us posted.

[pickinthebanjo]

I expect the RAM I ordered to come in around a week, so I should have some viable results soon enough. Yeah I have no idea about the reliability of SSD's but I feel it's worth a try. I was also thinking those SATA III HDD's may be faster as well at 6Gb/s

[K-61]

Are SATA 3's on the market now? I had no idea a new standard had been introduced. Although it is a pain to keep up, I love the march of progress in the PC industry. Our new systems now have more RAM than previous systems had hard drive space. And the prices usually go down. Wish the same could be said about cars, the other love of my life.

[Herr-Berbunch]

I've been looking at the SSDNow! range, but still very expensive for such a small amount of storage. I'm interested in how you get one so do keep us informed

[pickinthebanjo]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

I've been looking at the SSDNow! range, but still very expensive for such a small amount of storage. I'm interested in how you get one so do keep us informed

yeah no problem. And yeah they aren't cheap, I payed around $200 +tax/shipping, and that one had $70 off. (only an 80Gb)

-http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820167018

Here is the next one I had my Eye on - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820148362

I like that one because it is also SATA III, as well as 160Gb. Made by Crucial so it can't be too bad.

[pickinthebanjo]

Originally Posted by K-61

Are SATA 3's on the market now? I had no idea a new standard had been introduced. Although it is a pain to keep up, I love the march of progress in the PC industry. Our new systems now have more RAM than previous systems had hard drive space. And the prices usually go down. Wish the same could be said about cars, the other love of my life.

Heres the SATA III WD HDD - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16822136533

Yeah it is a pain trying to keep up with new computers, I had to buy an entire new I7 build, but it should be worth it with 6 cores, 12 threads and hyperthreading. The days of horrible frame rates during convoy attacks should be over.

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by pickinthebanjo

Heres the SATA III WD HDD - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16822136533

Yeah it is a pain trying to keep up with new computers, I had to buy an entire new I7 build, but it should be worth it with 6 cores, 12 threads and hyperthreading. The days of horrible frame rates during convoy attacks should be over.

SH3 isn't written to take advantage of multithreading though, one core or 8 cores the game won't care and run the same speed. Assume though that you're using 7 or Vista? which the OS is built to take advantage of multiple cores. The SSD drive should be massive in the increase, when my desktop was working (fried motherboard, haven't been able to replace yet) and put SH on a 10k drive (WD Raptor) there was a noticeable increase in game performance, less slow down and freezes. Later on when I added a new video card the game ran without any glitches (though never tried running it with SHC at 8000x speed), you should have a pretty pimp rig once you get all the parts installed.

If you're using the same mobo, would be interesting to put on parts one by one and test the increase starting with the SSD. See what kind of boost each one gives until you start getting diminishing returns.

[pickinthebanjo]

I just completed the test.

First off, I installed Windows 7 Ultimate on a clean 80Gb Intel X-25m SSD.
After that I did a driver install/update, then installed SH3/GWX3 clean, with nothing else on the SSD.

It took exactly 39.52 seconds to load a new career, Amazing

I will upload a video using fraps for the non believers

It may be a biased test considering the system specs, (see sig)

[Jimbuna]

That is very impressive

Yesterday my new system arrived (2x500GB SATA2) and already it's looking old

[Arctic wolf]

Very interesting. Although given your machine configuration I doubt anything would have a hard time loading/running. Good job . Well, now I know its possible to run SH3 through a SSD. Useful information.

[BulSoldier]

Is that the latest nvidia gpu ? If so i envy you !!!! On the topic, 40sec is amaizing considering i have to wait for sever minutes.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by BulSoldier

Is that the latest nvidia gpu ?

Looks like two of 'em to me, I am so jealous

[K-61]

Banjo, that's great news! It gives me the courage to consider doing the same, once I can snaffle the money from the family budget. After getting both a new car and a new notebook, I think I've worn out my karma for the current year.

[pickinthebanjo]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

That is very impressive

Yesterday my new system arrived (2x500GB SATA2) and already it's looking old

At least you got some space though, I only own the 80GB ssd so I am sitting around 40 free Gb with just windows, drivers, 3dmark vantage, and SH3/GWX. So it looks like i'd better order a SATA III HDD and test how those are