Anything (Outside Steam) I should avoid putting on my SSD

[zokudu]

Just wondering if there was anything major I should avoid putting onto my new SSD. I know to not put Steam on it but what about other games. Namely World of Warcraft. Do games even see a substantial boost in performance from an SSD?

 

[taltamir]

You can put steam there.
People are complaining they cannot fit ALL of their steam games, installed, on the SSD at the same time. But you don't have to install all of them at the same time.

Also you can use one of the programs to relocate steam games.

Games see a substantial increase in level load times and texture pop reduction.
They do not see any difference in FPS.

 

[Charlie98]

You can put steam there.
People are complaining they cannot fit ALL of their steam games, installed, on the SSD at the same time. But you don't have to install all of them at the same time.

Also you can use one of the programs to relocate steam games.

Games see a substantial increase in level load times and texture pop reduction.
They do not see any difference in FPS.

That's one of the reasons I want to get a bigger SSD, so I can fit everything on one drive (except my big media files like iTunes and video.) I only have 2 or 3 games (Steam and others) at any given time on my computer so it doesn't take up that much space.

 

[taltamir]

Then you can go ahead and install it.
I recently upgraded my SSD from 80GB to 240GB and now I can fit all my games on it.

 

[Coup27]

Yeah I noticed that taltamir, but also noticed you're on a H55M, does that mean you're on 3Gbps or have you shelled out for a quality 6Gbps PCI Express card?

 

[F1shF4t]

Also if you don't have enough space on the SSD for the whole steam folder you can use symbolic links to run certain games from it. You can use a program to do it or do it manually. The command is mklink /D linkName target

For Example:
I'll assume your steam folder is under D:\Steam\ and the game is Skyrim.

1. Move "skyrim" folder from D:\Steam\steamapps\common\ to the ssd, lets say games folder on C drive (C:\Games\)
2. Open command prompt with admin rights
3. enter: mklink /D "D:\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim" "C:\Games\skyrim"
4. You'll see a folder shortcut appear in D:\Steam\steamapps\common\ with the name skyrim.

Steam will think the game folder is still in its directory but the game files will be on the SSD. When you want to move the game files back to original location just delete the link and move the folder back.

 

[zokudu]

I know about Steam junctions. I will install wow on my SSD but steams going on my Media drive. I have way to many steam games and if I want something on the SSD then I'll junction.

 

[taltamir]

Yeah I noticed that taltamir, but also noticed you're on a H55M, does that mean you're on 3Gbps or have you shelled out for a quality 6Gbps PCI Express card?

I upgraded my SSD less than a week ago. I am going to buy an IVB & Z77 ASAP.
Even on 3Gbps it is significantly faster then my previous SSD.

Also if you don't have enough space on the SSD for the whole steam folder you can use symbolic links to run certain games from it.

There are programs that do that for you with a GUI

I know about Steam junctions. I will install wow on my SSD but steams going on my Media drive. I have way to many steam games and if I want something on the SSD then I'll junction.

that is a fair point actually.
Install steam on another drive and then junction select games to it is a great strategy for some people. Especially if they didn't buy a 240GB SSD

 

[Charlie98]

Install steam on another drive and then junction select games to it is a great strategy for some people. Especially if they didn't buy a 240GB SSD

...or can't afford one because they just bought a 560ti/448... :awe:

Christmas will be here soon, though...

 

[taltamir]

...or can't afford one because they just bought a 560ti/448... :awe:

Christmas will be here soon, though...

Eh, I can't exactly afford it either but I prioritized my limited money. It was 350$... it was worth every penny.
I will eat more ramen.
Speaking of, you can make ramen 10x tastier and less nausia causing by throwing away the flavoring pack it comes with and instead using Osem Chicken Soup Mix (if your local stores don't carry it then order it from amazon)

 

[Topweasel]

Install steam on another drive and then junction select games to it is a great strategy for some people. Especially if they didn't buy a 240GB SSD

The Only reason I didn't do it this way was because of Valve games. By default I love them all and play a couple of them to much to force it over to regular drive. So people need to be careful about this. Valve games are a single files located into the root of the Steam apps folder. So its all or nothing for these games. Either you choose to have these on the SSD or not but unlike all of the other games you can't pick or choose.

 

[Makaveli]

Just wondering if there was anything major I should avoid putting onto my new SSD. I know to not put Steam on it but what about other games. Namely World of Warcraft. Do games even see a substantial boost in performance from an SSD?

Wow is a game I heard that does benefit greatly from an SSD.

For steam I only have some of games installed on the SSD because not all benefit.

The boost you will see is mostly level loading. So BF3 is a game that gets a nice boost during map loads. But once you load everything into memory you wouldn't be able to see the difference unless you start alt tabbing out of game and don't have alot of system memory.

 

[jhansman]

You might want to move your browser cache over to a spinner if you can. Doesn't take up a lot of space, but it can save your SSD many unnecessary writes.

 

[taltamir]

You might want to move your browser cache over to a spinner if you can. Doesn't take up a lot of space, but it can save your SSD many unnecessary writes.

I actually recommend putting the cache on the SSD.
You enjoy faster browsing, and the amount of writes you "waste" are trivial.

 

[Topweasel]

Wow is a game I heard that does benefit greatly from an SSD.

For steam I only have some of games installed on the SSD because not all benefit.

The boost you will see is mostly level loading. So BF3 is a game that gets a nice boost during map loads. But once you load everything into memory you wouldn't be able to see the difference unless you start alt tabbing out of game and don't have alot of system memory.

MMO's in general would see a benefit. They can't make everyone have 4-8-16GB of memory. So they load files on demand as you make your way through content. Honestly TOR is almost unplayable without one because each mission has voice and the models and textures for them are kicked up a notch and they are loaded at each conversation. Before I threw a SSD in my laptop, they were loading like 20-30 seconds quicker for everyone else. You do 10 missions in an area and you have basically cost your team an additional 10 minutes (Getting and turning in the quest).

 

[Makaveli]

I actually recommend putting the cache on the SSD.
You enjoy faster browsing, and the amount of writes you "waste" are trivial.

I noticed a difference in browser speed when I moved mine.

However I don't see a difference when its ssd vs ramdisc but moved it to the ramdisc anyways for less "trivial" writes on my ssd =)

 

[razel]

If it fits, there is nothing you should avoid putting on an SSD. All issues concerning wear or sites that haven't updated their knowledge are the only things that should be avoided.

 

[KingFatty]

maybe do away with things that are a waste. For example, if you never use hibernate, don't put a big multi-GB sized hibernation file on your SSD. Same with the size of your pagefile - if you have a lot of RAM, your computer may not need a huge pagefile so you can reduce its size (e.g., set the pagefile to a very small size but allow for windows to increase the pagefile if necessary - I bet windows never asks to increase it).

I think I saved around 15 GB on my SSD just with hibernation and pagefile tweaks, which seems like a noticeable amount on a 120GB SSD.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Edit: Had a fail with smileys, hence the odd spaces after drive letters

Use the [plain] tag to prevent stuff like D: from being turned into a smiley. D:

 

[F1shF4t]

Use the [plain] tag to prevent stuff like D: from being turned into a smiley. D:

Fixed up the original post. Thanks :thumbsup:

 

[taltamir]

I noticed a difference in browser speed when I moved mine.

However I don't see a difference when its ssd vs ramdisc but moved it to the ramdisc anyways for less "trivial" writes on my ssd =)

RAMDisk is even better then SSD.
Basically put it on fastest drive.

 

[BFG10K]

I never understood forking over so much money for a SSD, then being too scared to use it.

I treat mine just like a HDD. I have multiple partitions on it and I write to it as much as I need. I don’t make any special effort to lighten its workload, and I’ll have absolutely no hesitation in filling it up completely if it becomes necessary.

If an expensive SSD can’t handle being treated like a cheap HDD then the technology is fundamentally broken.

The only thing I don’t do is defrag because such a concept is meaningless for an SSD.

 

[taltamir]

I never understood forking over so much money for a SSD, then being too scared to use it.

I treat mine just like a HDD. I have multiple partitions on it and I write to it as much as I need. I don’t make any special effort to lighten its workload, and I’ll have absolutely no hesitation in filling it up completely if it becomes necessary.

If an expensive SSD can’t handle being treated like a cheap HDD then the technology is fundamentally broken.

The only thing I don’t do is defrag because such a concept is meaningless for an SSD.

Same here, and even with such treatment they are being used up at a rate that is so low that they will last decades. Long after becoming obsolete.

 

[zokudu]

Alright so I installed windows. Everything seems alright. My boot times seem really long for some reason and I just had a windows update fail when it tried to configure the update. That a major problem?

 

[exdeath]

Buy a Ferrari, keep it at 0 miles and drive a Prius?

*shrug*