When do SSD drives become not fast enough?

[imaheadcase]

Ok here is my dilemma...i would like to get a SSD drive, but i don't "need" one. My brother said I might as well get one, because the fastest SSD now you won't notice any real world difference in games/apps between this generation or the next.

So what i'm wondering is should i take the plunge now, or is there truly going to be something faster, say within a year, that really is worth the wait?

For my limited understanding, the only real "upgrade" for SSD is lifespan and size capacity down the line, and speed noticeably is not really there.

 

[Zap]

*SHRUG*

Stuff is getting faster all the time. You can buy a Sandy Bridge Core i7 2600K, and in a year or two Ivy Bridge will be out. You can get a GeForce GTX 580 graphics card, and in a couple months the dual GPU monster will be out. Heck, I was buying 2TB HDDs recently to replace several of my 1TB and 1.5TB drives and now 3TB drives are out.

It never ends.

You have to jump in at some time, otherwise you end up playing the waiting game forever and end up never getting it.

My recommendation is to choose one of these -
1) Buy when you need it.
2) Buy when the new one comes out.
3) Buy when one goes on a hot deal.

They are all valid choices. Just find the choice that fits your needs.

BTW, with SSDs I'd be a bit concerned about being the first one on the block with a new one. The track record hasn't been that great for initial releases. Hardware has usually been solid enough, but they often need firmware updates early on.

 

[imaheadcase]

Yah i realize stuff gets faster over time. That was not my question..

I'm under the impression with SSD, you won't see noticeable difference between now and a year from now. Not like video cards/CPU when one generation beats another my a considerable amount.

 

[deimos3428]

SSDs are plenty fast now. I'm not sure the newer SSDs will make a noticeable difference to those that already have a fast one, though. It's an incremental thing.

 

[Golgatha]

I will be quite happy with my SSD for the foreseeable future. I'll probably want a capacity upgrade before I want a speed upgrade.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I'm under the impression with SSD, you won't see noticeable difference between now and a year from now. Not like video cards/CPU when one generation beats another my a considerable amount.

Let me put it this way: if I wanted a GPU right now, I wouldn't wait until Southern Islands comes out later this year, even though it will probably give me a performance boost.

As for whether there is a performance difference, it obviously depends on your usage model. But as far as I can tell, at the moment, I don't think there's much difference between SSDs in terms of real usage. Personally, I can only tell the difference between a Caviar Blue and a Vertex 2 some of the time. The difference is not mind-boggling IMO. It's very nice, but not huge.

 

[jjmIII]

I'm under the impression with SSD, you won't see noticeable difference between now and a year from now. Not like video cards/CPU when one generation beats another my a considerable amount.

SSD Random access time, About 0.1 ms.
Spindle drives are ummmm....12-20 ms.

We are not going to see that kind of access difference for a verrry looooong time.

0.1 vs 20 is where the SSD shines.

 

[Concillian]

Yah i realize stuff gets faster over time. That was not my question..

I'm under the impression with SSD, you won't see noticeable difference between now and a year from now. Not like video cards/CPU when one generation beats another my a considerable amount.

You WILL see gains like video cards / CPU where one generation beats another by a considerable amount.

However, what you see going from spindle drive to SSD is like video cards / CPU comparing one from 10 years ago to one today.

Latency reduction is orders of magnitude different. You'll still see evolutionary improvements in throughput, but a 30% gain or whatever for next gen is not going to be nearly as noticeable as the 1000-2000% gain going from spindle to solid state.

Cost is the primary hurdle. If you're cool with the price tag, then there is no reason to wait.

 

[postmortemIA]

Yah i realize stuff gets faster over time. That was not my question..

I'm under the impression with SSD, you won't see noticeable difference between now and a year from now. Not like video cards/CPU when one generation beats another my a considerable amount.

then buy it now, you market it well - it will be fast almost forever...

 

[imaheadcase]

SSD Random access time, About 0.1 ms.
Spindle drives are ummmm....12-20 ms.

We are not going to see that kind of access difference for a verrry looooong time.

0.1 vs 20 is where the SSD shines.

I wasn't asking between spindle vs SSD..i know that difference.

 

[Carmen813]

I was highly skeptical about this SSD fad until a friend sent me an X-25 G1 for free. It bugged out and I had to RMA it, but I received a G2 back in the mail. I installed it last week and this is easily the single biggest upgrade I have put in my PC in the past 5 years. It's amazing being able to boot into Windows and instantly launch apps. It just feels so..."smooth." It's like the feeling you get when playing a game at 30 FPS and upgrading your video card results in 60+ FPS...it's like night and day.

I wouldn't worry about speed. It won't matter (like going from 100 FPS to 200 )

 

[martixy]

I was highly skeptical about this SSD fad until a friend sent me an X-25 G1 for free. It bugged out and I had to RMA it, but I received a G2 back in the mail. I installed it last week and this is easily the single biggest upgrade I have put in my PC in the past 5 years. It's amazing being able to boot into Windows and instantly launch apps. It just feels so..."smooth." It's like the feeling you get when playing a game at 30 FPS and upgrading your video card results in 60+ FPS...it's like night and day.

I wouldn't worry about speed. It won't matter (like going from 100 FPS to 200 )

See... the cake's not a lie

I think the only important metric for desktop use will likely not improve to any significant degree(small random reads) so, you're good buying one now and waiting till silicon is obsolete before you see an improvement that radical in storage again.

 

[lehtv]

It's amazing being able to boot into Windows and instantly launch apps. It just feels so..."smooth." It's like the feeling you get when playing a game at 30 FPS and upgrading your video card results in 60+ FPS...it's like night and day.

Along with pure file transfer rates, this is the biggest noticeable change when going SSD. I imagine future SSD's will be capable of starting even more processing/graphics intensive operating systems in much less time than current SSD's. Imagine 5 seconds from power on to desktop, and into a game in another 2 seconds. Current SSD's aren't anywhere near the theoretical peak in terms of loading/transfer times, but you will notice a significant difference over any conventional HDD.

To make up your mind about getting one, I'd say the price development of SSD's is a much more important consideration than their performance development. If you're happy with the price now, go for it, but expect the prices to continue going down at the rapid rate we've seen for the past couple of years.

 

[Hooptymobile]

This is just my opinion. Upgrading from HDD to SSD was a noticeable difference but in theory, upgrading from an older version of the exact item to a newer one doesn't tend to account for a noticeable change.

So when I buy something; totally new product (New CPU; Sandy Bridge (new chipset type 1155) or Windows7 (after the release of Vista) or going from LCD to LED monitor I generally get a heightened sense of improvement in technological advancement. I was an early adopter for Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit; OEM 84.00 , SSD Kingston 64GB V100 Series Now 144.00 , and the Core I7 2600k 2nd gen 279.99 and ASUS Blu-ray internal player OEM 36.00. On all of the purchases listed they were relatively inexpensive at release.

Early adopters can benefit on low prices because of lack of demand (lower cost) if its new technology and its not hyped up too much prior to release.

But if theres high demand for product you will surely see a hike in cost from companies. Just a rule of supply and demand. This may not account for all products but as for pc hardware I've made this observation recently.

 

[corkyg]

Basic answer to basic question is, when something faster comes along.

 

[taltamir]

Ok here is my dilemma...i would like to get a SSD drive, but i don't "need" one. My brother said I might as well get one, because the fastest SSD now you won't notice any real world difference in games/apps between this generation or the next.

So what i'm wondering is should i take the plunge now, or is there truly going to be something faster, say within a year, that really is worth the wait?

For my limited understanding, the only real "upgrade" for SSD is lifespan and size capacity down the line, and speed noticeably is not really there.

eh... need? we need food, we need water, we need shelter.
An SSD is ~2x the sequential read/write speeds of fastest Spindle HDD... and more than 100x the random read/write speeds. Random writes are not the only important metrics, but they are the biggest bottleneck in spindle HDD, and show the biggest improvement in SSDs.
So, would you benefit from one? I would say probably yes.

Now, how fast would they get? well, in the next month the next generation of SSDs will arrive, and early reviews show it to be more than 2x faster on every count than current SSDs... and be cheaper.
Regardless of what kind of SSD you are going to buy, I would wait a month for it.

 

[Makaveli]

I think you major concern now if you are looking at the longevity of the SSD is if its SATA II or SATA III compatible.

If you want to try and future proof the ssd look at a SATA III one even if you current board doesn't support it.

Other than that everyone else is correct.

And I believe the OP is not comparing SSD vs HD that is a moot point.

 

[imaheadcase]

Price and longevity are not a concern for me.

I will wait a couple month I guess and see the next gen ones reviews and buy accordingly.

 

[Edrick]

Price and longevity are not a concern for me.

I will wait a couple month I guess and see the next gen ones reviews and buy accordingly.

If price and longevity are not a concern, then why not buy now and then upgrade in a few months IF you feel the need at that time.

 

[imaheadcase]

If price and longevity are not a concern, then why not buy now and then upgrade in a few months IF you feel the need at that time.

Read OP

 

[taltamir]

Read OP

I don't get it... price is not an issue, and nothing in the op explains why you would wait instead of buying and then upgrading.

Will there be something faster? yes.
Can you enjoy a massive increase over your HDD today? yes.

 

[Blain]

When do SSD drives become not fast enough?

They're already too slow! But what can you do...

 

[sticks435]

Here is my plan for a P-35/Q9550 system with SATA 3Gb/s. I am going to wait a month and see what the next gen is like. The C400 and G-3 Intel's are supposed to be faster and cheaper, since they are on 22/25nm. If this is true, then I will pick one up and wait out the CPU wars and buy one when the winner is declared. This way I benefit from the speed increase over HHD, while still getting even more performace when I upgrade to SATA 6Gp/s.

 

[Soulkeeper]

Here is my plan for a P-35/Q9550 system with SATA 3Gb/s. I am going to wait a month and see what the next gen is like. The C400 and G-3 Intel's are supposed to be faster and cheaper, since they are on 22/25nm. If this is true, then I will pick one up and wait out the CPU wars and buy one when the winner is declared. This way I benefit from the speed increase over HHD, while still getting even more performace when I upgrade to SATA 6Gp/s.

I'm doing the exact same thing