Are SSDs really worth it at today's prices?

[MicrosoftCertTechnician]

Is it that hard to wait an extra minute to copy a file or load a game?

[EarthboundHero]

3 minutes ago, MicrosoftCertTechnician said:

Is it that hard to wait an extra minute to copy a file or load a game?

They make everything faster. It's not just a matter of waiting, it's being able to more things in a given amount of time.

[Techicolors]

yes, it is worth the investment. just get a 250gb drive, make it a boot drive with some games and programs, and you don't have to waste time waiting for windows to boot up or a program to start up. 

[thetechygamer15]

For certain smaller files, no.

For larger files, YAS!

It just makes the whole computer snappier and more responsive.

[2FA]

Flash memory is at an all time low so I don't where the "today's prices" is coming from. SSDs help with the responsiveness of the OS as well. Hell they can make old hardware seem very fast when it comes to normal use.

[Damocles]

Well if you play FPS shooters and notice a lag spike, that's when a texture file or other file needs to be loaded before it can continue. That's the difference between you dying or the enemy dying when you turned that corner. You also load into games faster, windows feels more responsive, and using your computer feels like new. It's also more energy efficient, lighter and shock resistant, which for laptops is a must.

[failblox]

Yes yes yes yes yes.

They were so much more expensive when I first built my computer - and now that they've dropped in price so much, I'd pick one up for any build I do in the future.

[ARikozuM]

Are they worth it at today's prices? A couple of years back a 60GB!! SSD was only $80. The time spent waiting for a hard drive to spin up is the amount of time an SSD will get the job done.

[Mira Yurizaki]

6 minutes ago, MicrosoftCertTechnician said:

Is it that hard to wait an extra minute to copy a file or load a game?

You could ask why we even bothered with hard drives when floppies were "just fine" back in the day.

 

It all depends on what you're doing too. The operating system and its programs tend to be very small in file transfer size but very large in quantity. Having an SSD's response time immensely cuts down on loading time moreso than its bandwidth.

[MisterMK3]

Yes. Hands down, an SSD is absolutely worth it, especially as the OS drive. For serious gamers, there are a fair amount of titles that will benefit from being installed on an SSD as well. But even for everyday users, the difference in system responsiveness is undeniable. 

[d3sl91]

Yes. 

 

Even my grandma noticed a difference in overall speed, and the now silent operation of her computer.

[Public Policy]

Yes.

[Divide_By_0]

4 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

You could ask why we even bothered with hard drives when floppies were "just fine" back in the day.

 

It all depends on what you're doing too. The operating system and its programs tend to be very small in file transfer size but very large in quantity. Having an SSD's response time immensely cuts down on loading time moreso than its bandwidth.

I agree, (I'm all for SSDs), but, at least Floppy to Optical/HDDs made SENSE, as HDDs and Optical were more consistent performers, not _as_ many complex ordeals, (No metal flaps to move, no floppy magnetic potato magic) and could store WAY more data.

SSDs Store LESS data than a convention hard drive of the same price, however, the speed benefits are how it pays for itself.

[daniellearmouth]

10 minutes ago, MicrosoftCertTechnician said:

Is it that hard to wait an extra minute to copy a file or load a game?

Let me put it to you this way.

 

Would you rather have something load within minutes or within seconds?

Whilst an SSD isn't THAT good usually, SSDs are fast enough to warrant the price, and they don't slow down the same way HDDs so. Seriously, it's something that's felt easily in daily life. Operating systems load much quicker, you can count the number of seconds programs load on one hand, occasionally two if it's something like a game engine, and all in all it's worth it.

 

But let's be honest here - it's not especially useful for games. Short of faster loading times, there isn't really a benefit for games at all. Buy a 120GB or 250GB SSD, install an OS on it, and tell me that it's not faster than a HDD, especially an old one.

[TheKDub]

20 minutes ago, MicrosoftCertTechnician said:

Is it that hard to wait an extra minute to copy a file or load a game?

 

When you can restart your PC in less than 30 seconds instead of about two minutes, it can help a lot, and also load screens go by much quicker.

 

I'd hate to have to go back to using mechanical storage for everything. For some things it's nice when you need a lot of storage space, but for stuff like an OS and programs, an SSD is the way to go.

[PianoPlayer88Key]

13 minutes ago, Damocles said:

Well if you play FPS shooters and notice a lag spike, that's when a texture file or other file needs to be loaded before it can continue. That's the difference between you dying or the enemy dying when you turned that corner. You also load into games faster, windows feels more responsive, and using your computer feels like new. It's also more energy efficient, lighter and shock resistant, which for laptops is a must.

Maybe THAT's why I get a sudden unexplained few-second spike while gaming sometimes.  Well, it might depend on the game.  Fortress Forever is installed on an SSD, whereas TF2 is on a spinning hard drive.  (I can't remember which game I'm getting the occasional spikes in, it might be both though.)

[PCPartPickerPro9171787]

You also can get both a SSD and a Harddrive, and just move stuff around as need.

[ForsakenLive]

It's not about that...

The OS is basically made of hundreds of programs, that will launch and open when you use it. For example when you open the file explorer look for a picture and open it, you will load different files from the disk. A SSD random reads (as well as writes) small files (pretty much the entire OS) blazingly fast. It's basically a speed boost for the entire system.

[Taja]

In my experience,hell yes.

I got an 240gb ssd,installed the OS and a few games (fo4,witcher 3), and man it was worth it.

Now i play witcher in the highest possible dificulty, and saying means waiting 10 seconds,not 1 minute. For heavy and immersive games,it is very good.

For some applications too, tough in my case i dont use anything that benefits much from ssd in this topic.

Oh,and the OS boots lightning fast, its great for overclock (a crash does not mean 3-5 minutes,but mere 20 seconds)

And for notebooks, boot times are a big deal since you turn them off all the time, unlike desktops.

 

I Just think big SSDs are oerkill in most cases, i REALLY dont understand why someone would want 960 gigabytes of ssd storage, since files like music,movies and games (that you are not currently playing) wont benefits much from the speed. But ppl in this fórum are storage freaks, i watche LOTS of móvies and séries and never used more than 700GB in my whole system

[ARikozuM]

58 minutes ago, Taja said:

In my experience,hell yes.

I got an 240gb ssd,installed the OS and a few games (fo4,witcher 3), and man it was worth it.

Now i play witcher in the highest possible dificulty, and saying means waiting 10 seconds,not 1 minute. For heavy and immersive games,it is very good.

For some applications too, tough in my case i dont use anything that benefits much from ssd in this topic.

Oh,and the OS boots lightning fast, its great for overclock (a crash does not mean 3-5 minutes,but mere 20 seconds)

And for notebooks, boot times are a big deal since you turn them off all the time, unlike desktops.

 

I Just think big SSDs are oerkill in most cases, i REALLY dont understand why someone would want 960 gigabytes of ssd storage, since files like music,movies and games (that you are not currently playing) wont benefits much from the speed. But ppl in this fórum are storage freaks, i watche LOTS of móvies and séries and never used more than 700GB in my whole system

Size always matters... Even when talking about something in nanometers.

[scottyseng]

Yes, especially how cheap they are now...I remember back in 2012, paying $400 for 240GB (Plextor M2 something...roughly 350-400 MB/s) and the speed up is immense. These days you can get that for roughly $120-140 with the 850 Evo. Also, if you have a laptop, the vibration resistance is something you don't want to give up.

 

I've converted nearly all of my friends to SSDs (even ones who just browse online / do Office related stuff) and they've noticeably "gained" more speed than other upgrades. It isn't cheap compared to everything else, but it's well worth it.

[Taja]

5 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

Size always matters... Even when talking about something in nanometers.

I agree when talkin about inovation, because if the limits are not pushed farther, we get stuck in one place.

But I PERSONALLY dont see the need for giant SSDs in personal computers, you can have an ssd + hdd (mass storage) and the difference will be ZERO (well,you have to manage two drives, but anyway).

Thats Just me tough, i will not say ppl what to do, People here like to get 4 titan x to play Dota on 1080p, i will cringe but the money is not mine...

[failblox]

4 hours ago, Taja said:

I agree when talkin about inovation, because if the limits are not pushed farther, we get stuck in one place.

But I PERSONALLY dont see the need for giant SSDs in personal computers, you can have an ssd + hdd (mass storage) and the difference will be ZERO (well,you have to manage two drives, but anyway).

Thats Just me tough, i will not say ppl what to do, People here like to get 4 titan x to play Dota on 1080p, i will cringe but the money is not mine...

It's extremely useful for video editing. If you've ever tried editing footage that's stored on a hard drive compared to storage on an SSD, the difference is immediately noticeable.

 

I agree with you that it's pointless for general media like movies and music though.

[Teddy07]

6 hours ago, scottyseng said:

Yes, especially how cheap they are now...I remember back in 2012, paying $400 for 240GB (Plextor M2 something...roughly 350-400 MB/s) and the speed up is immense. These days you can get that for roughly $120-140 with the 850 Evo. Also, if you have a laptop, the vibration resistance is something you don't want to give up.

I bought a 480 GB Evo 850 last week for 130 €

[Monkey Dust]

The cost per GB up to the 1TB SSDs isn't that bad, they are absolutely worth it. The SATA SSDs represent a pretty good comprise between cost and speed. For general home use and gaming I think the PCI-E drives are a little trickier to justify though, especially if you working to a budget.