What's an SSD? Sorry I'm a noob!

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LambentTyto

LambentTyto

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I know SSD means Solid State Drive, but I'm not sure what that is. Is it a type of hard drive? If so, why do I need a regular hard rive and an SSD?

I'm currently trying to decide if I'm going to switch from console gaming to PC and I'm building a rig with an $850 budget.

Anyways, I'm probably way off here, but if the SSD is a second hard drive, is it sort of acting like a bottom of the line raid system? Because I know raid is like a bunch of little drives that dish out information faster, so I can't help but think that's what this SSD is for.
 
Its a lot faster than standard drive. I have a 250 gig Intel SSD. I have a 250 gig Seagate Barracuda drive. Programs used often is on the SSD like windows. And programs i will use more often goes on the SSD. Other programs not used so much goes on the Seagate drive. Suggest ya get one.
 
Like mentioned,SSD,s are MUCH faster than your standard hard drive as they have no moving parts unlike a hard drive so the access time is virtually instant making everything so much faster and responsive.

If your building a new system i wouldn't be sticking with traditional hard drive as your boot drive,it will just slow down your new fast system. :)
 
The reason people may have told you that you need both an ssd & hdd is because ssd drives while much cheaper than they once were are still expensive compared with hd drives of the same size.

Most people use relatively small ssd as small as 64GB, but most commonly 120 or 240GB for operating systems and some software, but then have a large hdd like 1TB or more far mass storage needs.

It really all depends on your own personal needs.

Although i for one hope for a day when ssd drives will be financially practical for large storage needs making hdd`s obsolete.
 
jamesd1981 said:
The reason people may have told you that you need both an ssd & hdd is because ssd drives while much cheaper than they once were are still expensive compared with hd drives of the same size.

Most people use relatively small ssd as small as 64GB, but most commonly 120 or 240GB for operating systems and some software, but then have a large hdd like 1TB or more far mass storage needs.

It really all depends on your own personal needs.

Although i for one hope for a day when ssd drives will be financially practical for large storage needs making hdd`s obsolete.
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So basically I'll have two hard drives, but one is the fast one which I want to put what exactly on it? My games so they run fast? my operating system?

What examples can you give me?
 
Regular HDD's have spinning platters in them similar to the way a CD works. An SSD has memory similar to that in your phone or a flash drive. It's faster since it doesn't have the physically move an arm to access the data. I have a 120GB SSD for booting Windows and a 1TB HDD for all my games and media. I can both Windows 7 in about 25 seconds with it versus about a minute and a half with my regular HDD.
 
LambentTyto said:
So basically I'll have two hard drives, but one is the fast one which I want to put what exactly on it? My games so they run fast? my operating system?

What examples can you give me?
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Loading times for games really don't improve by more than a second or two. I have the essentials on my SSD (Windows, web browser, and photoshop) so that those load times are much quicker. I have my entire Steam install on my secondary drive.
 
Actually a lot of people install software and games on hdd, the hdd is really more for file storage like photos, videos etc.

So it depends on how much personal files your have.

While an hdd is not as fast as an ssd, an up to date sata III hdd is hardly slow.
 
Alright, guys, thanks for the replies. I think I got it down. Removing the SSD from my rig so that I can meet my budget.
 
jamesd1981 said:
Actually a lot of people install software and games on hdd, the hdd is really more for file storage like photos, videos etc.

So it depends on how much personal files your have.

While an hdd is not as fast as an ssd, an up to date sata III hdd is hardly slow.
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This is what I do if I can. I've got Windows and a lot of my software and a few games on my 128GB SSD. I've still got 50GB or so left, so I could install some more games on there if I want. Sometimes though, since games can take up a lot of space, I install them onto my 2TB HDD, which is what I keep a lot of my files on (photos, documents, etc).
 
spirit said:
This is what I do if I can. I've got Windows and a lot of my software and a few games on my 128GB SSD. I've still got 50GB or so left, so I could install some more games on there if I want. Sometimes though, since games can take up a lot of space, I install them onto my 2TB HDD, which is what I keep a lot of my files on (photos, documents, etc).
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Oh, then you're lucky. I got windows, a few files and basic software on it and I got 16gb left lol...

But I'm planning to get a new and bigger one. The agility will still be there for some games.
 
spirit said:
This is what I do if I can. I've got Windows and a lot of my software and a few games on my 128GB SSD. I've still got 50GB or so left, so I could install some more games on there if I want. Sometimes though, since games can take up a lot of space, I install them onto my 2TB HDD, which is what I keep a lot of my files on (photos, documents, etc).
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Well, when it comes time to do some updates, if I've got the money I might look back into getting an SSD for my system. I mean, assuming I make the switch. Really though, it's looking better and better, and if I was sure Bungie was going to release Destiny on the PC it would already be a done deal.
 
I have a 120GB (111GB useable) and I have Windows 7 installed on there as well as Chrome, some smaller programs, as well as MS Office and I still have 57GB free. All my music and games are on my other drive. It's nice to have but only really needed if you need the extra fast boot time and the almost instantaneous launch (compared to a second or two) of programs installed on it.
 
Not to go off topic, but are you a big AMD fan? Your avatar makes me think so.

I heard AMD likes to get hot. Do you think my processor could get too hot running games on ultra? Should I get a cooling system some time in the future?
 
AMD doesn't run hot. Some of the much older chips liked to do so though. Even if you don't plan on overclocking I recommend getting a better than stock cooler, especially since you can get good quality coolers for under $35.

Also, their GPU's depend on the cooler the manufacturer installed. Some may run hot while others may run cool.
 
voyagerfan99 said:
AMD doesn't run hot. Some of the much older chips liked to do so though. Even if you don't plan on overclocking I recommend getting a better than stock cooler, especially since you can get good quality coolers for under $35.

Also, their GPU's depend on the cooler the manufacturer installed. Some may run hot while others may run cool.
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Yeah. I was thinking my first upgrade might be a cooling system. Do you have any specific recommendations for the price range you mentioned?
 
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