Is a separate drive for FSX worth it ???

[Tom_G_2010]

After saving up for a while I finally went out and purchased the parts for my new Flight Sim PC. I had planned to purchase two SSDs, one for Win 7 and one for FSX. However, I hit the budget limit and could not get the second SSD. It'll be 2 or 3 weeks before I have the cash for another SSD. So the question is:

How much performance gain will I get from running FSX on a separate SSD from Win 7?

Is it a big enough performance gain to be worth the extra cash and a 3 week wait, or should I just save the cash and the delay frustration and load both Win 7 and FSX on the same 250G SSD?

Any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Tom G.

[KyleH]

I suggest reading this:

http://www.simforums.com/forums/the-fsx-computer-system-the-bible-by-nickn_topic46211&SID=11931624adc5e7b5ab91ez41293f36288425926.html

Chapter 1 Verse 2 is about the hard drives.

[Tom_G_2010]

I suggest reading this:

http://www.simforums.com/forums/the-fsx-computer-system-the-bible-by-nickn_topic46211&SID=11931624adc5e7b5ab91ez41293f36288425926.html

Chapter 1 Verse 2 is about the hard drives.

Kyle, Thanks!  I had already read that.  Which is, in part, what lead to my question.  He clearly states that you will see a performance gain from multiple drives and recommends doing so, but unless I missed it, I don't see any statements that quantify the gains.

I know mileage will vary from system to system, and "it depends" is always part of the answer, but I'm hoping to get some feedback that gives me a general sense of what kind of gains I might see so I can decide if it's worth a 3 week wait and another $150 before I can complete the pc build.

Again, Thanks for the quick reply!

[markfire]

Hi tom


After running most combination of drives, I found that there's not enough performance gain in using SSD over a good velociraptor.  I have used a SSD on my win 7 drive with a separate drive for FSX   The results are faster load times but not a great deal of improvement regarding read write times.


I now run raptors as main drive for win 7 and FSX.


http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=20

[Tom_G_2010]

Hi tom


After running most combination of drives, I found that there's not enough performance gain in using SSD over a good velociraptor.  I have used a SSD on my win 7 drive with a separate drive for FSX   The results are faster load times but not a great deal of improvement regarding read write times.


I now run raptors as main drive for win 7 and FSX.


http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=20

I think work has my brain fied today, I'm a little slow on the uptake...  I understand that you are running conventional drives, but are you running Win 7 and FSX on the same or separate drives?

Regardless of drive type my big question is whether it's worth a second drive. Does doing so make a noticeable performance difference?

[markfire]

Tom


Sorry I confused you. I'm now running both Win 7 and FSX on the same drive. I do however use another drive to run XPlane on. Just to keep the used space down on the main drive!


I really haven't seen any improvements by using a SSD drive when it comes to FSX other than Win 7 load times. In my opinion. 

[Tom_G_2010]

Tom


Sorry I confused you. I'm now running both Win 7 and FSX on the same drive. I do however use another drive to run XPlane on. Just to keep the used space down on the main drive!


I really haven't seen any improvements by using a SSD drive when it comes to FSX other than Win 7 load times. In my opinion.

Thanks!

[Tom_G_2010]

Thanks for the input!

Yesterday I made two decisions: 1. That I was going to use a 2 SSD configuration; and 2. That I didn't want to wait until my next paycheck.

That later decision, of course, meant convincing my wife that a second SSD was a much wiser use of our money than some groceries, heck we'd only eat those and then they'd be gone. And, she agreed! So I will be installing SSD number 2 this weekend.

Again, Thanks!

[ETomlin]

A friend of mine moved FSX over from a tradition HD to an SSD and his performance gains were through the roof. However, I think we all know that it really depends on your overall system architecture.

[XOrionFE]

SSDs are the way to go.   Not only are load times much much faster than raptors (i recently replaced my 10k raptors with SSDs) but one HUGE benefit of SSDs is that they dont fragment like platters.  Therefore there is no necessity of defragging all the time to keep your performance up.    Im not sure if two are better than one with SSDs but I like to keep my System partition seperate from where FSX, XP and P3D are installed so I use two.

(Anyone want to buy some used raptors :-)? )

Scott