New SSD
Posted on: Dec. 19, 2010, 7:24 p.m.
I replaced my 1.5TB 7200 RPM Seagate with a new 120GB G.SKILL SSD. I didn't do an in-depth benchmark between my old drive and my new one as many such benchmarks can already be found from more reputable sources. While my specific SSD isn't listed in the benchmark, it uses the SF-1200 controller which is. Anand's desktop performance chart shows the controller to be average but still leaps and bounds faster than any spinning platters.
There was a notable decrease in the time it took to boot and log in. From cold start to login prompt it took 1 minute and 1 second on the traditional HD and 27 seconds on the SSD. Once logged in it took 24 seconds on the HD to load my desktop environment and launch all my auto-start applications, but only 5 seconds on the SSD. Loading SCII was also a great deal faster taking 19.8 seconds on the HD and 9 seconds flat on the SSD.
Aside from startup times the system performance doesn't change much unless your applications are accessing the disk often. When I used to play WoW there was a bit of a delay loading some graphics for the first time. You've probably noticed this in PVP raids or arenas when people don't show up until they're right on top of you. I installed it to see how it would do running off of my SSD. The loading time is now instantaneous, patching and compiling are much quicker as well.
I was only able to fit my OS and applications on the SSD. My Documents, Music, Movies, Downloads, and Pictures are symlinked to my media drive. In the future when prices go down I'll look into purchasing an SSD large enough for all of my media.
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