Are SSD's a lot faster than normal drives?

[Mr. Sandman]

I am looking for a fast drive

[PRBuzz]

They might be faster but are much smaller and very $$$$$$$$. Biggest affordable (several $100's) are only 64GB.

[iamskippy]

The bottom line answer is omfg yes, however speeds will vary depending on the upgrade or install you are doing.

My personal recomendation is one that installs to you pci e 4x slot or just pci. The data transfer rate is alot faster the your sata connection regardless if its sataIII or not. Use you sata drive as your download drive ans just get a 128gb pci e card for your os and other programs. The larger drives are far more expensive. I think the 128gb is reasonable.

But if you have the opportunity to get a upgrade do it.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[iamskippy]

Originally Posted by PRBuzz

They might be faster but are much smaller and very $$$$$$$$. Biggest affordable (several $100's) are only 64GB.

This is in accurate the prices have come way down a 128gb can be bought for a little over $100 now a days
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Saltheart]

I think it will only matter when when you boot up. I keep my computer on most of the time so only boot a few times each month. Don't see how it will hep much if used as a storage drive for downloads
etc.

Supposedly the smaller size 10K RPM drives are very fast.

[iamskippy]

I use a raptor 10k for my os drive and there is a noticable difference, especially when you do the windows performance test with the ssd, plus i have tested the ssd sata connection speed for data transfer on a friends machine and the transfer rates are off the charts, compaired to the platter drive.

One of the big performance gains is when you are doing video or audio editing, running a server or gaming. But for the average user its not a viable upgrade.

Originally Posted by Saltheart

I think it will only matter when when you boot up. I keep my computer on most of the time so only boot a few times each month. Don't see how it will hep much if used as a storage drive for downloads
etc.

Supposedly the smaller size 10K RPM drives are very fast.

I
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by iamskippy

One of the big performance gains is when you are doing video or audio editing, running a server or gaming. But for the average user its not a viable upgrade.

Bingo! One of my friends uses the "How long does Adobe Photoshop take to open" test - from 10-20 seconds down to a couple seconds after he upgraded.

The other thing to keep in mind when buying an SSD is that you need to change your cache settings to minimize unnecessary writing onto the SSD. You also don't need things like Disk Defragmenter, Indexing or Prefetch any more.

[PRBuzz]

Originally Posted by iamskippy

This is in accurate the prices have come way down a 128gb can be bought for a little over $100 now a days
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I didn't check today, that was yesterday's pricing!

Like all hi-tech: wait a minute and the price drops...almost faster than NE weather changes!