ABS Vortex Omega ALI040 Gaming Desktop
PC Intel Core i7 5820K (3.30 GHz)
32GB DDR4 Ram
3 TB HDD
240 GB SSD
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti 4 GB
Windows 10 Home 64-Bit
Easily the most powerful, badass system I have ever owned.
Happy Hanukkah to me.
Sweet!
Yeah, so that's.... one kickass rig ya got there... congrats :coolsmiley:
What kind of monitor are you deploying all that computing firepower on? Or should I say monitors (cuz you could definitely get a triple monitor setup if you're rocking a 980 Ti)?
Nice build, I went with the top of the line system in summer 2012 and it was worth every penny because It gave it 3 years of future proofing....I may even get 1 or 2 more years out of it.
You went from thinking about one to buying one in 2 threads
Nice, but I bet Pride of Nations still runs really, really slow on it. :P
I dunno. It seems to be lacking some power. :P
Quote from: Skoop on December 08, 2015, 06:30:06 PM
Nice build, I went with the top of the line system in summer 2012 and it was worth every penny because It gave it 3 years of future proofing....I may even get 1 or 2 more years out of it.
I did the exact same thing in 2012 -- bought a powerhouse from Maingear, i7 3770k oc'd,gtx 780 Ti, 16 GB ram. Thing still chews up anything I throw at it. Can't see needing to upgrade for a few years.
WTF you'll be able to cure cancer with that thing Jarhead! :o
Quote from: undercovergeek on December 08, 2015, 06:30:38 PM
You went from thinking about one to buying one in 2 threads
Hahaha! In truth I had been thinking about it for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, it's back ordered, so who knows when it will actually ship. Hopefully, before the new year.
Nice :)
Congrats JH O0
Well done. Between JH, Toonces and myself we can set up a North 'Murican ion collider. Or something.
Quote from: Gusington on December 08, 2015, 07:10:29 PM
Well done. Between JH, Toonces and myself we can set up a North 'Murican ion collider. Or something.
Or something..... ;)
Flux capacitor
Does windows 10 cause problems? They keep pestering me to upgrade
My plan is to use it to tear a hole in the time/space continuum...why? Because I can.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 08, 2015, 06:22:37 PM
ABS Vortex Omega ALI040 Gaming Desktop
PC Intel Core i7 5820K (3.30 GHz)
32GB DDR4 Ram
3 TB HDD
240 GB SSD
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti 4 GB
Windows 10 Home 64-Bit
Easily the most powerful, badass system I have ever owned.
Happy Hanukkah to me.
Nice! Those kind of numbers give me wood.
Congrats, your going to have to celebrate that purchase with buying some more games. Games with high specs, so you can post screen shots and make us more envious.
Quote from: sandman2575 on December 08, 2015, 06:29:37 PM
What kind of monitor are you deploying all that computing firepower on? Or should I say monitors (cuz you could definitely get a triple monitor setup if you're rocking a 980 Ti)?
Well, I have two 27" monitors hooked up to my current rig. I only use the dual monitors for simple multi-tasking. No gaming applications. I will consider getting a third monitor for the new beast, which by the way, I was just notified is being packaged and prepped for shipping!
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 08, 2015, 08:06:15 PM
Quote from: sandman2575 on December 08, 2015, 06:29:37 PM
What kind of monitor are you deploying all that computing firepower on? Or should I say monitors (cuz you could definitely get a triple monitor setup if you're rocking a 980 Ti)?
Well, I have two 27" monitors hooked up to my current rig. I only use the dual monitors for simple multi-tasking. No gaming applications. I will consider getting a third monitor for the new beast, which by the way, I was just notified is being packaged and prepped for shipping!
What is the over/under for Jarhead checking the build and tracking shipping status of his new machine. I bet Vegas would set the line at 30 times before it arrives and I would take the over
Con
No such thing as Enuf Dakka. But still a noble effort. :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
What'd that set you back Jar? If you don't mind me asking.
That's just sickening...
my jealousy of course.
The rate at which CPU speed is advancing is nearing a plateau I hear. This system might last you a long while.
Solid purchase!
Quote from: Swatter on December 09, 2015, 12:06:06 AM
The rate at which CPU speed is advancing is nearing a plateau I hear.
It plateau'd years ago. That's why they started cramming extra processor cores onto the same die, since they hit a speed ceiling for regular (reasonable size & cost) computers. A shortcut to squeeze some extra efficiency out of them by spreading some of the load over multiples. Processing power of newly purchased CPUs are staying fairly even for longer these days, bar the smaller advances in overall system architecture speed.
GPUs still tend to progress at a faster pace, but I get the impression that those have begun slowing a bit too.
Remember the long gone days when your computer was severely underpowered before it was 3 years old? Not so short now. :)
And congrats to JH.
He'll be practicing much ShippingTracker-Fu, I'm sure. :D
Congrats O0 :D
..what no I7 6700K latest Skylake in it? ;)
from my 'studies' through all the hardware-nerds websites (when i was forced to build my rig when the mainboard had lately failed suddenly) in recent games like Witcher3 the FPS gains was minimal, 1 FPS or so beyond 4 real cores- what matters is the maximum clock speed of those cores, and mostly the graphic card of course ...so i even settled for cost-effective and less heat-dissipating I5 6600 K
...well, if you render Vids or other number crunching tasks -like coil-geometry of your upcumming warp drive ;-) - you actually benefit from all those additional real and virtual cores
Quote from: Sir Slash on December 08, 2015, 11:17:31 PM
What'd that set you back Jar? If you don't mind me asking.
$1600. It's the best deal I could find. I couldn't find any other system with the same specs for even close to the price. Most other systems that were close in price were either 16 gigs of ram, had a weaker gpu or no SSD drive, and a smaller HD, too. This system just blew everything else in the price range away.
Happy Hanukkah indeed! Congrats on an awesome rig JH. O0
Nice rig. Super flying kit JH. O0
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 09, 2015, 08:39:56 AM
Nice rig. Super flying kit JH. O0
Indeed. DCS is definitely going on this. I'm really looking forward to running ARMA 3 though, especially the upcoming expansion with jungle/tropical terrain. Should be spectacular.
Congrats!
What's your current rig like?
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 08, 2015, 06:22:37 PM
32GB DDR4 Ram
Formidable rig but is it possibly to typically use this amount of RAM? I have 16GB installed and it's purely for loading sample libraries for audio production. Do games use this amount?
Quote from: donkey_roxor on December 09, 2015, 10:50:07 AM
Congrats!
What's your current rig like?
Current rig is an i7 processor with 12GB ram, 1 TB HD and a GeForce 970 with 4GB ram. Its a totally decent system (albeit underpowered with only 500w), but its starting to act up. I get a blue screen frequently when trying to open the file explorer and the HD sounds like its going to take a dump. I've had it for at least 3 years at this point.
Quote from: Ian C on December 09, 2015, 11:02:21 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 08, 2015, 06:22:37 PM
32GB DDR4 Ram
Formidable rig but is it possibly to typically use this amount of RAM? I have 16GB installed and it's purely for loading sample libraries for audio production. Do games use this amount?
Doesn't matter...bragging rights, dude.
Quote from: Ian C on December 09, 2015, 11:02:21 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 08, 2015, 06:22:37 PM
32GB DDR4 Ram
Formidable rig but is it possibly to typically use this amount of RAM? I have 16GB installed and it's purely for loading sample libraries for audio production. Do games use this amount?
Good question. It used to be whenever you could throw more RAM at a PC - DO IT! You could never have enough. But I wonder, given today's games (mostly) how much RAM is too much?
I mean graphics cards have their own dedicated VRAM now - and alot...so caching into system memory may not be much of a use now. Having said that, look at the size of these games. VRAM could likely get filled quickly, requiring system memory...but again - how much?
Does it even matter? Chances are before an upgrade applications will be requiring more RAM. And memory has been fairly cheap
I remember a 1MB stick costing me £100!! :o
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 09, 2015, 11:05:43 AM
Quote from: Ian C on December 09, 2015, 11:02:21 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 08, 2015, 06:22:37 PM
32GB DDR4 Ram
Formidable rig but is it possibly to typically use this amount of RAM? I have 16GB installed and it's purely for loading sample libraries for audio production. Do games use this amount?
Doesn't matter...bragging rights, dude.
A much better answer! ;D
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 09, 2015, 11:05:43 AM
Quote from: Ian C on December 09, 2015, 11:02:21 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 08, 2015, 06:22:37 PM
32GB DDR4 Ram
Formidable rig but is it possibly to typically use this amount of RAM? I have 16GB installed and it's purely for loading sample libraries for audio production. Do games use this amount?
Doesn't matter...bragging rights, dude.
LOL ! Of course, one cannot have too much RAM.
Damn Jarhead. $1600 Isn't bad at all for all that muscle. You could spend a lot more easily I'm sure.
Quote from: Sir Slash on December 09, 2015, 11:52:18 AM
Damn Jarhead. $1600 Isn't bad at all for all that muscle. You could spend a lot more easily I'm sure.
The most closely comparable systems in price did not have the RAM, GPU or SSD/HD power. Anything that came close in terms of specs was $1899 - $2500. This system is a steal at this price.
Fantastic. Totes jealous.
Quote from: Ian C on December 09, 2015, 11:02:21 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 08, 2015, 06:22:37 PM
32GB DDR4 Ram
Formidable rig but is it possibly to typically use this amount of RAM? I have 16GB installed and it's purely for loading sample libraries for audio production. Do games use this amount?
yes
i have read somewhere that XPlane10 flightsimulator actually use (needs) all that RAM if you install several high-resolution phototiles of the landscape
so i
guesstimate other flightsims may benefit from more RAM too... upcoming DCS 2.0 ?
Make sure you get a good monitor to go with the system. Would be a shame to have that rig and still be using a 60hz monitor.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 09, 2015, 12:03:32 PM
Quote from: Sir Slash on December 09, 2015, 11:52:18 AM
Damn Jarhead. $1600 Isn't bad at all for all that muscle. You could spend a lot more easily I'm sure.
The most closely comparable systems in price did not have the RAM, GPU or SSD/HD power. Anything that came close in terms of specs was $1899 - $2500. This system is a steal at this price.
That is a tremendous price for the listed specs.
Quote from: bboyer66 on December 09, 2015, 12:42:49 PM
Make sure you get a good monitor to go with the system. Would be a shame to have that rig and still be using a 60hz monitor.
how 'bout a 60Hz, 28" 4K monitor, though? 8)
Quote from: sandman2575 on December 09, 2015, 01:22:39 PM
Quote from: bboyer66 on December 09, 2015, 12:42:49 PM
Make sure you get a good monitor to go with the system. Would be a shame to have that rig and still be using a 60hz monitor.
how 'bout a 60Hz, 28" 4K monitor, though? 8)
I would go with better smoothness before better resolution. When I want from a 60hz to a 144hz monitor with GSYNC, the difference was amazing. Hell they are making 4k monitors with 144hz refresh, so you can have the best of both worlds.
Computer Arms Race
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbrotherpeacemaker.files.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F01%2Farms-race.jpg%3Fw%3D600%26amp%3Bh%3D414&hash=2e058b005eaae610709c4b122cf75a49f0fa2bbb)
I just ordered me a 480GB SSD drive from eBuyer for £81. I wanted to replace an old SATAII HDD with an SSD to load games and (hopefully) things like textures faster for some games (I'm looking at you DCS and Just Cause III)
With a rig like that you need a monitor like this;
http://www.barco.com/en/Products/Displays-monitors-workstations/Large-format-displays/84-inch-true-8-megapixel-display.aspx
Always a great time when you get a new rig and try out all your graphic intensive games finally turned up to max!
Too true. I remember the first time I played CMBN on my 40in. monitor. I could actually see the beards on the troops faces. That was a "Damn!!!" moment.
Is it here yet?
Is it here yet?
Is it here yet?
:D
Oh, he'll let us know when it's here, so he can brag about it before taking a long hiatus from here to enjoy it.
So I installed my new 480GB hard drive and copied all my Steam library across to it (which was very easy actually)....and I've got 50GB left :'(
The rig is here...oh yes, the rig is here, indeed.
It was not supposed to arrive until Monday, but in a stroke of luck that can only foretell of divine intervention, it arrived early, before the weekend!
Sweet
Quote from: Nefaro on December 11, 2015, 03:24:23 PM
Is it here yet?
Is it here yet?
Is it here yet?
:D
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 11, 2015, 06:35:50 PM
The rig is here...oh yes, the rig is here, indeed.
It was not supposed to arrive until Monday, but in a stroke of luck that can only foretell of divine intervention, it arrived early, before the weekend!
See!
I had a premonition today was the day.
^-^
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 11, 2015, 05:49:39 PM
So I installed my new 480GB hard drive and copied all my Steam library across to it (which was very easy actually)....and I've got 50GB left :'(
I would be interested to see how this works out for you....I was always under the impression the biggest improvement you would see is by installing the operating system on the drive versus just the games/applications directly, especially since a lot of games rely on Windows libraries and components. I have been hesitant to purchase a drive until I eventually rebuild my machine since I don't won't to go through an install of the O/S again, but if you see noticeable gain by just installing/moving apps to the new drive, I may reconsider. Keep us posted!
I tend to think the best thing you can do is max out the ram. Get as much storage as you can as close to the processor as possible. It works on mainframes, it works on PCs.
I agree with DQ. I've worked with some very large databases and having them spread out over multi disks to reduce the IO was critical. But with just about everything any of us would play RAM is more important as more of the program would reside there and not need to access the disk as much.
Sleep-over at Jarheads!!! I call top bunk. :smiley6600:
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 11, 2015, 06:35:50 PM
The rig is here...oh yes, the rig is here, indeed.
It was not supposed to arrive until Monday, but in a stroke of luck that can only foretell of divine intervention, it arrived early, before the weekend!
Those are the kind of surprises that make life worth living :)
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on December 11, 2015, 08:34:20 PM
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 11, 2015, 05:49:39 PM
So I installed my new 480GB hard drive and copied all my Steam library across to it (which was very easy actually)....and I've got 50GB left :'(
I would be interested to see how this works out for you....I was always under the impression the biggest improvement you would see is by installing the operating system on the drive versus just the games/applications directly, especially since a lot of games rely on Windows libraries and components. I have been hesitant to purchase a drive until I eventually rebuild my machine since I don't won't to go through an install of the O/S again, but if you see noticeable gain by just installing/moving apps to the new drive, I may reconsider. Keep us posted!
I put my OS on the regular drive and only install the few games with noticeably long load times on my SSD.
When it comes to speeding up your game load times, you don't need the OS on your SSD.
The only thing installing OS on it will do is speed up your Windows startup time. Otherwise you're just using up precious extra space on the SSD with it. In the old days, before we had tons of system RAM, the OS would use "virtual memory" which was a fancy way of saying it would use hard drive space to emulate RAM when it was out of it. But anymore it's pretty negligible.
Since I tend to leave my computer running for days at a stretch, and I keep my system tray pretty clean, startup & shutdown times aren't an issue. So the OS is on the regular mechanical drive.
Dredd makes an interesting point that I've always wondered about. Is it better to leave your system on and running, or is it better to shutdown when not in use? I tend to shutdown, more to limit exposure to the Internet than anything else, but also to prevent wear, I suppose. Is it all in my head?
Can anyone give me suggestions for games to run for benchmarking? My old system was pretty good and there was nothing it could not run well. So far I've installed arma3, Elite and my DCS collection. Arma is running with everything at ultra with framerates over 60. Impressive.
The machine is very quiet. I'm surprised. My old machine made a lot more noise every time I was running load intensive applications. This thing is purring little a kitten with ice cool blue LEDs.
Put it this way when my daughter stays at mine at the weekend and her PC is on I can see the difference in how much I pay in electric a week (I have a pre payment meter). So having a PC on certainly costs and costs a fair bit. Most PC's are like having a microwave on these days.
So I'd say your best shutting down when not using it.
Quote from: TacticalWargames on December 12, 2015, 06:22:11 AM
Put it this way when my daughter stays at mine at the weekend and her PC is on I can see the difference in how much I pay in electric a week (I have a pre payment meter). So having a PC on certainly costs and costs a fair bit. Most PC's are like having a microwave on these days.
So I'd say your best shutting down when not using it.
TW, my tip is: get (a used) Android tablet for surfing , YT vids, short emails, and casual gaming (with free apps) for your and your daughters needs
my Note 10.1 from 2012 saved me countless hours of desktop PC running time
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 12, 2015, 06:04:52 AM
Can anyone give me suggestions for games to run for benchmarking?
Maybe The Witcher 3 ?
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 12, 2015, 05:58:18 AM
Dredd makes an interesting point that I've always wondered about. Is it better to leave your system on and running, or is it better to shutdown when not in use? I tend to shutdown, more to limit exposure to the Internet than anything else, but also to prevent wear, I suppose. Is it all in my head?
Not taken utility bills into consideration, I leave my computer on for days at a time, especially over the weekend when I use it much more. Also during the nights, a number of my scheduled processes run like virus scan and backups, therefore not slowing me down when I am actually using it:)
Keep an eye on 3DMark (http://store.steampowered.com/app/223850/) during the upcoming Steam sales. It gets heavily discounted sometimes.
I always turn my computer off. We're all in trouble if hackers can hack computers that are off.
^^ Thru the power cords!! :D
(The movies taught me all I know about hacking.)
I leave my system off, because it sucks more dust into the grills and fans, making me have to clean it more often. (Relatedly, if one or more of my fans picks up too much dust, it'll go out of balance, and like on a centrifuge that's bad.) Also when not in the winter, it uses so much power (it weighs 70 lbs or something) that it makes the room hot. Also, I have a hard time going to sleep with white noise from the fans. Also, we have a lot of thunderstorms in West TN (land of shaking earth and sky), so another good reason (besides hackers!) to turn off and unplug.
Meanwhile, on benchmarking, clearly Arkham Knight is the king of practical tests in how well your computer can handle goofy-ass system architecture. It comes with a benchmarker, although as might be expected the benchmarker isn't altogether real in terms of game performance. ::)
Pride of Nations has been improved in recent eons, but could be considered another chug-tester. It doesn't have a benchmarker so far as I recall, but it ought to. >:D
+1 for witcher 3. Closest thing to playing a game like you were in a movie
Con
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 12, 2015, 05:58:18 AM
Dredd makes an interesting point that I've always wondered about. Is it better to leave your system on and running, or is it better to shutdown when not in use? I tend to shutdown, more to limit exposure to the Internet than anything else, but also to prevent wear, I suppose. Is it all in my head?
I always shutdown or at least use the sleep function. The mean-time-to-failure clock is ticking when the rig is running. Granted, components are much more robust than in years past but still...
On the other hand my desktop in my office at work runs 24/7/365. I need to be able to VPN to that rig to work on problems, etc. any time day or night. But....I'm not paying that electric bill. I also don't pay to replace that PC.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on December 11, 2015, 08:34:20 PM
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 11, 2015, 05:49:39 PM
So I installed my new 480GB hard drive and copied all my Steam library across to it (which was very easy actually)....and I've got 50GB left :'(
I would be interested to see how this works out for you....I was always under the impression the biggest improvement you would see is by installing the operating system on the drive versus just the games/applications directly, especially since a lot of games rely on Windows libraries and components. I have been hesitant to purchase a drive until I eventually rebuild my machine since I don't won't to go through an install of the O/S again, but if you see noticeable gain by just installing/moving apps to the new drive, I may reconsider. Keep us posted!
I have my OS installed on a 120GB SSD and the speed of booting up is incredible. I switch my machine off every morning when I go to work and every night when I go to bed. The only time I leave it on is when I run anti-spam and anti-virus checks on a Saturday night.
As for whether this drive helps? From what little time I got today with DCS, loading of a mission was considerably faster...I have no idea whether that was purely down to the disk or whether it was down to me continually going in and out of the game (and so it was cached perhaps?)
How are you finding Windows 10 on your new rig (of which I'm jealous!)? I have hung back on it after reading our tech talk section, but it's been out a while now.
Quote from: Boggit on December 12, 2015, 04:31:54 PM
How are you finding Windows 10 on your new rig (of which I'm jealous!)? I have hung back on it after reading our tech talk section, but it's been out a while now.
I don't mind it all so far. I haven't done too much with it, but it seems intuitive and its running well.
Are you up and running yet with everything or still doing the installs?
It's always so sweet to load a game that you had to have tuned down a bit and see it in all it's glory with a new rig!
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 12, 2015, 12:10:33 PM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on December 11, 2015, 08:34:20 PM
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 11, 2015, 05:49:39 PM
So I installed my new 480GB hard drive and copied all my Steam library across to it (which was very easy actually)....and I've got 50GB left :'(
I would be interested to see how this works out for you....I was always under the impression the biggest improvement you would see is by installing the operating system on the drive versus just the games/applications directly, especially since a lot of games rely on Windows libraries and components. I have been hesitant to purchase a drive until I eventually rebuild my machine since I don't won't to go through an install of the O/S again, but if you see noticeable gain by just installing/moving apps to the new drive, I may reconsider. Keep us posted!
I have my OS installed on a 120GB SSD and the speed of booting up is incredible. I switch my machine off every morning when I go to work and every night when I go to bed. The only time I leave it on is when I run anti-spam and anti-virus checks on a Saturday night.
As for whether this drive helps? From what little time I got today with DCS, loading of a mission was considerably faster...I have no idea whether that was purely down to the disk or whether it was down to me continually going in and out of the game (and so it was cached perhaps?)
Thanks JD...do you know if there is any speed performance (or other) benefit of having a separate SSD for the OS and another for the games? If you were to combine the OS and games on the same SSD drive, would that perform any better? Or does either configuration basically yield the same performance? I like the idea of having separate SSDs, but just was curious if it had any disadvantages.
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 12, 2015, 06:08:36 PM
Are you up and running yet with everything or still doing the installs?
It's always so sweet to load a game that you had to have tuned down a bit and see it in all it's glory with a new rig!
The problem is my old rig was pretty powerful too. It could pretty much handle anything I threw at it. I'm not going to install everything onto the new system all at once. I don't want to pollute it. I'm really just installing the most graphics intensive games for now. The old system is set up on another desk in my office so it is still accessible.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on December 12, 2015, 07:10:32 PM
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 12, 2015, 12:10:33 PM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on December 11, 2015, 08:34:20 PM
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 11, 2015, 05:49:39 PM
So I installed my new 480GB hard drive and copied all my Steam library across to it (which was very easy actually)....and I've got 50GB left :'(
I would be interested to see how this works out for you....I was always under the impression the biggest improvement you would see is by installing the operating system on the drive versus just the games/applications directly, especially since a lot of games rely on Windows libraries and components. I have been hesitant to purchase a drive until I eventually rebuild my machine since I don't won't to go through an install of the O/S again, but if you see noticeable gain by just installing/moving apps to the new drive, I may reconsider. Keep us posted!
I have my OS installed on a 120GB SSD and the speed of booting up is incredible. I switch my machine off every morning when I go to work and every night when I go to bed. The only time I leave it on is when I run anti-spam and anti-virus checks on a Saturday night.
As for whether this drive helps? From what little time I got today with DCS, loading of a mission was considerably faster...I have no idea whether that was purely down to the disk or whether it was down to me continually going in and out of the game (and so it was cached perhaps?)
Thanks JD...do you know if there is any speed performance (or other) benefit of having a separate SSD for the OS and another for the games? If you were to combine the OS and games on the same SSD drive, would that perform any better? Or does either configuration basically yield the same performance? I like the idea of having separate SSDs, but just was curious if it had any disadvantages.
Ive got a i7-4790K with the OS on a Samsung 850 EVO 500BG SSD, also got a few games on their as well. Everything else which includes most of the steam library goes on a 1TB WD black HDD. Boot times are well under 10 seconds and general computational tasks are ultra responsive. One of the games {men of war AS2} ive had installed on both drives and the load times were much faster on the SSD. Overall game performance however was about the same. As far as SSD's go I believe their main advantage as far as gaming goes is faster loading times, although ive heard games with huge worlds perform better on a SSD.
The Samsung 850 EVO is around 150 Amazon which is a steal.
Quote from: AchillesLastStand on December 12, 2015, 11:02:46 PM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on December 12, 2015, 07:10:32 PM
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 12, 2015, 12:10:33 PM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on December 11, 2015, 08:34:20 PM
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 11, 2015, 05:49:39 PM
So I installed my new 480GB hard drive and copied all my Steam library across to it (which was very easy actually)....and I've got 50GB left :'(
I would be interested to see how this works out for you....I was always under the impression the biggest improvement you would see is by installing the operating system on the drive versus just the games/applications directly, especially since a lot of games rely on Windows libraries and components. I have been hesitant to purchase a drive until I eventually rebuild my machine since I don't won't to go through an install of the O/S again, but if you see noticeable gain by just installing/moving apps to the new drive, I may reconsider. Keep us posted!
I have my OS installed on a 120GB SSD and the speed of booting up is incredible. I switch my machine off every morning when I go to work and every night when I go to bed. The only time I leave it on is when I run anti-spam and anti-virus checks on a Saturday night.
As for whether this drive helps? From what little time I got today with DCS, loading of a mission was considerably faster...I have no idea whether that was purely down to the disk or whether it was down to me continually going in and out of the game (and so it was cached perhaps?)
Thanks JD...do you know if there is any speed performance (or other) benefit of having a separate SSD for the OS and another for the games? If you were to combine the OS and games on the same SSD drive, would that perform any better? Or does either configuration basically yield the same performance? I like the idea of having separate SSDs, but just was curious if it had any disadvantages.
Ive got a i7-4790K with the OS on a Samsung 850 EVO 500BG SSD, also got a few games on their as well. Everything else which includes most of the steam library goes on a 1TB WD black HDD. Boot times are well under 10 seconds and general computational tasks are ultra responsive. One of the games {men of war AS2} ive had installed on both drives and the load times were much faster on the SSD. Overall game performance however was about the same. As far as SSD's go I believe their main advantage as far as gaming goes is faster loading times, although ive heard games with huge worlds perform better on a SSD.
The Samsung 850 EVO is around 150 Amazon which is a steal.
^ this.
I'm not 100% sure, but it's my understanding that games on an SSD will have considerably shorter load times. Also, the graphics have to be loaded for the game into VRAM and also RAM (should there not be enough VRAM, so I would suspect games with either large textures or a large amount of textures (where VRAM is filled) would benefit from the faster access times of an SSD to swap them out/load them.
I'm just guessing here really. I mean - it sounds logical than anything loading from an SSD will load faster (why do we go for black editions of hard drives otherwise?) - however, they may not be as important nowadays given the VRAM and RAM we have.
I think - for the money (a 500GB SSD is around £100) - the benefits are substantial enough (even if it's just loading the game/level).
Since nobody has asked the important question yet: Jarhead, is it a sexy PC? Come on, let's have a look at it!
It's got super cool blue LEDs apparently
Pics or it didn't happen.
Quote from: JudgeDredd on December 13, 2015, 02:06:21 AM
I'm not 100% sure, but it's my understanding that games on an SSD will have considerably shorter load times. Also, the graphics have to be loaded for the game into VRAM and also RAM (should there not be enough VRAM, so I would suspect games with either large textures or a large amount of textures (where VRAM is filled) would benefit from the faster access times of an SSD to swap them out/load them.
I'm just guessing here really. I mean - it sounds logical than anything loading from an SSD will load faster (why do we go for black editions of hard drives otherwise?) - however, they may not be as important nowadays given the VRAM and RAM we have.
You are correct. SSDs just increase loading times because they don't have to wait for the mechanical disks and reader arms to zip back & forth, to read data off the platters, before sending the info onward.
Think of it more like having the installed programs on a separate set of RAM. Accesses faster than mechanical HDDs. It's by no means instant but a good deal faster. It comes at the expense of being more expensive per GB, of course, and the comparable lifespan
may be shorter with the same amount of use.
The load times on games will be faster. Those with long initial asset load times and/or many "zoned" areas which require regular loading screens throughout gameplay benefit most. Something like
Pillars Of Eternity, with it's many zoned areas requiring a load screen each time you move to a new spot, lessens the time spent waiting on those load screens for example. Or the flight sims that have a long load screen, before entering a mission, because it's loading up all the textures & scenery for a large area of virtual world.
Where it doesn't help is with purely processor intensive stuff, including GPU. The time it takes for a big End Turn resolution, or cranking up graphics quality, isn't generally going to be improved.
Thanks guys but I am good with the benefits of buying a ssd, those are well understood. My last question was whether it was better to just buy one ssd and install operating system and games on the same drive, or install two ssd drives, one with the operating system and the other just games. Will either configuration perform better than the other or will it be the same?
Thanks!
I installed two 500GB SSDs in my Alienware. 8)
I just installed a 120 GB SSD into my old i7-920 computer and just by moving a few games there, the load time of these games are vastly improved. For example Victoria 2, Cities Skylines, ARMA and ARMA 2 load super fast.
I still have Windows 7 installed on a HDD, but when I do get a new computer, I will definitely try to get a SSD for the OS and another SSD for games and other programs.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on December 13, 2015, 08:02:32 AM
Thanks guys but I am good with the benefits of buying a ssd, those are well understood. My last question was whether it was better to just buy one ssd and install operating system and games on the same drive, or install two ssd drives, one with the operating system and the other just games. Will either configuration perform better than the other or will it be the same?
Thanks!
It would be the same difference no matter. You can get a good 500 GB SSD like mine, http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E500B-AM/dp/B00OBRE5UE/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1450031379&sr=1-2&keywords=ssd for about 150$. If you do indeed choose to install a SSD and put the OS on it as well as some games there a bunch of good guides on tips you can do with the OS that help the SSD perform faster and add to its lifespan
Here are a few...
http://techotv.com/ssd-optimization-tips-tweaks-faster/
Since a SSD isn't mechanical but electrical it never needs defragmenting......ever. Disable it completely.
Disable indexing
Make sure its in AHCI mode.
Disable hibernate.
Enable Trim.
Personally I keep system restore disabled as well.