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Thanks to all of your advice, this is what I've went with. Some of the brands and models aren't set yet, because I'm ordering through a local computer company whom I trust greatly, and they're going to maximize the parts based on the budget I've set. So there's gonna be some tweaking to get it as close to my budget as possible.


The specs:

--Intel I7 3.2GHz processor
--ASUS motherboard (exact model yet determined) with SLI support...though I have no plans to go SLI anytime soon. But if I want to, there it is.
--16GB RAM
--MSI Geforce GTX 760 with 4GB of onboard RAM - this card was majorly amazing when comparing price to performance, and had excellent reviews...and I was warned about their terrible tech support, so you don't have to warn me.
--Samsung EVO 250GB SSD
--Western Digital 7200RPM 1TB HD
--Blu-Ray combo burner
--Windows 7 Home Premium (I know it's not Professional, but I won't use most of the features of Professional, so I went with Home Premium)

--The power supply isn't set yet. Which I get depends on the power requirements of the system when we have everything else ironed out...but it'll probably either be 750W or 850W.

And all in a Fractal Define R4 case.

Now, my question for you guys: will it tremendously reduce the lifespan of my SSD if I install my favorite games on it instead of the platter HD to maximize game performance, or should I just install everything but my OS on the plannter HD?

It will detract from the SSD's life span, but, I figure you're paying for the SSD to speed up the most important software on your computer. That would include your favorite game(s). I would use the platter drive for things such as data storage (movies, music, books, pictures) Applications that are not performance based (MS Office and other productivity type stuff) and Games that you don't play that often or are less dependent on HD speeds.

Fel wrote:Now, my question for you guys: will it tremendously reduce the lifespan of my SSD if I install my favorite games on it instead of the platter HD to maximize game performance, or should I just install everything but my OS on the plannter HD?

It depends on the kind of game if you will be able to get a speed improvement from the SSD or not. What a better storage location can't improve is the game's frame rate, but faster loading times between levels is certainly possible. In some rare cases with games that use a dynamic (on-the-fly) loading, an SSD may be able to avoid sudden drops in frame-rate or improve visual impressions as well.

On the topic of SSD life-time, I have more to write. It's easy to say that you'll very likely be fine for the next five years. A more detailed answer is complicated however:

You need to understand how an SSD works and stores data. x bits of information are stored in a single cell, which can be written to y number of times. In your case that is 3 bits and 1,000 cycles per cell (standard Samsung TLC characteristics). A 250GB Samsung 240 EVO probably has a flash capacity of 256GB (which is an internal over-provisioning mechanism of a few percent) and a total write capacity somewhere in the region of 150 to 300TB.

On the one hand you have a write amplification, which means that for every gigabyte of data you (or the operating system) write, maybe 1,5 or 2GB will be written on the SSD. The real-life write amplification in practical use depends on the type of SSD (brand and product), the type and volume of data to be written and the available space. In the end it comes down to this: wear-leveling causes the SSD's firmware to shuffle data around, so that all cells are "used up" about equally. There is no way around that, but the less free space you have available on your drive, the more data needs to be moved from one place to another. With little free space available on the SSD, you will reach a higher write amplification and lower the total life expectancy of your drive.

On the other hand you have flash chips that will likely last longer than the promised write cycles. In the Xtremesystems forum someone tested the Samsung 840 120GB with TLC memory and it lasted for 3,500 cycles, which is 2.5 times beyond the promised endurance. While I'm aware that hard-core benchmarking of a few weeks shouldn't be taken as fact in real-life situations over a period of several years, Samsung's TLC flash can be much more robust than promised.

So what does all of that mean for you in terms of life expectancy? It's simple: you can help along a bit by leaving some amount of space on the SSD unused. It's usually recommended to use no more than 90 percent of the total storage capacity of any SSD, because using more over a longer period would definitely cause a higher write-amplification and shorten the life expectancy. Then again, it is always a good idea to leave some free space on your system partition

Games are not an issue when it comes to the SSD life. Yes nowadays they're really big and not really conductive to be used on smaller/older models - SSDs began to make sense at 16/32GB and there are still many 64GB in use today, while a modern game may require 20 to 50GB - but other than that, they're exactly the type of data you should want to have on your SSD (very few writes, many reads). If you have the space for games on your SSD, then don't hesitate to use it!

As long as you're not thinking of writing several dozens of gigabytes per day - a consumer SSD with TLC flash is definitely not the right drive for video-editing or other applications with a high data throughput - there's nothing to worry about anyway. In fact, Samsung's 840 non-Pro series is fine for most consumers and here's one example from my own computer:

My Samsung 840 250GB has been in almost daily use of 8 to 14 hours per day for about a year now and I've written a mere 2.86TB on it so far. That's a wear leveling count of only 1.7 percent, meaning that there are still 98 percent for me to use. Granted, I have an additional 3TB drive in my computer to store all kinds of data and there is an 8TB NAS in my network for media and backup purposes, but the SSD hosts the operating system, all my installed applications, all of my office documents, a number of games and some other stuff like content for Visual Studio (my modest programming needs), Adobe Lightroom (my photo management databases) or Helium Music Manager (not the music itself, merely the database and a collection of covers). My usage - writing small amounts of data very often - is ideal for an SSD, because the total volume is small, yet I can profit from the fast read/write performance.

my recommendation is based on the game. some games can load itself to the ram and run from there. for those if you don't mind slightly longer initial loading time. install them on the hd.games that are bigger than your ram (most games aren't). or games that cannot run from ram. install them on the sdd if you play them frequently.

Actually, my take/opini is that the SSD can last a good 5 years on its speed, on the assumption that you will at max use only about 75% of its storage capacity, use of about 8 hrs/day daily for the next 5 years which bring to that magical number of about 15,000 hrs.

Use it cos in 5 years time, you may actually need to upgrade the motherboard or actually the OS. ;p

I just bought a standard Dell in Nov cos the older PC which runs on Windows XP is no longer supported when the motherboard gave up on me. I still prefer the XP as I am more familiar with it. I am struggling with the new Windows.

Errrrr.... Fel, have you been having fun with your new PC so much that the projects will also be ongoing.

No, I don't even have it yet, and probably won't for a week. I've just had a lot of IRL stuff going on. The next chapter of inception should be finished late this week or early next week.

Whatcha gonna play on this beast, Fel?

Fel,
I have a Sandisk 240gb ssd and I filled it up Really quickly. Adobe CS4 suite, Battlefield (2142, 3 & 4), MS Office Pro 2010 use a lot of space. When the ssd filled up to about 85%, widows 7 started to crash randomly. Try to say below 75% full on the SSD.

My suggestion would be to go with at least a 480gb ssd if you plan to install any recent Battlefield type games. I know that BF 3 & 4 are over 30GB each. Newegg has a 500gb Samsung EVO for $310.

(Just remember, don't drink the water! )
Pardon any typo's, I typing on an iPad is problematic at times.

Backups! Would had to see you lose any of the stories or other important files so hope you burn a blu-ray back up of your stories and other stuff!!!

Another way to do it is this way.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817173042 I've got one of these with a 3TB drive in it at the moment. It started out with a 750gb HD in it. How do you feel safe in backing up to an external drive? Simple, you never turn it own till you've got stuff to dump to it. I have mine connected via esata and my oh my is it FAST!! Yes I've got a blu-ray burner in each of my machines. But this is convenient, only thing easier would be your own server or network attached storage... but those 2 present other issues and expense.

Enjoy the new machine!!

Hello,
For backup of Fel writing I would suggest Dropbox. The free version should be enough. It's off-site and very easy to use. If you want to be very secure, backup to external drive too.

Regards

Wolfee wrote:Backups! Would had to see you lose any of the stories or other important files so hope you burn a blu-ray back up of your stories and other stuff!!!

Another way to do it is this way.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817173042 I've got one of these with a 3TB drive in it at the moment. It started out with a 750gb HD in it. How do you feel safe in backing up to an external drive? Simple, you never turn it own till you've got stuff to dump to it. I have mine connected via esata and my oh my is it FAST!! Yes I've got a blu-ray burner in each of my machines. But this is convenient, only thing easier would be your own server or network attached storage... but those 2 present other issues and expense.

Enjoy the new machine!!

I would not recommend optical backups as they have limited space as well as can degrade. For backups I think you want to consider potential problems like fire or water as well. This means that you might want a cloud based backup (dropbox, etc), keeping a copy off-site in a safety deposit box or something like ioSafe - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822501054

The whole problem with cloud base is it depends upon what your storing. My company is making a major foray into the cloud... and finding it surprisingly and unpleasantly expensive and less secure they they had been lead to believe.... The promised ROI is starting to disappear very quickly... it still may actually be cheaper to keep ones own corporate backup servers and the like.

Now in Fel's case, Its probably all right. I however am not a cloud lover and recent events have made me even more willing to harden a data center and retreat behind its walls, provided I can get clean, unexploited hardware. Optical isn't as bad as bdrosen makes out...But for anything over 90 days I prefer backing up to an HHD. After all a HHD or a large toughened flash drive can be dropped in a safety deposit box very easily or into a fire resistant safe.

for optical archiving check out m-disc and archival grade writable dvds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC

gnume wrote:for optical archiving check out m-disc and archival grade writable dvds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC

Interesting. I'll look into a Blu-ray burner capable of it the next time I get one.