SSD's and MMOs?

[liddabit]

Hi guys
This forum has been super helpful for me. I've been out of the hardware world for only 6 years, but it seems like an eternity in terms of catching up

I was reading the helpful sticky on this forum and it said not to write alot of meaningless info to the SSD. That kinda scared me :O

It seems MMO's write alot of data and update alot, however they use the HD alot to load data.

It seems like an MMO might really benefit from being on an SSD, especially Rift, would that be a bad idea to do though?

Thanks

(Oh also since people always ask my setup, I'm doing Mfenn's build with the crucial M4 ssd http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2192841 )

 

[Ryomitomo]

I play Aion on my system and it has Intel 510 SSD 120GB on it. I don't think you will regret going for SSD.

The client start-up loading speed is amazing faster than HDD. There is noticeably less stuttering in the game play. Whenever the game is loading instances, your loading time will be drastically reduced.

In my opnion, SSD is one of the best investment to consider on a PC.

Just in case you're wondering what my setup is like, I have listed below.

i7-2600 w/ Thermalright Archon
Asus P8P67 Pro
2 X Asus GTX460 DCU TOP 1GB
4 X 4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 1.5v
Intel 510 SSD 120GB
Hitachi 7K3000 HDD 1.5TB
Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 800W

 

[Tsavo]

MMO's don't write a lot of data, unless you raid a LOT and log your combat file to disk. Even then it's not enough to worry about. The vast majority of the work your SSD will be doing is reading files, so no worries there on the wear.

I stuck WoW and EQ2 on my SSD and it definitely made zoning and object load speeds much faster.

 

[liddabit]

MMO's don't write a lot of data, unless you raid a LOT and log your combat file to disk. Even then it's not enough to worry about. The vast majority of the work your SSD will be doing is reading files, so no worries there on the wear.

I stuck WoW and EQ2 on my SSD and it definitely made zoning and object load speeds much faster.

I am a raid healer in EQ2 and Rift, I don't save parses much anymore though. I know where I am.

I thought with all the game updates it would be creating alot of files though? But if I can safely put MMOs on a SSD, that sounds kind of amazing

 

[Tsavo]

I am a raid healer in EQ2 and Rift, I don't save parses much anymore though. I know where I am.

I thought with all the game updates it would be creating alot of files though? But if I can safely put MMOs on a SSD, that sounds kind of amazing

I've been playing WoW and EQ2 on my SSD for 11 months and it still has 100% life according to the SMART data.

You aren't going to wear out an SSD by playing MMOs on it.

 

[liddabit]

I've been playing WoW and EQ2 on my SSD for 11 months and it still has 100% life according to the SMART data.

You aren't going to wear out an SSD by playing MMOs on it.

You have made my day

That sticky post really scared me

 

[semo]

You have made my day

That sticky post really scared me

Chances are that something else will go wrong before your SSD wears out (firmware issue, controller fault, manufacturing defect, etc...). I usually recommend SSDs to anyone. Any other system upgrade, I advise on a case by case basis (some people ask me for RAM upgrades to make their PCs faster even though they have 2+GB already and only go to fb and youtube)

 

[Ryomitomo]

I have only written 1.3TB onto my SSD (host write) in about 6 months. I surf the web, browse forums, play Aion a couple of hours a day, a very typical user type of activity.

I do not think normal desktop environment will kill SSD fast. MMO only have major patches periodically, you are not going to push your SSD to the grave. Running benchmarks will kill it faster than MMO.

 

[liddabit]

Thanks guys!
Fears aside, will an SSD make the MMO experience alot better? I've noticed alot of people "poo poo" SSDs in the gaming community, but I think Mfenns is smarter than them, so I am trusting him. I can't wait til Newegg delivers to me

 

[Ryomitomo]

I think it makes overall computer experience better. Your boot up time will be amazing. Most of your programs will open up in half the normal time or less. Once you get used to SSD speed, it is very hard to move back to HDD.

In Aion, my game client loading time, map/instance loading time, object loading time are very fast, resulting in less stuttering when going into a busy area. I really don't know why poeple poo poo SSDs, so far I have been quite happy with mine, except for some random freezes I get once in a while. Hoping Intel will release a firmware patch to fix these issues.