FSX and SSD

[Nate Johns]

Hi all,

 

So, considering a new build here in the near future. Among other things, this will be our first SSD build.

 

Right now looking at a 64GB SSD with larger platters for the D/E drives. Possibly larger SSDs are not out of the question, but first...

 

Are there any notable performance increases for FSX while utilizing an SSD?

 

Reason I ask is mostly about deciding SSD size. We're definitely getting one for boot performance and essential applications. Just not sure whether FSX and/or other games get a big benefit out of it.

 

I thought maybe texture and mesh loading would work better with an SSD in place... going to have 8 Gigs of RAM in place as well. I just don't know how the graphics logic works in FSX.

 

Thanks!

 

~Nate

[Luke Kolin]

Are there any notable performance increases for FSX while utilizing an SSD?

 

I've found that loading mesh and textures is a little faster, but keep in mind my last drive was a Velociraptor. I've not found a huge performance boost going from that drive. If you're going from a 7200pm drive, you'll see a noticeable difference.

 

I recently inherited a 27" iMac at the office, with a quad-core i7. It feels noticeably slower than my Core 2 Duo MacBook because the laptop has a 160GB SSD, and my home PC has a 256GB SSD as its sole drive. Once you go SSD, you'll never want a rotational drive ever again.

 

Reason I ask is mostly about deciding SSD size. We're definitely getting one for boot performance and essential applications. Just not sure whether FSX and/or other games get a big benefit out of it.

 

My personal advice would be to get something bigger than 64GB; at such a small size you'll be constantly worrying about whether you have enough space. Get at least a 128GB model, or the Intel 160GB X-25M.

 

Cheers!

 

Luke