Solid State Drive

[spongebob206]

It was recommended to me to purchase a solid state drive to speed up FSX. And it worked.

PC Specs

P4 3.06
2 gb Ram
512 graphics card
70 gb sata drive

Purchased a 32gb SSD, Loaded windows and FSX and what a difference. Max out all graphics settings and it runs smooth. I would however recommend a 64 gb drive as I have used it all up with out loading all aircraft and scenery. bugger. Took ages to convince the wife, but the kids brought it for Fathers day.

These range in price, I purchase a ONYX series SSD. Trademe new $164 delivered (Ifocus Computers in Manakau) These guys were really good to deal with.
Should of gone for the 64gd which was $100 more.

Cheers

Derek

[IslandBoy77]

Hey Derek - that's very interesting. All the reports I've read & heard say that the SSDs are too slow for simming due to their poor tx rates on large files. I'm surprised you are getting such a lift with fairly basic specs (no offense). Are you sure you have ALL the sliders maxed out? And are the results the same at all altitudes? What about with complex airports? If what you're saying is correct, those of us spending money on 8GB of RAM, 1GB GDDR5 video cards and quad-core CPUs are wasting our time!

[pilot.masman]

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Sep 13 2010, 06:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If what you're saying is correct, those of us spending money on 8GB of RAM, 1GB GDDR5 video cards and quad-core CPUs are wasting our time!

hope not, im about to spend $1700 on an upgrade not including an SSD. so i hope the difference isnt that large... although i am running raid0 at the moment with two standard 250gb sata drives, i hope that is good enough for now

interesting topic though, i saw a review on these beauties a while back and ive just noticed them starting to crop up on playtech. http://www.playtech.co.nz/afawcs0139235/CA...uctdetails.html

[Ian Warren]

FS9 on my older sata drive 7200 and FSX on a raptor 10200

[IslandBoy77]

Yes, I hope Derek has made an error in his information somewhere. Imagine, being able to use an old P4 with only 2GB of RAM & a 512MB vid card to get FSX @ full noise! Cool! I'd sell my Quad rig, buy an older beastie with an SSD, and have a few hundred bucks in my pocket... Perhaps he has a Quad 3GHz and 12GB of RAM?

[spongebob206]

Yep

It's as I say. FSX and VLC

Scenery and aircraft at max.

Godzone Wellington working well.
Have only just loaded and flown about 2 hrs in the baron, no freeze ups and smooth graphics but will keep you all posted.

Lets Hope

[Nosecone]

Hi spongebob206
Wondering how the SSD is going. May consider the is an option, as opposed to buying a new system. My current system
Dual core P4 3.4
2 gig ram
Asus gforce 512 meg 7600 pci e silent

Cheers

Rhys

[gruschow]

I had a 300 gb Corsair SSD. Before that I had a Velociraptor. On my new computer I have a WD 7200.
It is my opinion that there was no noticable difference between any of them. Certainly not $1000 worth of difference.

My only computer use is almost exclusively FSX and my computers are designed for that. I have had five new computers in the past year in my search for perfection. It is my considered opinion that the most important item is the CPU followed by the video cards, and a well designed case. HD r/w speed seems to make no difference.

Jack

[IslandBoy77]

QUOTE (gruschow @ Sep 22 2010, 08:45 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I had a 300 gb Corsair SSD. Before that I had a Velociraptor. On my new computer I have a WD 7200.
It is my opinion that there was no noticable difference between any of them. Certainly not $1000 worth of difference.

My only computer use is almost exclusively FSX and my computers are designed for that. I have had five new computers in the past year in my search for perfection. It is my considered opinion that the most important item is the CPU followed by the video cards, and a well designed case. HD r/w speed seems to make no difference.

Jack

Yes - without wanting to cast aspersions at Derek, I'm still scratching my head at how he can get "maxed FSX" on an old system (no offense, but it is old...) just by adding an SSD. Sure, a good SSD should deliver much faster through-put of data which is always good, but if the CPU / RAM / Vid aren't up to spewing more data out onto the screen... well, that's that. I'm wondering what it is that is missing in this discussion that will make it make sense...

[spongebob206]

Hi Guys

Beats Me

Running beaut. maybe I noticed it due an old machine and faster loading of graphic?

This is running a treat. Was considering upgrading but not at present.

Not sure what difference you will see on a faster machine.

I was told to load Windows and FSX on the same drive. Will help on speed of loading.

I am so happy. Not lock ups, beaut graphics

[IslandBoy77]

QUOTE (spongebob206 @ Sep 22 2010, 04:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Guys

Beats Me

Running beaut. maybe I noticed it due an old machine and faster loading of graphic?

This is running a treat. Was considering upgrading but not at present.

Not sure what difference you will see on a faster machine.

I was told to load Windows and FSX on the same drive. Will help on speed of loading.

I am so happy. Not lock ups, beaut graphics

Hmmm. So to recap, you have a Pentium 4-class single-core computer with 2GB of RAM & a 512MB video card, running FSX with SP1 & 2 loaded (or poss Acceleration pack?) - and you have every single Display Setting slider within each category full over to the right - is that correct? And by category, I don't mean in the main screen where you can shove sliders to the right, but through going to customisation & pushing each individual slider to the right (example here of screens I'm talking about http://www.exmixer.com/FSXvideoStream.shtml). Also, do you have all the options with each section ticked on? (like DX10 preview, Lens Flare, Light Bloom, Advanced Animations, Hi Res 3D cockpit etc) Also, what screen resolution do you have set (mine's on HD - 1920 x 1080 @ 32)? Do you have Anisotropic with Anti-aliasing switched on? And what are your traffic settings on? (for land and sea traffic I've got: road vehicles 50%, ships & ferries 30%, leisure boats 30%)

I'm picking that perhaps a number of the higher settings may not be switched on due to hardware limitations, and that will explain your "beaut" performance to those of us on much newer systems who are scratching our heads on how you're doing it! Note that if the water is set to max, you should see a fairly big dip in frame-rates, especially where there is a reasonable amount of water combined with some fairly complex airport / city scenery - like Auckland Supercity, for example.

Lastly, perhaps you could switch your frame-rates display on & give us an idea of what you're getting in places like Wellington with RealNZ scenery loaded.

Cheers!

[spongebob206]

P4 with FSX Acceleration and Nvidia Geforce 8400GS 512 card
Yep all sliders across unless i'm missing something..

Only have VLC and NZWN loaded so far.

Not sure about dx10 etc. Water is on max and looks awesome. Sparkles like it should depending on the location of the sun.

Screen res 1280x1024
Will check land sea setting shortly.

Have had an IT friend set this up for me.

I only have a 32 mb ssd at present but we will install aa 64gb shortly as I am out of memory.

Looking forward to my flight tonight. Have flown around the country low level. Awesome.

At NZNV at present. Up to Milford tonight I hope.

Cheers

[pilot.masman]

QUOTE (spongebob206 @ Sep 23 2010, 04:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Screen res 1280x1024

thar ya go. screen res makes a MASSIVE difference to game speeds and FPS.

[IslandBoy77]

Interesting. Yes, screen res will certainly make a diff. I've had to tinker with my sliders - most at 80% or better to right except water. I get 12-13 fps with complex napier airport loaded, but get 30+ (up to 70 or so) elsewhere. RealNZ WN is usually a FPS killer, as are the other RealNZ add-ons. Mike's photoreal for Abel Tasman and CHC are good - still get 30+ there. Have taken the plunge & ordered an SSD today (200mb/sec read), so will be interesting to see if that makes any diff. I'm only going to put FSX onto it, as will get much better "bang for buck" by running FSX by itself on there than having Windows crowd things. Also means I can easily get away with a 64GB SSD rather than an 80GB or 128GB (which are still stupidly expensive).

Stay tuned...

[spongebob206]

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Sep 23 2010, 06:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm only going to put FSX onto it, as will get much better "bang for buck" by running FSX by itself on there than having Windows crowd things.

I was told Windows has to be on the drive to optimise performance.
Would be interested to see your results.

Enjoy and all the best.

Hope your system impresses as mine has.

ps mines only a 125mb/sec read.

Cheers

[IslandBoy77]

QUOTE (spongebob206 @ Sep 23 2010, 06:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was told Windows has to be on the drive to optimise performance.
Would be interested to see your results.

Enjoy and all the best.

Hope your system impresses as mine has.

Cheers

Thanks!

No - having Windows on the main drive is only good for initial startup of the PC and possibly for firing FSX up. After that, the workload of graphics comes down solely to how quickly FSX can grab the data out of it's folders. So, one DOESN'T want Windows farting about on the same drive while FSX is trying to do it's thing.

On balance, you'll probably get slightly better performance having Windows / FSX on 1 SSD drive than I am getting having them split on 2 standard drives: hard to say, as I'm not gonna spend money on 2 SSDs to test the theory. But at least with me currently having 2 x SATA 2 drives (3, actually - I've got another drive with the Windows VM file on it), we'll be able to see what lift, if any, having FSX on an SSD has. If I'm feeling keen, I might even try putting Win on the SSD & FSX on a SATA to see how that goes, and maybe even try Win / FSX on the same SSD but with the VM file on a SATA. All depends how keen I am... (which at the moment, isn't very )

[spongebob206]

Good Luck Mate.

I wanted FSX on only the SSD but was recommended against this.

Look forward to your results.

ps, My SSD is a Sata 2 drive. not sure if they all are. (my limited experience)
Cheers

[spongebob206]

How did you get on Islandboy77?

[IslandBoy77]

QUOTE (spongebob206 @ Oct 14 2010, 04:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How did you get on Islandboy77?

I'm embarrassed to say that the drive is still sitting in it's packaging! Just haven't been able to cut the time free to sort it. This weekend...

[spongebob206]

Good Luck mate

Just interested in having Windows on Sata Drive and FSX on SSD.

Cheers