Your thoughts on using SSD's with FSX Please

[ronvking]

Hi,

I have recently got hold of two SSD's of 120G to go with a 64G one I use for pagefile.sys. I can use one for FSX stuff but not all the files will fit as all my additions come to more than the SSD can hold.

So what's the best way to use the SSD. Scenery or FSX operating files? I tried aircraft already but the gauges didnt show on the VC so they got moved back on to the hard drive.

One is twice as fast as the first so will use the faster one for FSX stuff. Any thoughts on the subject worthy of debating please?

Thanks Ron

[P38man]

This should help you:
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?59145-Take-your-scenery-off-your-SSD-drive-to-save-space...by-P38man

[YoYo]

Im user of SSD with FSX but all my files are on SSD disc (200 Gb), only big photoscenery (like from Megascenery earth) are on other disc. Im very happy to use FSX on SSD - faster load menu, aircraft, no lags, no blurring with photoscenery ect. but now my FSX is a near quota of GB this disc - so here only poor thing - capasity of SSD.

[wombat666]

http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-revodrive-3-x2-pci-express-ssd.html (http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-revodrive-3-x2-pci-express-ssd.html)

Well, you could go for the 480G version of this drive and enjoy 1.5 GBS for only A$1,949.00 ...........................:kilroy:
Not sure about the 960G model.

Me, myself, I find a pair of OCZ VERTEX 3 240G drives at around A$500.00 each are more than adequate.
FTR, I run seperate FSX installations on each one and am picky about what aircraft and scenerey I use, at this point I use roughly 120G on each drive and can't see any significant increases needed yet.
And my OS plus the usual programs run on a third VERTEX 3 120G.

One note of caution, make sure your MoBo has adequate SATA 3 ports or the benefits of the newer SSD 3 Series will not be there.

[LouP]

I currently have a 120 gb SSD with W7 and BF3 on it and a 240gb SSD where my FSX lives. My 240gb SSD also contains all of my scenery including my ORBX stuff. I was worried about running out of space given the size of the ORBX scenery. I addressed this looking for a solution at FTX but my query went un-answered so it was nice to see a solution here if I should get to the point where I need to move my ORBX scenery. My question to those that moved the ORBX scenery off of the SSD is that do you see any kind of slowdown utilizing the HDD for the ORBX scenery?


What a great forum we have here! :salute:

LouP :gameon:

[big-mike]

LouP
look here
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?59145-Take-your-scenery-off-your-SSD-drive-to-save-space...by-P38man

I did it and it works great.
Michael

[LouP]

Thanks Mike,

I missed the part about the speed the first time I read it. I still have 42 gb left on my FSX SSD so plan on leaving the ORBX stuff there for now but will utilize this down the road for sure as I purchase more scenery.

LouP

[big-mike]

That`s the poblem with FSX----it grows and grows.......-
I have now 3 300GB VRaps running,copied the ORBX and OZx folders to an empty 300GB VRap.
I wish i could afford a 600GB VRap.
I am thinking about making a RAID 0 of two VRaps,but then i can make a new FSX setup.
Not really interested in.
Michael

[Bjoern]

My entire FSX installation and add-on scenery fits perfectly on a 70 Gb partition on my 120 Gb SSD.

[ronvking]

Umm, might have a go at "replanting" my FSX on the new SSD and put some of the extra scenery or aircraft onto the one thats about half full and see what I get in improvements. Noticing that some aircraft are framerate hoggers with the modern glass cockpits so be interesting to see what differences I get.

[PHo17]

SSD? Absolutely! but not before the prices are reasonable enough - perhaps within a year or so. My FSX is already more than 100 GB and growing, so I forget all tiny "cheap" SSD disks.

[bstolle]

As SSDs don't need to be defragged, and I very seldom switch sceneries my complete FSX needs 25GB + e.g 16GB for SoCal photoscenery. Lots of space left on the FSX dedicated 120GB SSD.

[wconkle]

I also was disappointed that ORBX didn't seem to support this option, and I had nearly filled my 120 Gb SSD. I had an old laptop sourced 2.5" drive that I installed, and wanted to move scenery to it, but it's been just sitting there ever since I looked at the ORBX support page.
I just tried the 'mklink' suggestion that P38man/Roger and Big Mike linked to, and it worked easily. I did it through the command line (I'm no expert there) and I didn't want to delete the existing files so I had to rename the (original) ORBX folder on my C: drive for it to work. But it did work.

Initial impression, based a a 'Fair Weather' flight at ORBX freeware airport Bowerman in the Baytower RV7, is that it works better than before. I have the graphics options turned way up (GTX460SE) and turning base for RWY 24 at 800 AGL (over the little city) I was showing 23 FPS. I didn't do any before and after comparison though, so this is only gut feel. Can anyone back me up on that?

I'm curious though, what will happen when I want to install the next chunk of ORBX scenery? And I did this 'mklink' process without knowing how to undo it, haha, so it's fine for now but I may have some research to do before the next North America series scenery is released. (I believe this sort of irritation is why ORBX did not want to provide support for moving scenery).

At any rate, I can now free up 18.5 Gb of precious space on my SSD HD.

[P38man]

Once you have done it there is nothing more to do.

Just install new orbx scenery as per normal as if it was still on the SSD. Think of it as the ORBX is still under the FSX directory LOGICALLY.

Just defrag after a new orbx scenery install.

Glad it helped.

My understanding is (without checking properly yet - be warned) that if you have Windows 7 or Vista you can simply delete the link but if it is XP there is this command line to do it which is the better way for that.

[LouP]

WHOOAAAOOAO there... maybe it's just the way I read it but just in case... DO NOT defragg the SSD.

LouP

[wconkle]

Thanks for the info and thanks for the technique. I am very happy with it. And I certainly won't defrag the SSD! I did find the link in the FSX folder, so it should be easy to revert. It's always nice to have a problem solved, and I owe it to SOH once again.

Wes

[P38man]

WHOOAAAOOAO there... maybe it's just the way I read it but just in case... DO NOT defragg the SSD.

LouP

As the Orbx scenery is not on the SSD after doing this I was saying to defrag the Orbx scenery which would now be on the hard drive.

Sorry not clear.

[LouP]

Thought you might have meant that but better safe than sorry I say.

LouP :)

[ronvking]

Well I managed to move FSX across without too many problems, used a program call winhex to search for "c:\FSX" and changed them to "G:\FSX" and only had to reinstall the PMDG aircraft, all else no problems. I have an improvement on the frames rates but even better is that it runs a lot less jerky than before (wasn't too bad but was there).

Had to cull a few paint schemes and took out missions to get it on the SSD which now has 1 gig spare after the UK VFR scenery was loaded but glad I've done it.

Just a warning, winhex is only for the person who knows what he/she is doing, not for the faint hearted or fat fingered tinkerer.

Ron

[stansdds]

I expect my next computer will feature a SSD. Every time my install of FSX stutters or pauses, the HD light is on and it's searching for something. Even though my FSX install is on a fast WD Caviar drive, occupying it's own directory (the first directory placed on this drive) it still needs to load scenery and will occasionally stutter or pause while accessing the files.

[alehead]

In general, an SSD will improve loading times, but generally has little to no effect on frame rates. The only thing that will guarantee a higher frame rate is improving the CPU or overclocking a current CPU.

I run FSX off a dedicated 240Gb OCZ drive, have great loading times even with larger, more complex scenery locations... I can recommend it, but only if you have the cash spare... remember that you can get Raptors for less than half the price for the same capacity...

Oh, and do not defrag the SSDs, you should only perform TRIMs from time to time...

Andrew

[Daube]

Could you please provide me some explanations on this "TRIM" feature ?
I have two SSD drives, one for Windows and one for FSX, but I never "configured" them or perform any specific action. I heard about this TRIM before, but I really don't know what it is about...

[LouP]

From what I understand, if you have Windows 7 you are using it. It is something W7 does when saving to the SSD to save space. Someone else needs to get technical here cuz I can't lol.

LouP

[fxsttcb]

Could you please provide me some explanations on this "TRIM" feature ?
I have two SSD drives, one for Windows and one for FSX, but I never "configured" them or perform any specific action. I heard about this TRIM before, but I really don't know what it is about...Trim is for SSDs only, native to Windows 7, and is transparent to the user. Trim, Garbage Collection, and Defrag are kinda synonymous.
Trim basically cleans file fragments left behind by file moves/deletes, and does it "on the fly" with no user input required.

If you have an SSD, be sure Defragging for that drive(s) is NOT enabled. Defragging an SSD will reduce it's life span...Don

[stansdds]

That's good information to know.

[Daube]

Thanks a lot for the informations about that TRIM. :)

[OleBoy]

This topic is roughly over a year old. I stumbled onto it while doing a search in Google.
I'm looking to buy an SSD for FSX/Prepar3D. Considering this topic is over a year old I thought it might be a good one to revive.

What would you guys/gals suggest is my best option as an SSD just used by the flight simulator?
I'm thinking about 240-300 gigish should be large enough.

Who knows, if the price is right I may spring for a 120ssd for the OS also. Which is W7/64.