Latest SSDs

[Lataxe]

There seems to be one or three new SSDs recently released that are made to operate directly within the PCI Express slot of the motherboard. The latest Intel SSDs of this type seem to receive rave reviews about their performance but cost a small fortune.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/06/intels-pci-e-910-series-ssd-reviewed-blazing-fast-even-under/

Has anybody tried any of the PCI Express-mounted SSDs (not just an Intel); and running Trainz from one? If so I would be interested to hear of your experiences.

I have a single 240Gb Corsair 3 SSD in my PC (i5 overclocked CPU and an AMD Radeon 7970 GPU) which certainly makes Trainz go very nicely even on a 2560 X 1600 monitor. But one is always interested in new toys (I mean essential computer gubbins).

I'm wondering if it may be worth getting an additional SSD to dedicate to Trainz, with the original SSD used for the OS and programs. Trainz downloads soon fill up that storage space!

Any comments or views welcome.

 

[rjhowie]

I'm a bit in the dark still about SSD's. I wouldn't begin to know which size you would need to accomodate Trainz??

 

[johnwhelan]

SSD's performance is throttled by the interface so having it mounted on a PCI slot is very nice. However datacenters always have a demand for higher disk access and if you can add more databases to an existing server then you maybe able to save a database license. Oracle database licenses used to be around $70,000 per core so it makes financial sense to put tho fastest disks you can on one of these servers.

Disk access is three parts, one is getting to the track or head movement, this is zero on an SSD, second is rotational speed again it isn't a consideration on SSDs, third is how fast can you get the data in or out and that is an issue with SSDs. So with lots of small files loading them is faster with an SSD. However Trainz when checked with perfmon doesn't actually use the hard disk much, other than reading the assets in, it keeps things in memory. So running with 4 gigs of memory and a 64 bit operating system should be a priority.

When I tested TS2010 on a new machine running from an SSD or a Raptor the difference was about one frame per second, so yes it runs faster but you have to balance that against the cost. My tests were done with just the basic game as installed running from the .ja files? downloading more content may have a different impact.

Size wise, Right click your trainz folder and look at the porperties, that's how much SSD you need. The 240 gig ones that are now becoming available look about the right size, I run a 300 gig Raptor and TS12 takes up about 100 gigs but you need some room for expansion and for house keeping.

Cheerio John

 

[clam1952]

I've just added a 240GB SSD for TS12 actually comes in at 223GB in windows, using around 70GB for TS12 at present and a 120GB for the OS, this is in addition to three existing sata 3 drives, had to move one to another PC. Both SSD's are OCZ Agility 3's. I can revert if anything untoward happens as the original system is still in situ. Well worth the upgrade so far, which is a week old.
the original plan was a 120 for Trainz and a 60 for the OS however I got the SSD's on a 24hour special offer, worth signing up for Ebuyers newsletters.

Cloned the OS using Paragons backup and restore, free version, if anyone is considering an SSD for a system drive, took half an hour in total to backup and restore, no need to mess around installing Win7 and "fighting" with the activation.

 

[Lataxe]

Mr Whelan,

I take the point about Trainz framerate being largely determined by the speed of the processor (and GPU?) if and when most of the content for a session is loaded into memory rather than got "as & when" from the storage medium. However, with larger routes (more geographical extension, more trains/drivers and crucially more assets involved) it seems to take quite a while for everything to load when the viewpoint is changed from one driver to another - if one is using a spinning hard disk. Conversely, the delay in viewpoint-change time is negligible when using the SSD to host Trainz content.

And the whole game loads much faster at the start of a session, with an SSD.

But my interest at the moment is with the possibility of getting a second SSD because the first 240Gb SSD is slowly filling up with both Trainz content and additional programs/Windows7 stuff. I keep all data (except that for Trainz) on a separate spinning HD. The Windows paging file and the indexing file are also moved over to the spinning HD rather than left with the OS on the SSD, which frees-up nearly 18Gb of SSD space.

So, at present the 240Gb SSD hosts around 140Gb - plenty space left as yet but, even with careful housekeeping, that free space is going to shrink, as I use both TS2010 and TS2012. (I use TS10 for British stuff and to play at making/merging routes; TS12 is used for foreign stuff).

If I do get an additinal SSD I could just get another of the same type as I already have, as there is a free 6Gb SATA connection on the motherboard. But the potential increase in speed of a PCI Express-mounted SSD, as well as it's increased resilience, seems to be "the future" so I was really hoping someone out there had accumulated some experience of running such a thing........

 

[johnwhelan]

Mr Whelan,

I take the point about Trainz framerate being largely determined by the speed of the processor (and GPU?) if and when most of the content for a session is loaded into memory rather than got "as & when" from the storage medium. However, with larger routes (more geographical extension, more trains/drivers and crucially more assets involved) it seems to take quite a while for everything to load when the viewpoint is changed from one driver to another - if one is using a spinning hard disk. Conversely, the delay in viewpoint-change time is negligible when using the SSD to host Trainz content.

And the whole game loads much faster at the start of a session, with an SSD.

But my interest at the moment is with the possibility of getting a second SSD because the first 240Gb SSD is slowly filling up with both Trainz content and additional programs/Windows7 stuff. I keep all data (except that for Trainz) on a separate spinning HD. The Windows paging file and the indexing file are also moved over to the spinning HD rather than left with the OS on the SSD, which frees-up nearly 18Gb of SSD space.

So, at present the 240Gb SSD hosts around 140Gb - plenty space left as yet but, even with careful housekeeping, that free space is going to shrink, as I use both TS2010 and TS2012. (I use TS10 for British stuff and to play at making/merging routes; TS12 is used for foreign stuff).

If I do get an additinal SSD I could just get another of the same type as I already have, as there is a free 6Gb SATA connection on the motherboard. But the potential increase in speed of a PCI Express-mounted SSD, as well as it's increased resilience, seems to be "the future" so I was really hoping someone out there had accumulated some experience of running such a thing........

I'm booting from a 37.2 gig SSD running windows 7, its tight but doable even with the sleep files on the SSD. It does take a bit of house keeping from time to time though. The biggest problem is software wanting to install to c: drive.

The enterprise class SSDs will always have the edge both for speed and reliability. It depends what you are after. Most people don't run with ecc memory but it is more reliable even if it is more expensive. Adding a second SSD sometime on the sata connection will not preclude adding on a PCI SSD later on.

Cost wise, Newegg.com Enterprise PCI SSD drives 1.2 TB are around $4,000 a 240 gig SSD is $150 UK prices will be more. For the moment I think a conventional SSD is the more cost effective. Does that answer your question? The other issue is drivers, Enterprise class drives aren't very common on home computers so the drivers might not be so reliable.

If you have the money and want to spend it fine, in my youth we all had BSA and Triumph 650 motorcycles etc one whose grandmother had died and left him some money. He had a BMW with clip ons and a racing seat, very reliable, top speed was 98 but it would do 98 all day, the BSA machines were faster but tended to throw con rod after an hour or so of high speed riding they were a lot cheaper though.

Cheerio John

 

[SuperFudd]

Single Sided Disks are so 70's!

 

[rjhowie]

Thanks for that info John.

Bobby

 

[johnwhelan]

Single Sided Disks are so 70's!

Nice one, I was on a train recently coming back from Montreal, the carriage was crowded with students who had been looking at various universities. Next to me in the window seat was one who looked aghast when I brought out a portable CD player to listen to some music. "That's so 90's!" as she brought out her mp3 player.

I felt my age.

Cheerio John

 

[jointedrail]

I have recently switched to a SSD drive specifically for my TRS install. While I not yet tried the PCI SSD's I can say with 100% certainty that TRS runs so much better on the SSD. The difference (for me) has been night and day. I moved my Trainz install plus 120GB's of content in no time at all. Best part was I had to do an EDR which took under 2 mins to complete where in the past has taken several hours. I may check out these PCI mounted SSD's....


Mike

 

[mjmj]

If I do get an additinal SSD I could just get another of the same type as I already have, as there is a free 6Gb SATA connection on the motherboard. But the potential increase in speed of a PCI Express-mounted SSD, as well as it's increased resilience, seems to be "the future" so I was really hoping someone out there had accumulated some experience of running such a thing........

Reviews make PCI-E drives sound amazing. http://www.maximumpc.com/search/revodrive

 

[KenGreen]

I have a Seagate Momentus 500GB hybrid drive with all of my Trainz installs on. This seems to give good results.

Ken