Solid State Drive?

[railroy19]

Looking at the options that can be installed in a new computer. And they offer several solid state drives. Not sure if I could run trainz or Railworks on this type of drive or even if these sims would work on one. Also I was going to upgrade the power supply to an 850 watt size is this overkill? Have no idea if a solid state drive is faster or what. I'm doing my homework before I buy the last computer I think I will buy. Has anyone here ever dealt with the company called Cyberpower? They build gaming computers that look very good, the one I'm looking at is called the Black Pearl Model. I always had a Dell but they no longer let you customize your computers like before.

Thanks so much for your time and help.
Bob

 

[pcas1986]

My boot drive is a SSD and boot times are phenomenal. I also have an SSD devoted to Trainz but it is no faster than a decent HDD although I suspect my controller chip may have a problem. There are quite a few on the forums with SSDs solely for Trainz purposes. I cannot help you with your question on Cyberpower.

Note that SSDs may have a limited life and should not be optimised.

There is a web page that will help you calculate the optimum power supply for your required system and I'm sure Google will help you find it. You need to ensure that the power supply has the requisite outlets to match video card requirements.

 

[railroy19]

Thanks for the information Paul. I kind of figured this was just some hype about SSD's. I will opt out on that purchase and just put my money on a better video card. My Dell computer is pretty fast right now so the new one I'm looking at I'm sure will meet my needs.

Thanks again.
Bob

 

[boc61]

I have 2 SSD's on my machine, one for the OS and one for Trainz. SSD technology has come far in the past several years with the addition of TRIM for example, and their lifespans have increased. I think they do make a difference. I love mine. To offset the lower capacity I also have a 1TB HDD for storage.Since it is still a fairly new technology, there will be myths and misconceptions. Instead of just asking for our opinions, which is fine, do a little research. http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/beginners-guide/

As far as Cyberpower goes, I've never dealt with them, but from my research when I was ready for a new machine I found their reputation to be spotty. Some people were very satisfied, but others complained of shoddy work,
refurbished parts passed off as new, and awful customer support. Once again, do a little digging and see what you find.

 

[hminky]

Have bought two computers from CyberPower and they have been great.

Wouldn't run Trainz on anything but an SSD. Have found that having multi-installs with fewer routes works better too.

Harold

 

[lewisner]

I agree with all the previous posts. Regarding the power supply if you are getting a "store bought" or "made to measure" PC they will put in a PSU of the correct size but I think it extremely unlikely that you will need an 850 watt, especially as SSD's use LESS power than normal HDD's.
As for the capacity of the SSD, I bought my first one (an OCZ Vertex 3 240GB) a couple of years ago but the price has gone right down since then so if you got one that size it would have plenty of room for Windows and Trainz and you could have a conventional HDD for "everything else".

Personally I would say you should build your own PC - its daunting and I made many expensive mistakes when I built my first one, but if you get one of the major PC mags such as "Custom PC" they give a list of the parts required from a "budget PC" to an "Elite Ultra PC" - the parts are all guaranteed to work together. Also I favour shopping around and especially buying used items on Ebay - with care you can save a lot of money.