It’s not often that I get to write a truly “geeky” article, but every once in a while I can manage to sneak one in under the guise of blogging for LOTRO. In this case, I think it’s also pretty relevant in that my recent foray into computer hardware also has a true benefit on my gaming time. So, if you’ll bear with me I’m going to put on my “nerd hat” and talk to you about the wonderful world of Solid State Drives!
WAIT!
Don’t run away! I promise not to get too technical, but instead I’ll do my best to sticking to what I think is relevant to you as a gamer. First, let me explain that my computer system is just about four years old. At the time I put it together (it’s a desktop machine that I built myself) it was pretty solid gaming machine; and it still is. Of course it’s more lower-middle class than it is upper-middle class, but it still handles LOTRO and most other games quite well at their highest resolutions. I won’t bore you with the specs, but for those who are curious we’ll just say it’s a Core 2 Quad Core with 8 GB of RAM.
However, even with these specs one thing that I had noticed lately were longer loading times that were occurring when I played LOTRO. I also noticed a lot of slowing down client-side when a bunch of particle effects were going off and when other kinds of artwork would load. At first I didn’t really mind, but the slowdowns kept occurring more frequently and my frustration started to build. It finally got to the point where I was thinking about purchasing a new computer, but when I got an email about a deal on Solid State Drives I wondered if an upgrade wouldn’t go a long ways to resolving my issues.
Why Use a Solid State Drive?
So why are Solid State Drives (SSD’s) so good for gaming? Well, to be honest they aren’t always so good. In fact, at times it really depends on the game, how it manages files, and sometimes even the solid state drive being used. As Tom’s Hardware discusses in a very in-depth article, a game like World of WarCraft (and LOTRO) that uses large archives to store game assets (artwork, music, etc.) that have to be decompressed during gameplay will find a large advantage in performance. Games that don’t rely upon this kind of storage may not see an actual increase in performance.
One large downside to SSD’s is that they’re pretty limited on space when compared to magnetic drives; even if you’re willing to pay top dollar. So, if you’re a pretty heavy user of your Documents, Music, Video, etc. folder on your C:\ drive you might find yourself using features such as Windows 7’s Libraries so that your larger files can be stored on a second hard drive. For example all the files I use to put together the podcasts are now stored on my previous C:\ drive.
Why? Because my profile for Windows before the SSD installation was over 300 Gigabytes, and my new SSD is only 256 Gigabytes! Needless to say I had to prune a few things out of there before transferring my data over and podcast files, home movies, and music were the main culprits taking up most of that space. So, before you take the plunge I would suggest seeing ho much space certain files are taking up on your hard drive before you make a purchase. You can use a progam like WinDirStat to find that information out for yourself. Also, If you don’t have room for a second drive internally I would strongly suggest getting an external hard drive, looking into cloud storage, purchasing a NAS, moving the data to another computer, or rethinking moving to an SSD. As Goldenstar can attest to, in these days of movie files, iTunes libraries, and large gaming footprints it’s really hard to limit yourself to such a little amount of space.
Note: If you want to get really fancy you could even use symlinks to redirect certain folders (I did this to my profile’s Downloads folder) to other drives to save storage space. However, I don’t advise doing this to your entire profile, your AppData folder, or even your Documents folder as you’ll suffer a big performance hit in doing so. I know because I tried it.
What Hardware do I need?
This can be kind of tricky depending on your current computer. For us the SSD Drives we bought
How do I switch to an SSD?
Well, if you don’t care about keeping your data then it’s pretty easy. You need to install the drive, choose it as the first hard drive to boot from in the BIOS, and then boot from your installation software. However, if you want to preserve your data then it becomes a bit trickier. For myself and Goldenstar I had no desire to start over fresh if I could avoid it. In retrospect I would have been up a lot faster if I had started fresh, but I wouldn’t have learned as much about the process either.
The guide that was the most help to me was Lifehackers Guide: How to Migrate to a Solid-State Drive Without Reinstalling Windows. (I’m sorry that I don’t have anything for Apple or Linux users, but I would assume the process is fairly similar and that there are some pretty good tools and guides out there already.) It covers pretty much everything I did except for moving the User folders. As I stated before, I suffered a performance hit when I did this so I just made use of Windows Libraries. If space becomes an issue in the future then I’ll probably use symlinks to migrate some of the larger folders over to another drive, but I’m still hesitant to do that. For now it’s not a real concern as I have plenty of space.
Also note that Goldenstar was already using an SSD, but hers was 128 GB while the new one was 256 GB. Her process was a bit different (and much easier). I was still able to use the same tools listed in the guide, but since she has a laptop I used a USB Hard Drive Converter Cable
Is it Worth it?
To be frank, it was INCREDIBLY WORTH IT. It has breathed new life into my machine and it has made me a believer in Solid State Drives. While I still think that they are expensive my hope is that most people looking to purchase one will find some on sale this holiday season. For those of you thinking of getting new computers I would strongly suggest putting forth the extra money in getting an SSD as well (although in some cases it might be cheaper for you to purchase the SSD elsewhere and then follow the lifehacker guide to migrate your new OS over).
And if SSD’s are still outside your price point don’t worry as they will certainly only come down in price and go up in storage capacity as time goes on.
November 21, 2012 at 8:21 am
I put a SSD on my 6yr old computer and it has definitely helped LOTRO. I put it in the day after ROR came out. I had log in problems so I took the time to update the infrastructure. I can’t tell how much it’s helped with Rohan (Slowhan) because of the lag, bugs and what not. The older areas run like a dream, high FPS and low load screen times. An SSD and GameBooster really help if you have an older computer.
November 21, 2012 at 9:05 am
I use an SSD and its great, but I also think having a HDD alongside is the way to go. SSD’s really do nothing for data, stuff like music files, documents etc. So storing this kind of data on an SSD can be very inefficient price-wise.
Also a really useful tip I have is with regards to steam and symlinks. As steam “requires” all your games to be installed in the same place it means you need to have them all on your SSD or HDD. What I wanted was just a few of my games on my SSD with the bulk of my older under played games on the HDD. It possible to set up a symlink from the default folder to a directory on the other drive to achieve this.
November 21, 2012 at 2:21 pm
Great tip!
November 21, 2012 at 9:55 am
I use an SSD since about a year, and for all games so far it’s been an incredible improvement in all loading times.
I use Corsair Performance Pro now. A little more expensive, but the Sandforce-based SSD I tried before was giving me a lot of grief (and random blackscreens), so I would recommend a Marvell controller based SSD.
November 21, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Good tip. Yeah, it seems to be pretty hit or miss with SSD’s so you really need to look at the reviews on them before making a purchase.
November 21, 2012 at 10:03 am
Thanks for posting this! I’ve spent a lot of time in the last week thinking about options for a new laptop, and I’d been on the fence about whether a SSD might be worth it. It’s great to hear about your experience!
November 21, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Glad to help! I really think you’ll find that it’s worth the extra money.
November 21, 2012 at 10:42 am
I migrated my OS to an SSD a few months back while switching mostly everything else to a backup HDD, and it was a great decision. (Even with having some firmware issues with the SSD that led to random BSODs before I found a fix.) My system runs much more smoothly, my FPS/game performance is great, and in fact I regularly run LOTRO with another MMO in the background simultaneously with little to no detectable performance loss. What can I say, I like multitasking! The only thing I could never quite resolve is that LOTRO still insists on directing screenshots and the like to the Documents folder on C:.. even though Windows thinks the Documents folder is on D:. Must have misconfigured something!
November 21, 2012 at 11:10 am
In my country the whole concept of SSD drive doesn’t exist and i’m amazing about this article, so i have a question.
An SSD it’s a card, like a memory card that it’s used in a phone mobile device as extra storage? Are you saying i should intall lotro in an SSD storage card like those and keep it always plugged into my computer? (Which i can because it allows it)?
Thanks in advantage.
November 21, 2012 at 11:38 am
An SSD normally looks like a normal 2.5″ hard disk. For a normal laptop it’s just to switch out the HDD. Mind – you’re switching it out then, so you would need to reinstall everything including the OS.
This is the one I’m using:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/10/corsair-unveils-performance-pro-series-ssds-loads-em-with-6gb/
that page has at least one picture.
For a desktop you need a 2.5″ to 3.5″ mounting metal thingie. Most SSDs come with that.
Inside the actual HDD-like box is just a (fast! big!) flash memory card and a controller.
November 21, 2012 at 11:40 am
No don’t confuse an SD card (Secure Digital card) with an SSD (solid state drive). An SSD and a HDD (hard disk drive) are similar, my SSD uses exactly the same connections as my HDD (SATA3 and a connection to my PSU; power supply unit), the difference is how they store data.
You can get external USB3 drives, which are a bit slower. Be aware though USB3 is not yet completely standard. Many are USB2 ports which are MUCH slower. For reference SATA3 6Gb/s, USB3 5Gb/s and USB2 0.5Gb/s.
What I own is http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-256GB-Internal-Solid-State/dp/B004W2JL2A
November 21, 2012 at 2:50 pm
I see, that was my problem, i was confusing SSD with SD cards.
Thank you for the answers.
November 21, 2012 at 11:24 am
I’m glad you posted this. I’m experiencing a lot of the same issues that you describe, so it’s good to know that switching to an SSD is an option. Thanks!
November 21, 2012 at 12:55 pm
I switched over to an SSD back in June for LOTRO & it is definitely worth it. The game loads very quickly when first starting up, my time went from 3-5 minutes to under 1 after changing drives. Games like Guild Wars 2 & Planetside 2 also run great with little to no lag.
November 21, 2012 at 3:34 pm
This is something I’ve been talking about doing for a couple years. Maybe I’ll finally treat myself to a SSD for Christmas or something this year…
November 21, 2012 at 5:06 pm
Maybe in the next 2 to 3 years, until now, everything runs just fine.
November 21, 2012 at 11:10 pm
I have changed to ssd’s in all of my machines because of LOTRO laggy loading time. Totally worth it to anyone who is asking. Night and day…..
November 22, 2012 at 6:47 am
I switched to SSD for the system drive, including the games installations 1,5 years ago. It was definetly worth the extra cost. The system and games loads so much faster! In LotRO, when you start the game, use the milestone/travel skills or enter instances, you save so much time!
Since I changed the price for SSDs has dropped significantly (about half the price per GB).
For photos, movies I still use an additional HDD.
The conversion from HDD to SSD is a bit tricky (due to the ‘alignment’ referred to in the article), but there are other tools (like Acronis True Image 2012 and later), that do the alignment correction automatically, when transferring a HDD image to an SSD.
Stephan
November 22, 2012 at 9:09 am
I made kind of a “soft transition”. I have a 2011 iMac that is not easily upgradeable (expensive, not easy to mount the disc into the case) but which has a FireWire 800 connector. After seeing how fast a SSD still can be when connected to that port in an external case ( http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5OzZ9ranZn8 ) I decided to go that route instead of putting the SSD into the Mac which is not that easy to do. So I bought a 128GB SSD and a FireWire 800 capable external case (German Amazon link: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B005KIQOOI/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers )and put all the MMO’s I play onto that disc, for example both Lotro clients (Mac & PC) and load times now depends on Lotro-server performance and not my system anymore.
November 23, 2012 at 10:04 am
Will installing only LOTRO on the SSD improve game play or do you have to move the OS also? I understand the benefits of moving the OS to the SSD but is it necessary if you do not want to go through the hassle and planning to keep the disc drive installed anyways.
November 23, 2012 at 11:45 am
LOTRO benefits greatly from an SSD even if you leave the operating system on a regular hard disk drive. I added a tiny (30 GB) SSD to my computer without moving the operating system. I then installed LOTRO on the SSD where it currently takes about 11 GB of space. Load times when going into doors or entering instances is much faster now.
November 23, 2012 at 11:11 am
I installed an SSD a couple of years ago and I could never go back to a platter hard drive. I always have my OS and important things (games) installed on it then I have a large traditional drive as a secondary drive and put all my downloads and long term storage items on that. I highly suggest an SSD.