Intel 40GB G2 SSD now available for under $130 (Opinions?)

[wougoose]

Just realized Intel starting shipping out their X25-V series drives. At under $130, you get a solid Intel G2 drive and TRIM. The write speeds (~35MB/s) are nowhere near the 80GB X25-E's, but the read speeds are definitely good (~170MB/s).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031X8HG2/

I've been on the fence on whether to jump in and get an SSD, but now I'm about to click that "Checkout" button :)

What do you guys think about using it for Win7 + WoW installed on it? I was previously looking into a cheap drive with only WoW on it (scared to put an OS on a drive without TRIM and proper cleanup). Write speeds don't really concern me too much, as most of the time I'll be reading. (yay for loading up Dalaran or WG)

All my other data will live on my big drives. This purchase would be purely used for OS (minus pagefile/indexing) and WoW.

Opinions? It almost feels like there is finally a balance between performance, the reliability of Intel's drives, and my wallet :)

[Ughmahedhurtz]

It's an MLC drive. Which, if all my reading kom-pree-hin-shun has been right, means you don't want to run your OS from it.

[Noids]

I run my OS and WoW from a pair of 80GB X-25Ms (MLC) in raid 0 and it all runs fine.Not sure about this V series however, that right speed sounds a bit average for an OS. I would consider still getting one but just use it for your WoW folder.

[wougoose]

I run my OS and WoW from a pair of 80GB X-25Ms (MLC) in raid 0 and it all runs fine.Not sure about this V series however, that right speed sounds a bit average for an OS. I would consider still getting one but just use it for your WoW folder.

Have you noticed any performance loss over time by not having TRIM with raid? Utilize Intel's software often to keep it clean?

[Noids]

Not at this stage. I only really use this system for gaming however. I haven't used intel's software at all yet. Also I have only used about 35% of the array's capacity for now.

[heyaz]

I just bought one of these a few days ago from newegg.com. I use it solely for WoW, nothing else on it yet.

It's my first SSD ever, so I don't know how it compares to others. Usually, loading is near instant and the zone just appears. Sometimes its 2-3 seconds. In Dalaran during primetime with 5 clients - no more invisible toons for 15 seconds, everyone in the city pops up a few second after zoning in.

[Gramzngunz]

My main drive in my boxing system died a few days ago and I just ordered two of these (I just needed an excuse to install my new copy of windows 7).
From what I read you don't want to put your OS on them because of all the writing to the drive will cause drive will wear out fast. One drive is just to hold games, so it won't be written to much and should have a normal life. The 2nd for my OS, that can be expected to burn out in a year to two. I'm not really too up on SSD technology atm so I'm not sure if my logic is sound but it seems ok for now lol. I can't wait to get them though. Mmmm WoW, Dragon Age, and STO will load so fast now :D (i hope lol)

[heyaz]

I just bought one of these a few days ago from newegg.com. I use it solely for WoW, nothing else on it yet.

It's my first SSD ever, so I don't know how it compares to others. Usually, loading is near instant and the zone just appears. Sometimes its 2-3 seconds. In Dalaran during primetime with 5 clients - no more invisible toons for 15 seconds, everyone in the city pops up a few second after zoning in.

Little update on this guy. I just did the ultimate test with it - WG during primetime. Even with my new video card (ATI 4890) and no SSD, it would choke when you entered the fortress, now I don't get any skipping and have only about a 5-10 fps drop. I doubt this "value" model meets the performance standards for really high end stuff - but it's definitely good enough for wow.

[Igg]

Get 2 and raid 0 it to get the high through put you are looking for.

[Owltoid]

I'm surprised how many are suggesting two SSDs. I run 5 on my machine with the cheapo RiData 32GB MLC version and everything is smooth. The ONLY time there is a bit of lag is when WG is coming to the very end and everything is going nuts... that could definitely be lag other than my harddrive (note: it's still very playable, but there can be a couple seconds of small stuttering).

Peeps are going overboard with the expensive SSDs, RAID configs, etc.

[wougoose]

Just bought one of these as my main OS drive + WoW.

For those running these in RAID, you will not get the TRIM feature of Windows 7. Therefore, I'd recommend only running these in RAID if you are not installing the OS on the drives.

I'm not at all worried about life of the drive with the OS on it. Even with the constant writes, from the math I've seen, the drive will still last 5-10 years on average. By that time I'll have a new drive :)

For those that have or are purchasing this, make sure to update the firmware with the .iso from Intel to get TRIM functionality. I will be performing a clean install of Win7, followed by disabling the page file and indexing service.

I am currently trying to find a simple way to build a lite version of Win7 Professional without all of the extra cruft (language packs/etc), but haven't found anything that inspires confidence yet :)

[alcattle]

I am currently trying to find a simple way to build a lite version of Win7 Professional without all of the extra cruft (language packs/etc), but haven't found anything that inspires confidence yet :)
You can try vLite for Win7. Nlite (for xp) and Vlite (for Vista) have been out for many years. This site says Vlite works for Win 7. I have not tried it, I do not even have Win 7 yet.
Vlite for 7 (http://www.intowindows.com/download-vlite-for-windows-7)

[Igg]

I'm surprised how many are suggesting two SSDs. I run 5 on my machine with the cheapo RiData 32GB MLC version and everything is smooth. The ONLY time there is a bit of lag is when WG is coming to the very end and everything is going nuts... that could definitely be lag other than my harddrive (note: it's still very playable, but there can be a couple seconds of small stuttering).

Peeps are going overboard with the expensive SSDs, RAID configs, etc.

What's considered overboard for you is considered quality of play for me.

When I hearth into dalaran at peak time, I'm still expecting a load delay of about 1-2 sec max for all 5 instances to.
Is it over kill to do 2 x GTX 285, 12 gigs of ram, Intel x-25 (G1) in raid 0 and 3 monitors?
Mind you, when fully loaded down, both cards have their 896MB used up with textures, 8 gigs of system memory used.
Both cards are being loaded down memory wise, GPU utilization at 40-50% (1 powering main screen and 1 for 2 side monitor).

Maybe but to me it's again, quality of playing time.