OCZ Agility 3

[PricelineNegotiator]

Just ordered the OCZ Agility 3. What should I expect? Loading times should change how much if I'm using a first gen WD Raptor 150gb right now? Should I install Windows on this drive if it's already on my primary?

[[R-COM]MaSSive]

I think Litoralis has this drive and he can explain closely, but placing system on it would make it run much more smoother since its almost double faster than your raptor. But in time it may suffer from wear out, so you will endup reinstalling and reformatting it to restore speed as it was. Sure that wont happen very fast but in a year or such you will notice performance decrease.

Id rather place my games on this drive and leave system on raptor, especially if you play Arma.

[PricelineNegotiator]

Originally Posted by [R-COM]MaSSive

Id rather place my games on this drive and leave system on raptor, especially if you play Arma.

I was thinking of doing that, since the raptor is "fast enough" and I heard that the drive is slowed down the more information you write and delete from it. That won't be happening very much with my games or programs, so it should be fine if I only install games and not OS files, which change often.

[[R-COM]MaSSive]

Depends how often you play games, but in general its less R/W operation than having a complete system on it.

You can place Windows page file on it, and make it static size, depending on how much RAM you have but you should be ok with about 6GB of page file.

If you want to preserver more space on SSD you can place only Addons to it, with the help of symlink/hardlink extension but its a bit tricky thing to do, so if you're not tech savvy just install all on SSD.

[[R-COM]LITOralis.nMd]

I have the Vertex 3, and only the 64GB model. I will be forced to buy another SSD for my gaming rig soon.

The basic premise to maintain speed on the OCZ gen3 Sandforce SSDs is to never fill the drive over 60%, OR from the fresh start, only format the drive to 85% of the formatted capacity. The drive firmware shifts files around to balance out the read/write wear across all cells equally to extend drive life, when there is no free room, it starts shifting stuff around in very small increments, causing slowdowns.

IF you bough the 128GB or 256GB model, basically don't worry about it for now.
One guy I play Arma2 with has 50GB of JUST Arma2 and Arma2 addons on his SSD. It's crazy how fast Arma2 addons increase in size.

If you need to do hard links, google " link shell extension " + Arma2 and you'll find tutorials.
Link Shell Extension

painfully long thread with all info, Running Arma2 from SSD
I suggest looking for a more concise tutorial.

BEFORE I FORGET, ...IF YOU HAVE STEAM VERSION OF ARMA2 LET ME KNOW, link shell extension is a necessary step in installation if so.

[mangeface]

I've got the OCZ Agility 3 60GB with my OS loaded on it. Windows takes around 5-10 seconds to load and I have had no problems with it...so far (knock on wood). I've heard of issues with OCZ, but this is my 2nd and I'm happy with them. Maybe later I'll buy a larger capacity SSD and flash my OS onto it and use the OCZ for ArmA 2 and DCS Black Shark 2 (since they're the 2 highest computer and graphic processing games I play.

[Daniel]

Just curious, how long is BF2 PR loading time on an SSD?

[mangeface]

Originally Posted by Daniel

Just curious, how long is BF2 PR loading time on an SSD?

My PRBF2 takes about 30 seconds or less to load each map. But it's on a HDD, not an SSD.

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by mangeface

My PRBF2 takes about 30 seconds or less to load each map. But it's on a HDD, not an SSD.

Mine too.

[PricelineNegotiator]

Not sure if I should install my OS on my SSD or not. It's a 120 GB model, so it's not like it will take up that much space. What do you guys think? Is pretty much the only benefit to installing the OS on the SSD a fast boot?