Question about upgrading to an SSD for my simming drive...

[Hobart Escin]

Hello guys,

I'm currently running both Windows 7 and P3D from a 1tb mechanical hard drive. I'm going to upgrade my system with a 512gb SSD and I'm wondering if I would be better off installing both Windows and P3D to the SSD, or if I should keep Windows on my mechanical drive and run only P3D from the SSD? Also, is there any huge advantage to upgrading to Windows 10 in terms of performance?

Quick shout-out to B & H Camera in New York for a great selection of computer components, btw, including SSDs. Best prices around and free same day shipping if you order early in the day. Love these people!

Thanks a lot of any insight you can provide.

[avduarri]

I'm running windows 10 and P3D in a 1'2tb SSD drive and the difference from the mechanical drive was amazing. The load/installation time is another world.
Windows 10, in my personal experience, is working like a charm.

[Blitzer]

Hi Hobart,

When I upgraded my PC a year or so ago I initially attempted to stick with Win 7 and move to using a SSD for my system drive. What I had not figured on was a lack of drivers to support the SSD during OS installation, eventually I realised it was also sensible to upgrade the OS to effectively match the hardware I had invested in.
Hoping to upgrade my flight sim drive to a 1TB SSD at some point but still waiting for prices to drop and have just invested in other hardware.

Personally, I liked window 7 hence I tried to stick with it, but switching to Windows 10 was not a bad experience. I could not say (and personally doubt) switching OS's alone would reap you any significant/noticeable performance improvements but may cause you less headaches in the long run.

HTH

Paul

[Hobart Escin]

Hi Hobart,

When I upgraded my PC a year or so ago I initially attempted to stick with Win 7 and move to using a SSD for my system drive. What I had not figured on was a lack of drivers to support the SSD during OS installation, eventually I realised it was also sensible to upgrade the OS to effectively match the hardware I had invested in.
Hoping to upgrade my flight sim drive to a 1TB SSD at some point but still waiting for prices to drop and have just invested in other hardware.

Personally, I liked window 7 hence I tried to stick with it, but switching to Windows 10 was not a bad experience. I could not say (and personally doubt) switching OS's alone would reap you any significant/noticeable performance improvements but may cause you less headaches in the long run.

HTH

Paul

Hi Paul,

Aha, I hadn't thought about lack of driver support for SSD's in the Windows 7 installation disk, yikes. Better research that!

[WB_FlashOver]

Hello Hobart,
I moved from an old X58 @ 4.2GHz system to an X99 @ 4.625GHz system. On the X58 I was running Win7 on an SSD and FSX on a Raid0 platter drive. My average FSX launch time to opening menu was 85 seconds for first launch after a reboot (it seems to launch quicker on 2nd go than first).

I then moved to the X99 build with Win7 on a NVMe drive and FSX on a single 500GB SSD. My launch times were reduced to 17.5 seconds. I then added a second 500GB SSD to make a 1TB Raid0 SSD drive and my launch times were reduced to 16 seconds.

This does not exactly answer your question but gives some drive performance information.

I then took the offer to upgrade to Win10 for free and have been very happy thus far. HOWEVER... I have noticed that with each Microsoft Windows Feature Update I just never know what the effects will be on my sim. I have moved to P3Dv4 and it seems Microsoft brakes something at times when they send out a Feature Update. They are usually little things with minor work-a-rounds for us simmers until updates or patches are sent out to make things work with the Feature Update.

I do like Win10 and would not go back to 7 but have noticed some oddities at times after an update from Microsoft.

You should not be disappointed with Win10.

Cheers
Roger

[Nick - A2A]

Hobart,

I've used an SSD for the OS of my i7-2600k Win 7 system since I first built it back in 2011. That original SSD was only 120 GB in size but was all I could justify in terms of cost at the time. I still use it for the OS, but subsequently added a second 240 GB SSD for FSX, P3D, Steam games and so on. My SSDs are made by Intel who supply software to optimise the OS. I'd guess other SSD manufacturers have similar utilities.

With a single 500 GB SSD, I definitely recommend you install both the OS and P3D on it. No sense in keeping the OS on the HDD unless you're unwilling to reformat/reinstall.

If you have loads of Orbx scenery etc. and wish to reduce its footprint on the SSD, you could move some of the Orbx directories onto the HDD and use symbolic links to point the OS to them.

I'm pretty sure you'll love the SSD load time benefits for both the OS and P3D.

Cheers,
Nick

[Hobart Escin]

Thanks for all the info you guys. This is what I'm getting (500gb for about 100 bucks isn't too shabby):

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... _BwE&smp=y