Upgrade to an SSD?

So my 6 yr old Dell PC has this HDD

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16822148697

I can't turn graphics up very high but I am able to fly pretty well. But the load times are incredible. I thought I'd upgrade to an SSD when I saw you can buy a 1T SSD for <$200. But I am not real knowledgeble so I called Dell who has helped me out before. They have plenty of <$200 SSDs but told me I need a $400 SSD to fit my PC. At that point, I will just live w/ it until I buy a new PC. Was that BS or the real deal? Also, what is the deal w/ many new PCs having an SSD and an HDD. Why not one large SSD? Thanks for your thoughts.

*any* SSD will be two orders of magnitude faster than your HD.

If you have a SATA III slot open, which I imagine you will, you can use the $200 SSD. I seem to recall microcenter having for cheaper than that these days.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Inch-Internal-MZ-76E1T0B-AM/dp/B078DPCY3T/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=SSD+1TB&qid=1564688003&s=gateway&sr=8-3

$130

SanDisk is cheaper but I have had a few of their drives fail under light use so I will never use them

Most likely BS from Dell. You just have to make sure you get the correct SSD.

The SSD, HDD combo is more cost effective than all SSD. SSD is still more expensive, and the drives don't live as long. Put the OS and games on the SSD, and less speed hungry things like pictures or music storage on the bigger slower HDD.

So my 6 yr old Dell PC has this HDD

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16822148697

I can't turn graphics up very high but I am able to fly pretty well. But the load times are incredible. I thought I'd upgrade to an SSD when I saw you can buy a 1T SSD for <$200. But I am not real knowledgeble so I called Dell who has helped me out before. They have plenty of <$200 SSDs but told me I need a $400 SSD to fit my PC. At that point, I will just live w/ it until I buy a new PC. Was that BS or the real deal? Also, what is the deal w/ many new PCs having an SSD and an HDD. Why not one large SSD? Thanks for your thoughts.

That depends on what Dell machine you have. I just bought 3 of them for 526€ + VAT per SSD.

If you have a standard desktop and NOT a Workstation or Server,you definitely do not need such a high priced SSD. Those are only needed to not break your 5 year 4h/NBD service. If you have none of that, go and buy a Crucial MX500 or Samsung 860 EVO or Pro, whatever you think is your model. They all perform at SataIII limits. The only difference is that a "Pro" model like 860 Pro wont slow down even after continous Gigabytes ( past 50-75GB ) write process.

If you hardly ever copy 100GB in 1 piece and need that fast, you can skip the Pro.

What I would not do is buy a QLC model ( QUAD level cell ) but a TLC ( Tripple L.C.). A QLC is kinda lame when you copy a lot and have more than gaming. Those QLC are mainly to replace HDDs in storage ( pics, flics, music etc..) as a 2nd or 3rd drive.

look here, from our order: 3x SSD ( the cheapest they offer, this is NOT a real PRO model, but the cheapest for servers, and 1 HDD for additional Backup )

480GB SSD SATA 6Gbit/s 512e 2,5Zoll Hot-Plug Festplatte, S4610, Kundenpaket 3 EUR 526,79 EUR 1.580,37

2TB SATA 7.200 1/min 3,5Zoll Hot-Plug-Festplatte, 13G,Kundenpaket 1 EUR 187,67 EUR 187,67

Dell wants 914€ if you buy w/o enterprise customer discount: https://www.dell.com/de-de/work/shop/dell-480gb-ssd-sata-gemischte-nutzung-6gbit-s-512e-25-laufwerk-s4610/apd/400-bdun/massenspeicher-laufwerke-und-speichermedien#polaris-pd

Once you are in the cockpit, does SSD improve anything? I know it speeds up the loading process.

Pagefile on ssd makes a difference in DCS .

*any* SSD will be two orders of magnitude faster than your HD.

^ this

replace your c:\ hdd with a ssd and it will feel like a whole new machine.

I just ordered a Crucial MX500 1T SSD and the stuff needed to clone my existing HD and replace it. I've installed memory, a GPU, a DVD drive but never this. Crucial seems to have a great website to walk me through it so I am hopefull all will be well. Thanks guys.

If Crucial doesnt ship with a software to clone or offers it to download ( which would be BAD ), all you need is CloneZilla and a USB stick or DVD to burn that image.

Plenty tutorials online on YT.

Samsung ships with a clonetool that works great, as long as you clone the OS drive, it wont work for data drives...which can be just copied by nature and then change drive letter.

If you spend money, by Acronis.

And you can try out Acronis for free. I'd recommend you buy it since it's a terrific backup software (if you don't already have one).

SSD is in

I got the Crucial MX500 recommended by Bitmaster. I decided to do the clone process and completely replace my 7 yr old HD. It wasn't as easy as it should have been but after 2 calls to Crucial, I got it working. Yes it is much better. The PC starts in the Am and is up and ready to go in about 40 seconds. And DCS is a huge improvement. Not so much the flying but everything else. To get to the screen where I can choose my plane and then mission is about 60 sec. It used to be at least 4 min. The other big improvement is switching between missions. I used to dread that and usually time it so I could go refill my iced tea glass while it was changing. I will try some changes to settings later but so far, the $150 or so has been $ very well spent. Thanks for the help to all of you.

:thumbup: