Please review my specs. Should I get dedicated SSD hard drive?

[elks21]

-Processor - Intel 3rd Gen Core i7 3770K (4.5GHz Overclock) Quad Core

Do you have this processor clocked to this number? Or are you hoping to over clock to 4.5? Not always a sure deal. I can run mine to 4.2.....stable that is, with a Cooler Master 212 attached. I could probably squeeze some more, but blue screens and crash to desktop situations just don't excite me.

[Paxx]

Elks - If you built this yourself you might want to try re-seating the heatsink. Occasionally the thermal goo doesn't "take" the first time. To much or not enough can really matter with that CPU. You might also want to get some Arctic Silver 5 and use that instead of the Cooler Master supplied thermal compound.

[anubhav]

Goto Best Buy, have one of the Blue Shirts boot a i3/i5/i7 Laptop w/SSD (and OEM crapware). Be prepared to be amazed.

Keep in mind that SSD is NOT a FSX FPS nirvana, but on high-end systems that have overclocking going on under the hood (CPU/RAM/GPU) SSD is far superior in my opinion to 7200rpm HDD for overall system performance.

Edit - My last "forum recommendation" had a bit of a SSD vs HDD debate, Don chimed in knowledgeable as always and had this to say.

Paxx-

Thank you for your help! Quick question, with the Intel SRT configuration for the solid state cache, can I atleast closely emulate a dedicated standalone SSD? Or is that just a gimmick?

Thanks again!

[Paxx]

I don't think it is a gimmick, but I have not used that particular setup personally. The reason why is because when I researched it it seemed too me that about half the people saw great gains while the other half had problems of one sort or another.

Since the systems I build, and I only build maybe a couple a month (its a side line, last month was unusual for me), I also support and fix them for 1 year after they are built and along with most being overclocked quite a bit, I want NO problem systems. I try to remove intangibles when overclocking. So I am careful to only use rock solid equipment and methods as far as I reasonably can.

[fxsttcb]

...can I atleast closely emulate a dedicated standalone SSD?

For repetitive ops it probably will work great. It is a "cache", so the file must have been recently used for the speed increase to be viable.

The problem with FSX is, it doesn't have "look ahead" caching for scenery, textures, etc, so, what ends up in the cache is behind you.
That is unless your flight is confined to a very small area, or, you're flying in circles.

A 128GB SSD, along with the 1TB Black, has been a pretty good combo for me.
64GB was too small and I still have to manage my addons carefully at 128GB.
If you've got the green, the Black and a 512GB SSD(my future plans), for Windows and FSX only, should be somewhat futureproof...Don

[edit]You know, a 64GB cache is large, by freakin' huge, so, it is quite possible that all of the previously loaded files from the sim will still be there for the next flight. Possibly all of FSX! Interesting thought.
If the cache is cleared with a computer restart, that may not help though, unless the rig remains running 24/7.