Is an SSD really worth it?

[Sam the Dude]

I'm thinking about going for this spec and I would like to order it today. Is an SSD worth it or not?

Case
InWIN MANA-136 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz X.M.P(2 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 - 2 x DVI, HDMI, - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD (£16)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £784 including VAT and Delviery

 

[vanthus]

If it's for gaming I would drop the SSD and put it towards a better graphics card.
Having said that the 660 is still a pretty good card,if you think it will suffice for your needs,,it's a nice build.
Don't forget at least silver warranty.

 

[Tinolan]

All depends on what sort of gaming you do, i for example play MMORPGs and find a SSD a godsend in the load times between zone loads.

 

[steaky360]

I'd agree with Vanthus in terms of 'cost for performance' an improved graphics card would be better (imo) than slightly faster load times from the SSD.

Of course, its your decision

 

[Grimezy]

I opted out of a SSD and went for a 1TB Caviar Black which offer good performance. For your budget, I personally wouldn't see it as worth it and like Vanthus said, the better graphics card would benefit you more (if you could go up to the 660Ti that would be a brill improvement). Realistically, how often will you be booting your pc up? And if you upgrade your standard drive to a caviar black you won't have issues with load times anyway, mine is still pretty dam quick. Plus it depends how much space you'll use, in 6 months I've used about 450gb purely in games... And I don't even have that many x) Standard game is about 7gb-20gb nowadays.

 

[Stappa]

After my SSD died,I had to use my 1TB Caviar Black while waiting for the replacement.............and god HHD's are SLOW in comparison(you only truely realize this after using SSD's for a while),i will never be with out a SSD esp now they are alot cheaper,thou you still need large HHD's for media storage

 

[Grimezy]

After my SSD died,I had to use my 1TB Caviar Black while waiting for the replacement.............and god HHD's are SLOW in comparison(you only truely realize this after using SSD's for a while),i will never be with out a SSD esp now they are alot cheaper,thou you still need large HHD's for media storage

Would you sacrifice being able to play games on higher settings for quicker load times?

 

[rickne]

really wouldnt live without my SSD now. Id hate the slower boot times.

 

[Warmzie]

After buying my first SSD 120gb for my old desktop I will never go back. Now im running a 240gb SSD on my gaming laptop with all my programs and games on and the loading speeds are lightning fast. But then again if you are on a budget i would recommend upping the GPU and then getting a SSD later.