+1

If its a laptop then I guess a larger would be nice unless you plan to have all your music and other stuff on an external drive.

It might even make sense to ask the computer store if they can swap the drive from a laptop to an SSD, since many reasonably priced laptops come with regular SSD's and you might have to pay a hefty premium for one that comes with an SSD an the drive is probably not as fast as the best drives anyway.

FWIW I'd get a bit of a larger drive for my desktop too, since I'd install Windows and the most commonly used apps there in addition to my HEM2 DB.

But yeah, an SSD makes such a huge difference. Added one to my old desktop two years ago and where my hud would load after like an orbit before I got it instantly when the first hand had been dealt. I only used the SSD for my database though, so I got a 40GB drive.

SSD will give you performance benefits but it is NOT necessary.

A dedicated 7200RPM HDD will do the job just fine. Yes, that includes loading HUDs instantly (in HEM in my experience this was the case.)

If your DB is fairly small, then might as well get an SSD. But if you expect to have a large DB, like 30+ gbs worth of hands, then a 7200RPM HDD is much more cost effective.

Rather than buying a large SSD for the DB, Windows and programs, I am recommending people to go for the traditional HD+SSD caching route. It's far more cost effective without giving up a lot of performance.

See

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4329/i...ching-review/2

And other entries when you google SSD caching

Dunno, I think doing hand reviews and loading up reports was fairly slow when I used a regular HDD. The 40GB SSD only cost like 100 euros two years ago and IMO was well worth it. Of course now they are a lot cheaper and faster but I doub't I'll ever fill up that 40GB HDD anyway. If you do use a regular HDD HEM should get faster if you do some DB maintenance from time to time, like purging old hands. My old HDD also had windows on it and probably wasn't one of the faster disks. Anyway, if you play a lot then I think its $100 spent well.

I disagree with grizy here. SSD cost is half of what it was months ago and mechanical drives have been way overpriced since the Thailand floods last year. I just don't see a point to a mechanical at all unless you've got a lot of bulk data to store.

That Anandtech article was written back when you could find 1TB hard drives for $55 (pre-flood) and a 120GB SSD would run you $250+. Completely different prices in both cases now (they're both around $100)

120GB is enough for a full Windows install and a decent compliment of programs, and you'd still have 2/3rds of it left free for whatever else you want. Games, poker data, mp3s or whatever. I'm using about 60GB and that's with 9 or 10 Adobe apps installed, MS Office, AV & malware stuff, and at the moment about 10GB of saved files and docs.

All that misses the point. Unless 120gb is enough for everything for him, he needs a mechanical drive anyway.

Then he might as well get a caching setup to have everything in one place while keeping almost all of the performance benefits.

Like I said, if his DB stays small and he can fit everything on the SSD, go for that.

Also, I actually happen to have an Inspiron Studio 1750. (not sure if it's same as 1750)

My actual recommendation here is actually just to plug in an SSD and use the old drive as the media drive. In case OP didn't know, Inspiron 1750 has two HDD bays.

PS: double check obviously but I am pretty sure.

He's only got 500k hands and I didn't see one word about major storage needs. What he did say is that his computer is very slow loading PT3 and wants it to be quicker. People get sold slow 1TB drives every day and the typical user doesn't come anywhere close to that.

If he needs more storage then he can get a bigger SSD, an external drive, a 2nd drive, or an mSSD in conjunction with a mechanical if the laptop were to only have one bay. But there's just no path to an "Ultimate Poker PC" today that doesn't involve an SSD, period.

This becomes even more true when you amass a lot of hands in HEM that you need to process quickly to keep your HUD close to real time. PT3 and HEM performance are both very hard drive dependent and see a massive performance benefit over mechanicals, where any midrange CPU today can do a decent enough job.

How's this:

• Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
• Asus P8Z77-V Socket 1155 VGA DVI DisplayPort HDMI 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
• G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit CL9
• Coolermaster Elite 330 Case With Coolermaster eXtreme Power 500W PSU
• SanDisk 240GB Extreme SSD - 2.5" SATA-III - Read 550MB/s Write 520MB/s Samsung SH-D163C 16x DVD-ROM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black

Pretty dope

I don't know about PT3 but HEM was very close (if it were slower than when I tried it with SSD, I couldn't tell) to real time with my dedicated 7200RPM drive.

My database had... uh... tens of millions of hands.

I understand the theoretical benefits but in practice it was barely noticeable other than when I was importing LARGE number of hands.

And that setup is great.

am I right in thinking I need some kind of bracket to mount the SSD to the motherboard as it's 2.5"?

You mean mount it to the case, right? (There are SSDs that mount to some motherboards: mSDD's). If the case doesn't come with a place to mount a SSD, and one isn't included with the drive, then yes. They're usually less than $10.

Not that you couldn't just tape it somewhere if you wanted

Another build, how is this one? better or worse?

Computer Case : 1 x Cooler Master Elite 331
CPU : 1 x Intel i5 2500K - (4 x 3.3 GHZ) - Sandy Bridge - (Includes Free Order Of War Game)
CPU Heatsink : 1 x Intel Heatsink & Fan - Low Noise
Memory : 1 x 8 GB 1333 MHZ (2x4GB) - (DDR3)
Graphics Card : 1 x 1 x NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 - 1 GB
Motherboard : 1 x Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3
Sound Card : 1 x Motherboard Integrated HD Sound
Networking : 1 x Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)
Power Supply : 1 x 350W PSU
Hard Drive #1 : 1 x 120GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD SATA-III, Read 525MB/s, Write 500MB/s - Silent
Optical Drive #1 : 1 x Samsung 22x DVD Re-Writer/Reader /- RW- Black - (SATA)

I need a new comp. Where do y'all suggest I order from? I'm told Alienware is the place to go to. I'll never go to ibuypower again, they fail.

Nice hijack!!