pwillpc - The apps you mentioned at the bottom of your question suggest a
more powerful machine; Autocad and powerful audio production
particularly are happiest on a workstation-class machine, e.g. twin quadcore
Xeons or perhaps one of the later class of quad core processors.  Much
depends on the depth of your higher-end apps.  Regarding the SSD, yes, I
believe you've hit the nail on the head - using one (be careful, here, as
speed specs vary dramatically - your OS and program file on one while your
data files reside on traditional hard disc drives (note great prices now on
pretty high-performance HDs).

The bang for-the-buck factor doesn't look good for current SSDs, however
there are manufacturers improving that every day.  SSDs of the nature you
require (not that big - 32GB?, 64GB?) are available with zero read latency -
dig that!  (However most display write specs that aren't that impressive -
not a big deal, really, in your app - remember all data (written to) files
will be on HDs (minimally 7200 RPM drives, but if you're bucks-up, there are
very cool 10K RPM available, or even awesome performance 15KRPM ones).

If you're "locked into" a dual core machine (perhaps you already have
some/all the parts) (motherboard/processor/memory), much of your work is
done insofar as designing the system - if you don't, you should take a look
at later processors, i.e. dual core extremes/quad cores/i7.  Good luck.
Regards, Steve.






On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 10:50 PM, Phillip Williams <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Hello Listers,
>  I've been looking at the varieties of hard drives and am amazed at
> the difference in price per memory space of the solid state drives.
> I'm wondering if any of you have experience with them and what are the
> advantages to these drives vs. disc drives.
>
>  Would it be beneficial to use one say, for an operating system
> partion or for programs
> and mix it with a less expensive disc drive for larger files? Or are
> the benefits lessened by combining the two types?
>
>  System I'm collecting parts for is based on a dual-core intel with a
> 1gig memory video card for gaming, video and music editing and
> production, some 3-D rendering, animation and auto-cad.
>
>  Interested in your opinions,
> -Phil Williams-
>
>                         PCBUILD's List Owners:
>                      Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
>                        Mark Rode<[log in to unmask]>
>

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