I saw an old SSD laying around from 2 years back. It is 32Gb, it is older, but the read speed is still amazing comparing to 10,000rpm HDD.

I am thinking about installing TS3 and all of its expansions on this SSD since all the "writing" happens in My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 with cache and save games. Agree or not, my load time is 3 minute average, and my save time is 10 min average. Despite working as IT consultant for 3-4 years, nothing else I tried would increase load time. Although in a way I already made peace with that fact: I am happy enough with TS3 not crashing or corrupting on me. Hence I am not here asking to help with load time. But since there is an SSD laying around unused, why not?

Questions:

1- Has anyone attempted this, or remotely knowing something that I don't, regarding SSD being "bad" for TS3?

2- Can we somehow put CC outside of My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3, namely, in that SSD?

I know we used to put CC in Packages folder in where we installed TS3, not My Documents. EA made the change to put CC in My Documents which I think was a great idea. However, in this case, it is a whole lot more beneficial for me if my CC can go in the SSD too.
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If you must know:
- Windows 7 64 bit Professional
- Intel Quadcore 9450
- 8Gb DDR2 RAM
- Patriot 32Gb SATA2, Model: PE32GS25SSD

1. I can't see why it could possibly be a problem though I don't have specific experience with doing so (yet - next upgrade is going to be an SSD, I hope).

2. CC has to go in My Documents. You could move your whole My Documents folder onto the SSD though.

Whole My Documents going to SSD is a Very bad idea. This SSD was originally "given" to me for testing purpose from my company. It was meant to put entire OS on the SSD to improve performance and loading speed. Problem: while SSD is famous for its lightning fast reading speed. Writing speed, on the other hand, is excruciatingly slow. My actual experience: While booting from Vista, Linux was noticeably faster, it took eons to install software or update windows. There is a reason they pulled SSD away from all low cost netbooks (not because of its size, entirely). Fast SSD are just way more expensive to sell along with netbooks (a good SSD back then were $800 for 32Gb)

I am sure it has been 2 years since I last considered SSD and maybe a lot had improved. However, this SSD is a relic from 2 years back. And I know for sure if I am to allow TS3 to write cache files and save on this SSD, my save time will guarantee to go up to 30min.

So with the current version of TS3, CC going into (where we installed TS3) is not even an option anymore?

Well, you can try it - but it doesn't reliably work any more, especially when it comes to script mods. You would also lose the ability to identify CC ingame, and would probably have to live with that version mismatch error every time you play. You won't blow anything up trying it (as long as you also remove all mods from Documents), but you may find that it doesn't work terribly well. That said, it might increase general performance anyway, just by the increase in speed when reading from the normal game files.

Thank you for the insight.

I already lost the ability to identify some CC in game, especially to lots I installed as .sims3pack. Now the lots can't be "found" on Launcher to uninstall, and whatever CC that came with that lot are marked with a green sim icon, like a store content instead of CC. Annoying, but so far not killing me yet.

"as long as you also remove all mods from Documents"? You mean if I put mods in "Program Files" (lets just call it that), I should not put any mod in "Documents"? I am under the impression that TS3 will load CC from both locations (so best not to have the same CC in both locations).

In any case, I don't mind putting script mods in Documents because they are very small in sizes, while having all the large sized stuff in SSD (like hair, skin, clothing, etc...). Do you think this will work, or your above comment actually means something to prevent this from happening? And will resource.cfg conflict with each other since I will have 2 now (1 from Program Files and 1 from Documents)?

Having CC in both Documents and Program Files is a pain in the ass, because having a full framework in Program Files (specifically the d3dx_91.dll) will prevent any script mods or scripted objects in Documents from working. You could try keeping scripted stuff in Documents and not putting the d3dxetc.dll in Program Files - I never have done so, so I dunno if it'd work, but it's probably worth a try.

I guess we have said all that is needed to be said on this topic. I am not going to be able to get on this right away until the weekend. Then hopefully I will bring back some more solid results, or maybe more questions (hope not). Thanks for replying.

If that is true for your SSD, then it's time to throw it away.

I have TS3 and the Documents folder on an 80GB Intel SSD and there are no problems. It's somewhat faster than on a HDD, but it's just noticable and not earth-shattering or anything. Load and save times for TS3, like almost any other game, are pretty much CPU-limited.

Some truth to this. SSD hardware has changed so much in these 2 years.
Even with firmware updates, the controllers for the SSDs have come forward in leaps and bounds.

I have my OS on SSD, but with the write concerns, I have my /Users, /Temp, /Tmp, most Programs and pagefile in my secondary HDD.

I did have TS3 installed in the SSD, but with my penchant to keep uninstalling and reinstalling, I've also since used the HDD for TS3. I didn't notice much in loading or saving time difference with the games and user files in HDD vs the SSD.

But loading time is of course considerably much, much better compared to when I had it on my Pentium M Centrino laptop.
Further prove, it's all CPU...

Well, my machine boots in 2-5secs (on Win7) now compared to via HDD @2-to-15mins (on Win XP). That's the advantage of the SSD.

I remember watching as they were first developing mods for TS3. Inge made a bladder mod (what else? lol) that should have worked, but the game wouldn't read it. It was Rick who discovered that the modified dll was what would let the new CC be read. You are going to need it if you plan to put any CC in the old location.

Sorry for late reply..

I need share my news about SSD

SSD is not good for Sims 2 the load time is FASTER nicer BUT after a while it making SSD short lifespan. My SSD is dying since resume playing with my beloved Sims 2. Sims 2 data is very sensitive and damaged my S2 game data savegame that SSD part gone and dying...Sims 2 getting kill SSD. I have lost huge hours of Sims 2 twice since running on SSD but never happen to me on HDD for over 10 years...

This is warning about SSD become short lifespan faster with Sims 2 I assume same with S3 S4 ?

Any drive is going to have its lifespan shortened if it's subjected to a lot of reading and writing - sims games do that to HDDs too, especially the HDD that stores your user files. It's one of the reasons why making regular backups is so important if you're concerned about the integrity of your files.