Do I need an internal HDD to go with the SSD?

[darkxshade]

The problem is that I don't have a storage limitation issue or anything so I don't feel like dropping dough on one but I do need one to complement the SSD? What I have is the WD elements 1TB external and I don't know if that's adequate?

edit: This is for a new build... SSD is the Crucal M4 256

 

[StarvinMarvin22]

It's adequate until it's not...

You can always add a hdd later if you need more space, only you know how much hard space you need.

 

[hapylol]

I currently run an 128GB m4 and no HDD. You can easily fit W7, and 5 major games.

 

[darkxshade]

Like I said, space is not an issue... I don't download a lot or store a lot of large files. This is my first SSD too so I don't know much about how they operate so I was asking because I was under the impression that ideally, you want to put the most frequently used applications on the SSD and everything else on the HDD. But being that my HDD is external over USB, can't well install rarely used stuff in there so may just have to put that into the SSD?

 

[hapylol]

People only say put rarely used stuff on HDD's because they assume you have one. Because I have 0 songs, and 0 pictures I can afford to not need the HDD. Heck I have a 128GB and I don't even use 1/2 of it.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Ideally you should at least keep 50% of a ssd free for max performance and life. So 128gb is actually like a 55gb drive for use including windows which uses30-40gb with temp files without page file

 

[cmdrdredd]

It'll work for backup etc. I'd only get an internal HDD if I was concerned with transfer speed to and from it.

 

[ShintaiDK]

300GB SSD here, no HD. Same with GFs PC. And laptop...

 

[F1shF4t]

Ideally you should at least keep 50% of a ssd free for max performance and life. So 128gb is actually like a 55gb drive for use including windows which uses30-40gb with temp files without page file

Doing what you suggest is a waste of money IMHO.
- SSD read speeds will be identical even if they are completely full.
- It is true that writes will be slower but unless you only benchmark or run a workload which needs the write performance it won't matter. (I've only tested this with my old Intel G2, but writes only started to suffer when the drive was more than 80% full.)
- As far SSD life is concerned, you would get high write amplification if you smashed an almost full drive with random writes. For normal workloads it shouldn't be an issue, the controller will rotate the static data to get even wear on all the cells.

There are slight exceptions for sandforce drives when dealing with completely incompressible data.

 

[VirtualLarry]

- As far SSD life is concerned, you would get high write amplification if you smashed an almost full drive with random writes. For normal workloads it shouldn't be an issue, the controller will rotate the static data to get even wear on all the cells.

There are slight exceptions for sandforce drives when dealing with completely incompressible data.

I would be interested it hearing about those exceptions for SF drives when dealing with incompressable data.

I'm running a Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB SSD, with FDE, and I partitioned the whole available user sector area. That may have been a mistake. So now it's chock-full of incompressable data.

 

[F1shF4t]

I would be interested it hearing about those exceptions for SF drives when dealing with incompressable data.

I'm running a Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB SSD, with FDE, and I partitioned the whole available user sector area. That may have been a mistake. So now it's chock-full of incompressable data.

The exceptions I meant are more to do with performance. Like the read speeds in this link http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-60gb-benchmark-review,3137-8.html

Also if the drive is full with compressible data all the NAND you saved writing to in the first place can be used as spare area and for further writes likely keeping WA low. With incompressible writes WA will be 1 or higher and the controller can be backed into a corner as described here http://www.anandtech.com/show/5508/...cherryville-brings-reliability-to-sandforce/7

Edit: Does trim work with FDE?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Also if the drive is full with compressible data all the NAND you saved writing to in the first place can be used as spare area and for further writes likely keeping WA low. With incompressible writes WA will be 1 or higher and the controller can be backed into a corner as described here http://www.anandtech.com/show/5508/...cherryville-brings-reliability-to-sandforce/7

Edit: Does trim work with FDE?

Oh darn. Looks like I did make a mistake not allowing some OP with spare area, by formatting the entire user area and using FDE (incompressable sectors).

I have no idea if TRIM works with FDE or not.

The AT article doesn't state if a full-on secure-erase gets the SF drive out of that "used" state. That's something that would be useful to know.

Perhaps I should have picked up a Crucial M4 drive? (I would have, had I not picked up the Mushkin 2-3 weeks earlier.) Price is now hitting ~$200, great price for 256GB.

 

[F1shF4t]

Oh darn. Looks like I did make a mistake not allowing some OP with spare area, by formatting the entire user area and using FDE (incompressable sectors).

I have no idea if TRIM works with FDE or not.

The AT article doesn't state if a full-on secure-erase gets the SF drive out of that "used" state. That's something that would be useful to know.

Perhaps I should have picked up a Crucial M4 drive? (I would have, had I not picked up the Mushkin 2-3 weeks earlier.) Price is now hitting ~$200, great price for 256GB.

Full secure-erase should get the drive to as new state. Also the sandforce drives by default have more spare area than the M4. (8GiB OP + 8GiB RAISE and the difference between 240GiB and 240GB)

Probably the best drives for your use would have been the Corsair Performance Pro or the Plextor M3 as they have a very aggressive background garbage collection. The M4 is slower but still more efficient than sandforce. Here is a good link http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/marvell-ssd_7.html

I couldn't get to the xbitlabs site so here is a cached version. Link

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, TBH, I was holding out for the Plextor M3 256GB drive. But when the Mushkin SF2 240GB drive showed up for a $100 less, I jumped on it.

TBH, I don't know if it matters that much, other than for longevity reasons, since the software FDE takes its toll on I/O performance as it is. So it might not matter how fast the SSD is, the FDE makes it significantly slower due to software overhead, no matter the underlying performance of the SSD.

 

[biostud]

Lots of laptops with an SSD don't have a HDD, so there will be no problem not having a HDD.

 

[darkxshade]

Thanks for the advice all.

I mean I knew I can go with just an SSD, I was simply curious about the extent of efficiency of pairing it with an internal HDD and if it was practical to buy one just for that reason. I guess my external will do just fine.

 

[bryanW1995]

My wife's laptop is her only computer. She has an internal 160gb 320 series, an internal 750gb hdd, and an external 3 tb seagate. She has literally never put anything on the 750gb internal hdd, I don't think she even sees it anymore. She does moderate-heavy photoshop work, and she just dumps everything on the external once she's done working on it. If you're more of a casual user who won't even fill up 256gb, then it's a no-brainer for you to just keep the setup that you have.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Just my steam is worth 300gb plus so no for me

 

[tweakboy]

You should get a Hybrid drive. SSD + HDD ........... then you wont have to worry about getting another drive,,, gl

 

[cmdrdredd]

You should get a Hybrid drive. SSD + HDD ........... then you wont have to worry about getting another drive,,, gl

I think you missed the part where a hybrid drive is still a single HDD and not as fast as a real SSD.

 

[KentState]

I have both a Plextor M3 256GB and WD 1TB in my PC. Typically, I don't use the WD except for Steam since the folder is around 120GB. I have moved everything to an external NAS which provides redundancy, always up and offers local/online backups. I found that using any PC for file storage becomes a pain.