How to set up & use SSD/HDD combo

[lilrayray69]

Hey, I've never had an SSD but am considering getting one some time in the near future.

Currently I just have an old SATA 2 3gb/s Samsung 500GB HDD. I'm thinking about upgrading to a SSD (maybe 150 GB ? depends on cost) and a 1TB SATA 3 HDD.

What I'm not really sure about is how to set that up...do you use the SSD for your OS and maybe a few applications, while using the HDD for games/music/misc storage?

I've also heard about people using small SSDs as some sort of buffer between the HDD, that programs in use utilize the SSD to make them faster?

Basically, I know next to nothing about SSDs and would like to know more before I really consider buying one - seeing as they are fairly expensive still.

Thanks

 

[postmortemIA]

yes, that is how you do it: you take OS plus as many apps as you can fit on it, without going over 90% of space used.

Newest Intel platform supports using SSD as a cache drive "Intel Rapid Storage Technology"; where you don't have to install OS on the SSD, so it is transparent to you as user. That would be easiest way to setup existing system, but benefit is not optimal, since you won't set up the drive and its contents yourself. And it is meant for small SSD drives; not for 150GB as you planned. IMO 150GB is plenty of space to have OS + almost all apps that regular user uses. I've managed to run windows 7 with SSD as small as 37GB.

Once SSD is connected to your motherboard, it logically works like any other disk drive.

 

[tweakboy]

Get a 256GB or 512GB , do it once and do it right.

This is not 2010 , its not OS and apps SSD , rest on hard drive, now, I got everything on my SSD,, 16 games and my DAW and pics and music everything..... SSD you make your computer soo much faster. It is still to this day the best investment I have ever made.

 

[lilrayray69]

Ok, cool.

I've also got no idea how to go about picking an SSD. I've been looking at the stickies but am still sort of lost.

I see some display their specs like "4KB Random Read: Up to 20,000 IOPS & 4KB Random Write: Up to 85,000 IOPS" while others might show "Sustained Sequential Read: up to 550 MB/s & Sustained Sequential Write: up to 500 MB/s". I'm not very sure how to compare SSDs.

I've been looking at ones like the OCZ Agility and OCZ Vertex, 120 GB and 128 GB respectively, each around $130. Or maybe the G. Skill Phoenix 3 which is 120 GB for $125 - and I've always like G. Skills stuff, mainly I've just got their RAM though.

Though now I'm wondering if I'd really even need a 150 GB one. I just thought that was a safe number. But I don't really use any big apps that I'd need an SSD for - nothing like Photoshop, or video editors or anything like that. And I suppose all my games would go on the HDD as the only benefit they may get from an SSD is load times. So I'd probably just have W7 and maybe Office on it or something

I see that all of OCZ's SSDs with less than 100GB are out of stock on Newegg, so they must be fairly popular. The 60GB Agility 3 is $65 which seems pretty good.

 

[Necrolezbeast]

I have 2 3 year old Phoenix Pro's, one in my system and one in the wife's... no issues and still going strong... but with that said, I don't think I'd recommend the Phoenix 3 now since G.skill isn't a strong player in the SSD market (I think I read that they're going to stop?).

I only have personal experience with the G.skill... but from reading here a lot I reckon that the most commonly recommended drives come from Intel, Samsung (830, 840, 840-pro), and Crucial. Maybe someone can chime in with a little more information about which exact models to pick up from Intel or Crucial.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147188

Doesn't seem like a terrible deal, better priced than the OCZ and G.Skill you talked about... and afaik Samsung is more highly regarded.

Edit: Also, people correct me if I'm misinforming here... but given your usage case of just wanting to load up Office and OS and some programs on there; I wouldn't worry too much about the write performance. You're not going to be writing enough to see a difference if you're the type that is just going to set-it and forget-it.

 

[lilrayray69]

Ah yeah I've heard Samsung's 840 Series is quite good, didn't realize it's pretty price competitive with the others. But it doesn't seem they have 840's with anything less than 120 GB - still not sure how much I'd really need

Also wouldn't mind some opinions on 1TB drives - I was reading other posts here about drives failing and many recommend the WD Black version, but it's more pricey.

 

[kmmatney]

You should get at least a 120GB SSD. I've been using Intel, Crucial, and Micron SSDs for several years and never had a problem with any of them (although the Crucials needed a firmware update). At the moment the Samsung 840 is a very good SSD for the price. I don't think you'll notice a performance difference with just about any SSDs. I use a Crucial 256GB M4 and a Samsung 256GB S30 everyday, and I can't tell the difference between the two. The Samsung benches faster, but does not seem faster in normal use. Plextor is also very good, but I don't have personal experience with them.

I would suggest the Samsung 840 already linked to above, and I have installed several of those without any issues. I think this Plextor is also decent, but have never personally used it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820249024

 

[cantholdanymore]

+1 for 128GB
It is plenty for your usage and some more but 64GB may be a restriction

 

[Marcolou]

I got the Plextor M5s PX-128M5S 128GB from microcenter for 85 after rebate nice drive the M5 pro model is one of the fastest out and plextors failure rate are among the lowest good cheap drive +1