Upgrading to an SSD and 500GB HDD on my laptop

[sideshow23bob]

Hello,
So I'm tired of my current HD setup(2 x 100GB HD 7200RPM Raid) and would like to get an SSD(leaning towards a 30GB Vertex) to make my day to day doing stuff/multitasking/ boot time faster, and a 500GB (5400RPM or 7200RPM; was leaning toward 5400 for cheapness) to store all my crap.

My system is a Gateway P6831FX that's had the CPU and GPU upgraded:
2.5Ghz C2D
3GB Ram
Nvidia 8800GTS
2 x 120GB 7200RPM HDs.
The screen on this is pretty crappy to I just HDMI it to my 32 1080P LCD TV as my monitor at home.

Anyways so my main concern is if I get these new drives, do I install the OS and all programs to the 30GB Vertex and then Download things for storage to the 500GB spindle HDD to optimize speed? Is Installing Windows with 2 completely different HDDs like this a pain?

I suppose another option would be to just get the Vertex and then an External 1TB HDD but I'd prefer not to have to carry that External HDD around everywhere.

If people have experience with the 30GB Vertex that'd be interesting to hear too...is the storage size of 30GB to limiting when you install games to that drive etc.

Alright, thanks for your advice. It's appreciated!

 

[taltamir]

i don't think 30GB is enough... i wouldn't go anything under 60GB.

 

[WildW]

30GB is okay for XP, not so much for Vista. I have a 30GB Vertex, Vista was using almost half of it just for itself. XP takes only 3GB, so for now that's my cheap-ass disk space solution.

I would go with your original suggestion, SSD for Windows install, 500GB spindle disk for data. There's no "issue" with having your stuff over multiple drives. . . even to installing games on the second drive if you run out of space.