New to SSD...couple questions...

clquestor

clquestor

New Member
Hey guys,

I searched around the forum and couldn't find the answer to these 3 questions...

1. Win 7 Home premium or Win 8 eventually...what size SSD would I need to just run OS from and use another drive for everything else?

2. Is that what they're meant for...primarily running OS?

3. I hear they come with cloning software if you already have OS installed on a regular HDD...is this true...and easy?
 
1. I'd recommend 120GB, perfect size.

2. I'm pretty sure you can use them for other stuff but no one really does as they're really expensive.

3. Not sure about this one, sorry :(
 
You could get a 60GB drive, but I'd go with a 120 so you can install other essential programs on it. Then get a 1TB drive for everything else.

The OS and any other programs you want to open/run quickly.

I don't know if they do or not. I've only bought bare drives. A fresh install is always recommended, as you'll get better speed results.
 
120 at least, I'm running out of space with a Windows install and Skyrim with mods. Currently got 6gb free, Skyrim should be a good 20gb or so.
 
1. 120GB is a bit small. YOu really want 180GB or more.

2. yes that is what they are designed for. You can put anything on them.

3. Does not matter. You should do a fresh install for best performance.


That said, do not expect miracles. Most here like to put them (ssd) up on a god's pedestal, but the performance gain is not that great if you are coming from a good 7200RPM HDD. Really, once started you will see little to no gain in performance. Don't take it wrong, SSDs have their place, just not in desktops right now. The price is still too high to be able to get a big enough drive to make it worth while.
 
wolfeking said:
1. 120GB is a bit small.

That said, do not expect miracles. Most here like to put them (ssd) up on a god's pedestal, but the performance gain is not that great if you are coming from a good 7200RPM HDD. Really, once started you will see little to no gain in performance. Don't take it wrong, SSDs have their place, just not in desktops right now. The price is still too high to be able to get a big enough drive to make it worth while.
Click to expand...

120GB is fine for just the OS, and it's even OK for the OS and a lot of other stuff too. I have a butt load of stuff on my SSD, Windows, Office, and loads more programs and I've got 36GB free of 128GB. So, 128GB is fine, but if you can afford more, by all means go for it. I wouldn't go lower than 128GB though.

And I completely disagree with the last bit. I'm never going back to having Windows installed on hard drives again. Even going from an SSD back to a 7200 RPM disk, then back to an SSD, I noticed a huge difference. Everything installs much quicker on SSDs and the system is snappier. Both Windows 7 and 8 work well on SSDs.
 
wolfeking said:
1. 120GB is a bit small. YOu really want 180GB or more.

2. yes that is what they are designed for. You can put anything on them.

3. Does not matter. You should do a fresh install for best performance.


That said, do not expect miracles. Most here like to put them (ssd) up on a god's pedestal, but the performance gain is not that great if you are coming from a good 7200RPM HDD. Really, once started you will see little to no gain in performance. Don't take it wrong, SSDs have their place, just not in desktops right now. The price is still too high to be able to get a big enough drive to make it worth while.
Click to expand...

120gb is ok. Depends what you are going to throw on it. May be worth getting a separate HDD to throw stuff that doesn't require being installed on the SSD on to.
 
120GB may be fine for y'all, but I run out of space quick on mune, and that is with windows 7, drivers, Bonic, and 2 games installed. And the games are just taking up space, as the load times DO NOT IMPROVE one bit.

I am going to stand by my statment there, as leading the OP to believe they are far better than they are is gonig to lead nowhere. SSDs have their place, and a desktop is not that place. Laptops is that place. Where resuming/staring quickly, lower temps and lower power consumption are positives that make or break the machine. Personally, running the SSD in my Laptops is the only time I have ever seen a noticible increase, and it was no where near enough to warrant the $100 investment (which was a sale none the less).
In desktop, the average user will not notice the difference. Starting 2 or 3 times a day is not going to make up the 2 second difference, or the complexity of setup. The snappiness is not there any more than a good HDD. Instant is Instant, and a Good HDD will be nearly 10x the size for $30 less, and you will not have to search through the setup options to make sure that you are not loading the SSD with your stuff either.


If he wants a SSD, then more power to him. But I am not going to delude him like y'all did me. They are not a miracle, and in most cases are a waste of money that could be applied elsewhere.
 
I'm not even going to bother arguing with you about SSDs. The fact is, I've used 3 different ones in my personal system over past year or so, and I've used more in other systems, and have been using them for two years now. I've noticed massive differences, so have most other people. You maybe haven't, but let's just leave it at that.

Space wise, yes, it's probably a good idea to get another hard drive to install games onto if you plan to have a lot of games installed. But I have a 128GB drive, and I've got Windows 7 (fully updated too, which adds a few extra GBs on), Adobe CS5.5, Visual Studio 2012 (full install), Office 2013 (full install) and a few games and I've got 36GB free. If you're looking to install like 5, 6, 7 games, then yeah, get a hard drive - or a bigger SSD. If you're only looking to install one or two games, then a 120GB SSD will probably be big enough (depending which games you want to install and how big they are).

In my experience, Windows 8 uses up less disk space than 7 does (when both are fully updated), so with Windows 8 you should have more free space left over anyway.
 
Thanks guys. So I guess a $60 32 or 60gb on new egg is not the way to go judging from your opinions. I do appreciate the range of love/hate we have haha. I think I will stick with what I have for now especially realizing my MB doesn't even have 6gb/s capability. My current build (made possible by everyone here) is a budget...yeah cheap...build so my next will be more modern and up to date.

Thanks!
 
spirit said:
I'm not even going to bother arguing with you about SSDs. The fact is, I've used 3 different ones in my personal system over past year or so, and I've used more in other systems, and have been using them for two years now. I've noticed massive differences, so have most other people. You maybe haven't, but let's just leave it at that.
Click to expand...

I agree there. I work on customers computers at work and they take FOREVER to boot and open stuff (nevermind all the extra crap they sometimes install).
 
voyagerfan99 said:
I agree there. I work on customers computers at work and they take FOREVER to boot and open stuff (nevermind all the extra crap they sometimes install).
Click to expand...

Well even going back from my SSD to a 7200 RPM HDD for a few days I noticed stuff which was taking seconds to load on my SSD (such as Outlook) was taking much, much longer. Windows was taking minutes to fully boot. On the SSD it was less than 30 seconds.

I certainly noticed a huge difference, and so have most people.
 
I also manage a tech team at work and the guys do try to upgrade customers to SSD I just don't know all the details. For now, I think I'd be better off upgrading other things (ram, mobo or psu specifically) before going for that SSD. My next build will be less about the $$$ and more about the performance.
 
What RAM and PSU do you have now?

The best way to speed up your system is going to be to get an SSD.

Make sure SATA is set to AHCI in the BIOS, and if your board has one, plug the SSD into a SATA 6GB/s port. Then reinstall Windows with only the SSD plugged in, and job done!
 
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