HDD vs SSD

unskinnybob said:
Also - your SWAP file shouldn't be on your SSD primary.
Click to expand...

Of course it needs to be there !

It takes up negligible space, 4 - 8GB, and that is the one component of windows that really benefits tremendously from the super fast access times.
 
unskinnybob said:
Load time, pure and simple. Or lack of load time really.
Click to expand...

That's not enough to sway me... I'm usually doing other stuff anyway while waiting for my PC to boot up fully.
Once it's booted it stays that way all day (in fact, it stays that way all week).
And any time saved in application load time during daily use, will be offset by having to go and find the user files on other drives where I moved them to save space on the SSD.
Sounds like way too much effort to me. I want to just plug a drive in and use it, not spend additional hours configuring it by having to store stuff in non-default locations.
 
bwana said:
I have often considered an optibay but I'm not quite in the position to sacrifice my CD/DVD.
Moving away from OsX is definitely not a sacrifice I'm willing or able to make.
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I have an external USB DVD writer... and here USB is plenty fast for this task... I have also seen Apple friendly external superdrive enclosures for the slot-loading MacBook drives on TakeALot just for this purpose.

A friend just popped a 256GB SSD (thanks PostmanPot) drive into his 2011 MacBook Pro 13", and has ordered his Apple approved optibay from the Cape Town Apple store, and will be using an external USB powered DVD drive. For him the SSD has been almost a religious experience in how much it has changed his life!!! And I joke not. The best upgrade / money he has ever spent on any computer hardware ever. His MacBook's performance is jaw dropping... in everything... and he is even using Bootcamp Windows. He has said that he would sacrifice his DVD superdrive in an instant for the optibay... would even "lug" around a slim Samsung USB powered external burner... that is just how much value he finds in the SSD with optibay.

My brother's Lion install on his SSD Hackintosh goes from power on to desktop in around 8 - 10 seconds... everything OSX also flies. There is just no waiting for anything now.
 
abandonallhope said:
Of course it needs to be there !

It takes up negligible space, 4 - 8GB, and that is the one component of windows that really benefits tremendously from the super fast access times.
Click to expand...

You're unnecessarily shortening your SSD's lifespan with continuous writing of SWAP information. Not wise.
 
unskinnybob said:
Secondary drive. Do you have to run ALL your programs off SSD? I reserve my SSD for OS and core programs. Maybe my most played game if loading time is a factor. Also - your SWAP file shouldn't be on your SSD primary.

60GB is sufficient for primary OS.
Click to expand...
abandonallhope said:
Of course it needs to be there !

It takes up negligible space, 4 - 8GB, and that is the one component of windows that really benefits tremendously from the super fast access times.
Click to expand...
8GB is not a negligible amount of space on a 60GB drive.

Why do you need a swap file at all these days? RAM is cheap and a 64-bit OS allows you to have more than 4GB.
 
abandonallhope said:
Of course it needs to be there !

It takes up negligible space, 4 - 8GB, and that is the one component of windows that really benefits tremendously from the super fast access times.
Click to expand...

get rid of the swap file completly...if done right everything will be faster.but it will cost even more than a ssd drive...
 
ginggs said:
8GB is not a negligible amount of space on a 60GB drive.
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I wouldn't bother with a 60GB SSD, space really does become quite tight very quickly, especially when your windows installation start hitting 25GB, you couldn't run much more off it in terms of games.

Why do you need a swap file at all these days? RAM is cheap and a 64-bit OS allows you to have more than 4GB.
Click to expand...
That does make sense actually, might look into going this route.
 
Garyvdh said:
That's not enough to sway me... I'm usually doing other stuff anyway while waiting for my PC to boot up fully.
Once it's booted it stays that way all day (in fact, it stays that way all week).
And any time saved in application load time during daily use, will be offset by having to go and find the user files on other drives where I moved them to save space on the SSD.
Sounds like way too much effort to me. I want to just plug a drive in and use it, not spend additional hours configuring it by having to store stuff in non-default locations.
Click to expand...

Hey Gary ... it is not just about saving seconds from boot times... it about how quickly everything responds. Given a large enough SSD you would not really have to do anything differently to what you are currently doing... the only constraint now is SSD size / cost.

EVERYTHING is just sooo responsive.

There is virtually no waiting for Photoshop / Indesign to open up, even with a huge fontload or document size... and working with these files is unbelievable. Making changes to 200Mb to 600Mb files is now almost real-time... no little hour glass of wait. Applications that used to be only run one-at-a-time can now run simultaneously... and STILL perform fantastically. Here-in lies the true value of the SSD... the whole OS and everything you do on it is just silky smooth and responsive. What used to render in hours now renders in minutes... what used to take an hour to compile now takes a few minutes... switching between virtual machines is instantaneous AND they are immediately responsive.

Power on, wait 10 seconds, windows desktop with Outlook open and usable in 12 seconds... and that is an un-cached cold power on start. Click Photoshop, 3 seconds and ready, click open last used 600Mb file with layer upon layer of manipulation... and it is ready. Viola. Click on Indesign, it used to take about a minute to be usable, it is now usable in 11 seconds... click on complex layout file... with plugins et all... preview changes, save... all done in under a minute... it used to take 20 minutes.

Every hour of every day sees a tangible benefit that has a very definite positive impact... provided you have a large enough SSD.
The benefits are worth the expense to a lot of people.
For those on a tight budget (me!!! cry), the size / cost thingy has not hit the sweet spot yet... but given time it will.

I feel that the real "revolution" will occur when a 320GB SSD sells for around R1500.

I remember looooong ago thinking about just how the heck will I fill up my 1GB hard drive... and now I am thinking just how I can cut down to 120GB!!
 
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unskinnybob said:
You're unnecessarily shortening your SSD's lifespan with continuous writing of SWAP information. Not wise.
Garyvdh said:
Then why pay so much for a device that suffers from that shortcoming?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Not really a shortcoming anymore in current SSD's, it is unlikely that you will ever reach the maximum number of write cycles before you buy your next SSD, even with read/write intensive applications writing to it.
 
unskinnybob said:
You're unnecessarily shortening your SSD's lifespan with continuous writing of SWAP information. Not wise.
Click to expand...
This is a common misconception. e.g. I've been using an 80GB Intel X-25M since 2009 as an OS & applications drive in a PC that is on 24/7. The media wearout indicator in the SMART data is currently at 97. That means that over about three years I've used only 3% of the drive's total lifespan. It's only people who write a crapload of data to the drive regularly that even have to consider the NAND lifetime as an issue.
 
I've got 19TB of HDD space for storage, and a single 240GB SSD for my main systems system drive. The 19TB is about 90% full, the SSD is less than 50% full after win7 ultimate, Office 2010 Pro plus, visio, project, Photoshop, illustrator, acrobat, vs2010, some case tools, some smaller apps, etc. The only time 120GB system drive will be too small is if it's a notebook that only takes one drive.
 
kilobits said:
A friend just popped a 256GB SSD (thanks PostmanPot) drive into his 2011 MacBook Pro 13", and has ordered his Apple approved optibay from the Cape Town Apple store, and will be using an external USB powered DVD drive. For him the SSD has been almost a religious experience in how much it has changed his life!!! And I joke not. The best upgrade / money he has ever spent on any computer hardware ever. His MacBook's performance is jaw dropping... in everything... and he is even using Bootcamp Windows. He has said that he would sacrifice his DVD superdrive in an instant for the optibay... would even "lug" around a slim Samsung USB powered external burner... that is just how much value he finds in the SSD with optibay.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure it's not . . . and that it will void your warranty the instant you install it. I've got a few more months left on mine - that's one of the reasons I'm holding off.
 
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