Two SSD or not two SSD?

Thor

Thor

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Any benefits to using one SSD for the OS (Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit) and another SSD for programs/data?

To clarify, the workstation currently runs on a single SSD. Would there be a quantifiable performance increase in adding a second SSD and separate the OS and programs/data?
 
use it in RAID will be alot faster and eieser to use (one big drive)

the read/write speed will be the same
but when i raid it it will be alot faster
 
sybertiger said:
use it in RAID will be alot faster and eieser to use (one big drive)

the read/write speed will be the same
but when i raid it it will be alot faster
Click to expand...

This is the best option. RAID 0 will stripe it and boost overall speed quite a lot, and you can install the programs onto their normal location.
 
Backup!
One of those drives fail and you lose everything
 
Go with one, if you feel it should be faster, get the second one. How much RAM has the system got?
 
*looks around*

Pretty sure everyone in this thread has completely lost the plot and/or doesn't understand SSDs...

RAID/stripe two SSDs to improve performance on a desktop machine??? wut...sure you can also strap two ferraris together with ducttape...more horsepower but not a superior engineering design.

[email protected] you would not see a tangible performance improvement unless the existing drive is close to full. Do consider slvr's backup suggestion though.
 
HavocXphere said:
*looks around*

Pretty sure everyone in this thread has completely lost the plot and/or doesn't understand SSDs...

RAID/stripe two SSDs to improve performance on a desktop machine??? wut...sure you can also strap two ferraris together with ducttape...more horsepower but not a superior engineering design.

[email protected] you would not see a tangible performance improvement unless the existing drive is close to full. Do consider slvr's backup suggestion though.
Click to expand...

Noted going with mirrored
 
Not what I meant...sorry was unclear. Was more suggesting that a backup strategy (onto low cost medium like HDD) is a good plan.

I'd skip the 2nd SSD for performance entirely...l'd add a second SSD for data...but purely because I ran out of space on the first.

With SSDs speed is pretty much a pointless discussion...even the slowest ones are pretty flippin fast even for power users so I'd rather spend my time optimising stuff that is still dreadfully slow (like internet)
 
HavocXphere said:
Not what I meant...sorry was unclear. Was more suggesting that a backup strategy (onto low cost medium like HDD) is a good plan.

I'd skip the 2nd SSD for performance entirely...l'd add a second SSD for data...but purely because I ran out of space on the first.

With SSDs speed is pretty much a pointless discussion...even the slowest ones are pretty flippin fast even for power users so I'd rather spend my time optimising stuff that is still dreadfully slow (like internet)
Click to expand...

Makes a lot of sense thinking of it this way
 
StrontiumDog said:
How are hybrid drives as a second drive?
Click to expand...

Kind of pointless. They use the cache for repeated actions like startup but lose benefit in random access scenarios which I guess a second drive would be.

What's wrong with striping SSDs? If he's going to get more than one in any case it seems to make sense. I can't imagine why you'd want to mirror them, am I missing something?
 
Yeah, OP, you can do that. For nearly two decades I've split OS and data across two drives, so I can reformat/replace the OS drive and keep data intact. In the past I simply moved My Documents to the second HDD, made sure the Outlook PST was in there as well (it used to be in AppData), and could then rejig the OS drive anytime.

Used to have an SSD for OS and 3 x 2TB drives for data and backups. Media are on a separate server.

Now I use two SSDs in my desktop rig.

I've migrated all data to the cloud so only placeholders are local, plus a few hundred frequently-used files. I do keep an offline backup just in case the cloud evaporates or the internet crashes permanently.

Now one SSD is primary active for OSs. And the second SSD is for OS backup images and ad hoc transient files like video capture/editing, etc. With Acronis I can restore any OS image to any system or VM.
 
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cerebus said:
Kind of pointless. They use the cache for repeated actions like startup but lose benefit in random access scenarios which I guess a second drive would be.

What's wrong with striping SSDs? If he's going to get more than one in any case it seems to make sense. I can't imagine why you'd want to mirror them, am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Mirroring makes sense for redundancy but once again with the high prices of SSD's and seeing that this is a home PC it is a bit pointless. Dropbox/Google drive for your documents and a backup of your programs and games installation files on a external is all you need in case something goes wrong.
 
I agree with what most people said here. If you're going to use multiple SSD's, the only sensible thing is to RAID
 
Sure it's easier to then reinstall the OS and keep data and programs. Performance wise not so much of a benefit. You'll need to over provision both to keep them running efficiently. Much easier and more practical to do that with a single larger SSD. Rather do that with two partitions if you want to be practical. RAID would just increase your chances of failure with not much of a noticeable performance benefit and you may lose out on some SSD functions.
 
As Swa says indeed.

Frankly I'm somewhat surprised people are contemplating running dual SSDs. Personally I've found a combination of SSD & HDD to offer optimal trade-offs at this stage. (OS & key data on SSD, mass storage on the HDD)
 
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