More storage needed.. SSD time?

GreenMint

GreenMint

GreenMint

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Hey all, I'm looking for some more storage, but not really sure where to go right now!

I currently have a 300GB primary drive in 2 x 40gb partitions (xp and vista) and a remainder for storage (~200gb logical space) then just an old 80gb IDE on a SATA converter split into 20 x 40gb for mp3 and other junk which desperately needs clearing out! Only other storage is a 500GB drive in an external enclosure.

My current thoughts are 3 fold, My plan is to lose vista and run XP and Windows 7 (Yeah, I know it has compatibility etc.. but I want a standard XP install too)

1: Buy a 1TB drive, put it in the enclosure, 500gb into the pc as the master with a 100/400 split, and the current 300 in a 100/200 split, First drive for 7 and programs, 2nd for xp and downloads.

2: Buy 2 x 320gb drives, into raid 0 (Suggested more by a friend than my idea) and use them for 7, 300gb drive into 80/220 for xp and downloads

3: Buy a SSD, not sure which one? Would really want a 64GB+, ideally 128 to split for 7 and XP, but don't want to be spending the earth, as much as I want performance, I don't want to be spending twice the amount of other SSD's for a 2% speed increase, as I'm sure most SSD's are VERY noticable to say the least in speed anyways!

I'm more drawn to idea #3, but not sure what would be a good idea in practicality!

Rest of system: E6300@stock, Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650, 4GB PC6400.Any ideas or opinions welcomed!

Thanks!
 
Get a Vertex, Samsung (pref PB22-J), or the Intel X25-M. All the other consumer SSD's have terrible issues.
 
Zarf said:
Get a Vertex, Samsung (pref PB22-J), or the Intel X25-M. All the other consumer SSD's have terrible issues.
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Not exactly! Mtron SSD`s have no problems and I`m sure there are other SLC based drives available that`s are decently made.
 
If you are just looking for more storage as the thread suggests, then no, ssd's do not make sense. Especially if you are worried about $/performance ratio as the ssd's are a good upgrade, to say they are worth what current prices are I would say not.

It's way better than a 2% increase although you will have to spend the earth for a good one (any of them worth buying imo).
 
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Ninja Please! said:
It's way better than a 2% increase although you will have to spend the earth for a good one (any of them worth buying imo).
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Oh yeah, I understand that, I meant if there is a 2% difference between a good SSD and a great one, then I wouldn't go for the more expensive one for that sake.

So the OCZ Solid Series 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-010-OC&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=910

Is not one people would think to go for?

Its not really a case of needing massive amounts of storage, what I have right now is nearly enough, but I wouldn't mind getting a new clean drive, starting again with the installs and setting my current primary up as a data drive just for the little extra space I'd gain!
 
I'd still say the vertex is going to be way more than 2% faster than the solid series.

AFAIK, The solid series may advertise a speed that's 150 read, that's at it's best, brand new, crap os and still you'd have to be lucky. Then there's the, how will this perform down the road once it is filled up? Well, not very well is the answer. People with these drives can experience stuttering, or extremely long boot times etc. The reason for the degradation is the way ssd's store data. I'm not going to get into all that and why, just that the Vertex has a firmware 1.0 that supports a tool they have called trim (wiper). It's designed to be ran every so often and will restore your drive to day one speeds in seconds. take a look at my post of before and after wiper here (two posts down): http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18006302&page=2

The only way to achieve the same performance "restore" on the other ssd's is to completely delete everything (including OS) and reformat and install everything over again.
 
Ah, i see what you mean now, apologies for the questions, just not really that "with it" on SSD's, so just trying to figure where things stand, the 60gb for £212 doesn't look bad value if it performs the way you say, I'll definitely give it some thought anyways, its either that or a 1TB normal HDD for now, as I don't really do that much intensive HDD related activity, just a lot of browsing, and not many games etc, photoshop, some soundbooth I don't know if I'm best pocketing £100+ and getting the 1gb for now, but time will tell!

I'll def have a think about it!
 
I have no regrets on my purchase. It is one of the most noticable upgrades anyone could possibly get. I get a kick out of opening the same program at the same time on my i7 rig and old rig and watching how much faster the i7 rig is. But anyhow, as far as opening programs goes, as ssd is the most noticable upgrade.
 
Yeah, pretty much what I was thinking, I know my cpu is a bit of a bottleneck by todays's standards, has been ticking along nicely for 27 months and showing no weakness (touch wood!) but should be fine I'm sure! :)
 
Should be noted for the op that the speed degradation mentioned above only applies to ssd`s that are MLC based and also use write combining. SSD`s that are SLC based or MLC SSD`s that don`t use write combining aren`t effected.

Personally I think any decent SSD that has 100/100 R/W and is big enough for your OS to live on is a no brainer, providing you actually use your PC for a fair amount because prices are still not on par with HD`s but that`s the only reason.

Paying extra for higher R/W than about 100 is pointless for OS use and maybe even gaming aswell imo.
 
I'm so uneducated right now I'm not even sure on the difference between MLC and SLC, all I've bought in the last 2 years is RAM and a small spec PC I built for my brother!

Guuessing that http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-013-OC&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=910 will be good in 30gb or 60gb forms, although not sure if 30 would be enough for 1 os + apps really, or if a 60 would be enough for 2 + apps! Hmm...could be an idea to start small and see how it goes! :)
 
TimBrad said:
Guuessing that http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-013-OC&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=910 will be good in 30gb or 60gb forms, although not sure if 30 would be enough for 1 os + apps really, or if a 60 would be enough for 2 + apps! Hmm...could be an idea to start small and see how it goes! :)
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If you are looking to start small and build up then the 30Gb Vertex you have linked to is a very good drive, and as you get more you could RAID them and benefit from the increased performance to be had using that - however, I would say that although 30Gb could happily take OS and a single App (or even a few) you will quickly want to put more on the drive as anything loading from an old mechanical drive would be painfully slow in comparison. I did exactly this - getting 2 x 30Gb vertex's but very soon after installing them deciding that I wanted the additional capacity as I wanted all my Apps etc to run from them.

Have you considered getting a 64Gb Samsung PB22-J? I would suggest that for your requirements it would offer a better capacity for not much more than the smaller Vertex drive and should satisfy you for a lot longer.

Remember though that there are 'tweaks' which can be done for SSD's to help sustain their longevity - things like moving the page file to another physical disk, and if you are running Vista you can disable Indexing as SSD's access times make it redundant.

As a final note, I would recommend getting something like Acronis True Image to keep an image of your drive handy.
 
I'd buy an SSD, the 128GB Samsung is tempting me atm, and a 1TB WD/Samsung/Seagate as a storage drive.

However another suggestion about what you put where for you to consider is that I have both my oses (Win 7 x64 RC and XP Pro, similar to what your planning?) on the same physical hard disk(s in my case, RAID0) and use seperate drives for storage and backup.

And the idea of an image backup program is a good one.^^
 
FaceplantSi said:
Remember though that there are 'tweaks' which can be done for SSD's to help sustain their longevity - things like moving the page file to another physical disk, and if you are running Vista you can disable Indexing as SSD's access times make it redundant.
Click to expand...

Actually, page files are recommended by Microsoft to be placed on the SSD - read this, plenty of useful info on SSDs and win7!
 
The samsung one does look nice actually, good size for the price and I'm sure It'll be like greased lightning over the current 7200rpm 4 year old drive :p

Anyone had any issues at all with the samsung one at all?
 
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