ssd main drive nerd shit

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  • orrinward20

    My main laptop runs a 128GB Runcore SSD and a second internal 1TB hard drive.

    I have a lot of applications and still haven't filled half my SSD as I run most things off the second drive.

    I used to have Photoshop on the SSD but moved it across to the 1TB internal and had no noticeable change in boot time (still loads up in <3 seconds).

    2 internal drives I would say is the way to go on a budget.

    The total cost of those 2 drives + second internal caddy was £120...

  • instrmntl0

    ha, i read the title as sad man drive nerd shit.

  • Nightshade0

    I had a 7200rpm 1tb drive on my Windows 7 system but it was pretty sluggish. So I bought a 128gb Corsair drive.. here in the UK they're under £95 now. I also bought an extra PCI-E card to enable SATA-3 for the best transfer rates. I reinstalled Windows 7 on the SSD with all my main apps and run everything else from the 1tb drive.

    Was it worth it? Hell yeah! Boot up and app load times are so much quicker. Even if it saves me just 10 mins a day, that adds up and quickly pays for itself. Just thought I'd post this in case anyone was wondering whether to move to SSD.. do it.

    • ssd is awesome. i just been tempting the idea of using ssd as full profile. gonna give it a shotdeathboy
  • deathboy0

    I finally decided to pick up a 256 crucial M4. figure it was only 250 bucks. I'll give it a try as main drive and see what wear and tear happens working files from the desktop. Probably just get me in the habit to move files and backup more. Will have to wait a couple days to install it since got a few projects in the works. My lil 64gb crucial 300 just isnt cutting it for apps. just saw a reduction in read from 355 to 270 because thing is getting full. Thinking on one profile ill stack about 120gb. And i should jsut manage to have never more than 50gb of working stuff at a time.

  • tOki0

    I have a 512gb SSD as my main drive in my HP Envy 17" with a 1.5tb for general storage. It's now 12 months old and runs like a dream. The trick is not to use the SSD for general file keeping, downloads etc so that it's really just got your main current working files and software as SSD's wear out from writing data rather than hours running as is the case with your standard platter drive. This way it shouldn't wear out. That said, the drives are getting better and better so I don't imagine this being a problem in the near (or current?) future.

    Open and save times on large photoshop files are amazing. I'm talking less than 3 seconds for files up in the high hundreds of megabytes. The operating system is very zippy to boot, and programs open extremely quickly.

    The thing with computer performance is that it's all about the slowest link in your hardware. Usually this is the hard drive, so an SSD will give you huge performance gains compared to just ram or CPU. This is particularly true in a production environment where you are using large amounts of virtual memory/working with large files.

  • akrok0

    i got ssd from owc. (macsales.com) - runs like a beauty. ;-) but then, i haven't had it for a long time.

    • fast though. start my old mbp in less then 20 sec. woop woop.akrok
    • zoomzoomjaylarson
  • pillhead0

    I have the 128GB M4 and it's the best upgrade I have done in years, the overall performance of the computer is a big step up from a standard HD and worth the update. Going from 70Mb sec to over 400Mb sec is night and day.

  • deathboy0

    i have a crucial 300. firmware probably factory bleeding new. Problems im experiencing is losing all sound drivers and cant copy and paste between adobe apps even after a reinstall of cs5. I get one copy and paste than have to trash the preferences... Havent installed anyhthing i know of that could casue it.. The 64gb drive is gettin slim with about 10gb left. I cant figure out the problem, every driver saying its all good. even with reinstalls...discs perfectly healthy except for the 17% fragmented ssd... but those fragment numbers shouldnt matter on ssd im told.. Im guessing its a bad profile issue since i have also had some weird 6006 errors on installs and am required to choose admin even though i am admin... I think im going to pull the trigger and see what happens with a 256gb main drive. Wont split profile and see how things end up. Figure in another year at least there will be a 512 for a 100 bucks... hopefully.... See what happens i guess hopefully the little extra cost works out. Thx for input monolith. If wear isnt a big issue i should be solid

  • monolith0

    You don't have to worry about wear and tear. TRIM is supported on OSX Lion now too.. and the newer Sandforce 2100/2200 and later chips on latest SSDs have hardware TRIM.

    So basically those slowdowns that eventually creeped up to SSD drives among first generations are not happening now. Even if they do, what you really need to do is backup everything. Do a complete factory wipe of the SSD and it will be back to it's original performance, but this was really necessary with older SSDs.

    The bigger problem SSD drives had was bad firmwares that cause stutters, freezes and so on. So when you get an SSD if you feel like the money is worth it, make sure you check for the latest firmware.

    This happened to me and OCZ SSD I have.. it was crashing, blue screens all over the place, kernel panic and then I updated firmware and all gone.

  • deathboy0

    interesting. i dont mind the added cost being around $320 for a crucial m4for a 256gb drive. I have about 8 terabytes of storage and backup to work with. Nothing is raided. Im more concerned with wear workign on files from my desktop. Usually anything i work on i work off of the desktop than backup to regular hardrives. I think my samsungs non raided get about 130mb. 250mb on the marvell controller seems what i can pull off for write speeds. But i just dont know how fast the wear is. If its 2-3 years no problems and i can double the write speeds, im ok with that for cost. I just dont want to throw down 320 for a drive if it wears super fast or has problems. Win7 trim support and all that.

    Also as far as caching i can take my 64gb crucial 300 and add that for a cache. Im like a semi nerd on this stuff. So im still trying to figure out the best way to redo my shit. Not totally sure how to set cache drives but read some on it.

    If i can afford it does it warrant a 256gb as main drive for 2-3 year use @ around 250mb writes? So hard to sort out the ssd setups and difference in opinions....

  • monolith0

    Also look into Seagate hybrid drives. they have a part of them as SSD for caching and some prebuffer stuff for copying files which boosts HDDs performance but offer storage of 1tb and above.

  • monolith0

    I guess what I"m saying.. if you really want a super speedy drive and have storage.. WD Raptor at 1gb or whatever they have now is much better choice.

  • monolith0

    it's much faster boot time.. and noticable faster app startup time.. the rest is something you will probably not notice that much at all.

    I have 2 128gb latest gen SSDs from OCZ and Corsair. While the boost is noticeable in things i mentioned, the price is really not warranted. from $300+ to over $500 for 256gb SSDs is just a rip off.

    I am running OSX now on 7200rpm SATA drive latest gen and I honestly don't see much of a difference at all. Money spent poorly.

    Until they get to 500gb+ for $200, it will not be worth it imo. And I know this will go against every person out there hyping up SSDs but honestly I think it's a waste of money for the storage you get. And considering you will be using a regular drive for storage the point of buying SSD becomes even more pointless.

  • deathboy

    Recently my system has been acting funny and i cant figure out the problem so im using it as a good reason to upgrade some stuff.

    My main focus is to take advantage of a new ssd. Currently i have a small sataIII ssd. At 64gb i filled it fast and looking at a crucial m4. Anyone using a 256gb or larger for a main profile drive with regular hds for backup? Im trying to figure out if i want want to go with 128 and split my profile and only OS on ssd or just run my whole profile...

    Google doesnt seem to be helping much on my decision. So if anyone is running a ssd as main is it worth it for the 250mb write times? Or does it wear to fast?

    Also i have a big bang xpower with a marvell controller... i think the crucial m4 is the best out there.. if there is another better option for cheaper let me know.