SSDs and storage

Ideo

For anybody who uses a SSD as their primary drive, what sort of set up do you have in terms of data management?

I'm thinking of getting a 256gb to replace my current 1tb HD, primarily to boost pc responsiveness. FYI the PC I am using is a small tower with only one internal bay

Additionally, I've ordered a Synology NAS which I plan to stick 2*2TBs inside under a RAID set up, the reason for the NAS is also to stream movies to a media player, itunes server on all of the computers in the house too so I'm not buying the NAS just to plug straight into the comp.

Any recommendations on setup?

vibe666

i wouldn't worry about the internal space, your SSD will be in the 2.5" laptop sized format and with no moving parts, you can just duct tape it (or screw it) onto any flat surface inside your case, wherever it fits and leave the other drive where it is and use that for data storage.

druidhill

Ideo wrote: »

I'm thinking of getting a 256gb to replace my current 1tb HD, primarily to boost pc responsiveness. FYI the PC I am using is a small tower with only one internal bay

What OS are you currently using, and is it 32-bit or 64-bit?
Are you sure there is only one internal bay (and do you have any external bays)?

Ideo

I'm using Win 7 64 and yes there is only one port in the PC, its a Dell Zino. There are a couple of compatible SSDs, installing it isn't the issue (for now anyway!), just wondering what set up people normally use for storage, downloading etc?

I'm thinking that movies can be downloaded straight to the NAS, but music might be better to go to the PC first, re-label using musicbrainz picard free software and move this to the. Photos onto the SSD first for editing and then on to the NAS later.

Thoughts are welcome? Do 256 SSDs fill up easily esp where a couple of programmes might be installed, photoshop, itunes, ms office etc?

Bosh

Just did this recently, Samsung 830 128gb SSD as primary & 3TB Seagate Barracuda as secondary.

Put OS (Win 7 64) Office & browser on SSD & everything else on Seagate.

Huge difference in boot times & program/page loading.

Trick is just to be careful when installing programs to change default installation location, some progs require a custom install to do this, some will just zip by & install to C: if you're not watching :eek:

Seagate required partitioning to see third TB btw, handy utility on their website for it.

If, like me, you haven't done it before, preparation is all, Google is your friend :P

Plenty of helpful folks on here too

vibe666

I have a pair of 60gb SSD's in RAID0 (so I get just over 100gb usable space, 35gb free currently, installed in july last year) running Win7 x64 in my main rig, with a 1tb drive for local data.

I also have a big 12tb home built NAS as my main shared storage and various other PC's and other devices on the network which use the NAS to save directly to, inc. a utorrent download box which is set up to save everything directly onto the NAS itself, so it doesn't use any of it's local disks at all.

the synology NAS's do have a half decent torrent (and other download, http, ftp, etc.) client built in though, so you won't even need a PC to download stuff once you have that and can even kick off downloads remotely when you're out.

I have UPC 150mbps broadband and I've been torrenting at up to 50mbps like this, over a gigabit wired local LAN with no problems, so you should be fine as long as you have a wired connection to the NAS.

Bosh

I have UPC 150mbps broadband and I've been torrenting at up to 50mbps like this, over a gigabit wired local LAN with no problems, so you should be fine as long as you have a wired connection to the NAS.

Swine.

grumpygit

I have win 7 64 bit set up on a crucial 65 gbit ssd at the moment (am using a another 1tb internal and an external 1tb for storage) I am trying to load programs on the 1tb internal but sometimes they do seem to creep on to the ssd plus windows updates etc are gradually going to increase usage space. I currently have win 7 norton internet security and lightroom only loaded on the ssd (I think, might be a few other small programmes like skype) and it shows up as 24 gbit free of 60gb having said that this is my second attempt as the ssd crashed on me previously and I had to load windows on the 1tb and then format the ssd to get it back. Before the ssd crashed it had only about 500mb free space so it does fill up however with 250 gbit I'd say you should be fairly safe

vibe666

Bosh wrote: »

Swine.

i have to say it's pretty awesome.

i don't think I could go back to DSL now at all, it's just not good enough for my needs. mind you, i guess if i didn't have any choice, i'd have to make do with whatever I could get, but a UPC connection would be a major contributing factor in moving house, along with a roof and walls etc.

Ideo

Thanks for the replies folks, I guess the trick is to try to load any non essential programmes onto a 100gb partition on the NAS and try to keep only the essential ones on the actual SSD then?
Yeah d/l straight to the NAS is one of the reasons for for buying it. Raid 1 setup is the primary reason, followed by being able to access the data on the various comps in the house, stream to media box, and lastly downloading! I should have delivery next week and then the real fun can begin!

joujoujou

I have 64GB SSD for system and applications, using HDDs for storage.

Personally, 64GB capacity it's more than enough. Currently have roughly 23GB space used.

Win7 onboard.

vibe666

Ideo wrote: »

Thanks for the replies folks, I guess the trick is to try to load any non essential programmes onto a 100gb partition on the NAS and try to keep only the essential ones on the actual SSD then?

i've found that a lot of games will still work if you move the installation directory to another disk (assuming you're the kind of person who would use a 'no cd hack' so you don't have to keep the cd/dvd in the drive when you want to play it) without re-installing it, even through OS re-installs.

i have about a dozen games on my data drive and all but one of them has continued to work through OS re-installs on the primary hard drive.

i just installed them all into a folder on my data drive ("D:\Games\" to keep things simple) and then keep a folder with shortcuts to all the game launchers, so whenever i re-install my OS I just copy the shortcuts directory into my start menu and i'm good to go.

quite a few apps are the same as well, or will at least have a 'portable' version available or install option, to allow you to do the same thing.