SSD + Win7 Question

[DrPop]

Looks like I find myself with an extra 60GB SSD drive as the one I bought for my friend didn't come soon enough, so I ended up buying another one for him up in SF when we were there. The first one I purchased from Newegg just came today.

If I choose to install it in my front desk office rig, will it make any difference at all? Currently using a 500GB SATAII 7200rpm HDD in that rig. It runs an appointment scheduling and billing software for the office; miscellaneous web surfing for Kim, occasional Word and PDF document creation/viewing, minimal Photoshop use for graphics creation, and then of course it crunches BOINC 24/7 - DiRT currnetly on AMD quad core CPU and GTX 460 GPU, with PG thrown in when DiRT is out of GPU WUs.

My current thought is...reinstall Win7 on the SSD drive and use that for the OS and program installs, and then use the 500GB HDD as the Data Drive to store everything on. I'm guessing there will be about 30GB free on the SSD after I install Win7 and our programs on it. Everything else (photos, documents, other files) will go on the HDD.

If I do that, does it make sense to put the Win7 swap file on the SSD drive itself, or on the "data drive" 500GB HDD? There is 4GB of DDR3 RAM in this rig if that matters.
Thanks for any tips on this!

[Bok]

You'll definitely notice a difference and I would put the swap on the SSD too. Anything that's going to be accessed repeatedly should be on there.

What type did you go for ?

[DrPop]

You'll definitely notice a difference and I would put the swap on the SSD too. Anything that's going to be accessed repeatedly should be on there.

What type did you go for ?

Hi BOK, thanks for the info. I've never had an SSD before, so this is new to me. It's nothing fancy compared to what you're running - I think it's an OCZ SATAII version - but the good thing is, I paid like $1 per GB for it! :D
I had originally purchased it to go in my friend's laptop that he keeps killing the HDDs in, but it didn't come soon enough, so I got him a different one up in San Francisco over the holiday weekend and redid his computer for him there.

Now I find myself stuck with this one . . . and thinking . . . maybe I should just use it. ;)

[Bok]

Those are certainly still pretty darn quick...

[Fire$torm]

....My current thought is...reinstall Win7 on the SSD drive and use that for the OS and program installs, and then use the 500GB HDD as the Data Drive to store everything on. I'm guessing there will be about 30GB free on the SSD after I install Win7 and our programs on it. Everything else (photos, documents, other files) will go on the HDD.

If I do that, does it make sense to put the Win7 swap file on the SSD drive itself, or on the "data drive" 500GB HDD? There is 4GB of DDR3 RAM in this rig if that matters.
Thanks for any tips on this!


You'll definitely notice a difference and I would put the swap on the SSD too. Anything that's going to be accessed repeatedly should be on there.


Now I find myself stuck with this one . . . and thinking . . . maybe I should just use it. ;)

BOK is correct (Like DUH, he is an IT pro that runs his own website...) The only thing I would recommend is that you create two partitions on the SSD. One for Win7 and the other for whatever you want. The primary reason for a separate OS partition is one of convenience. With that setup, if the OS install goes FUBAR then you only have to reformat/reinstall it and not all the data that would otherwise be lost with a single partition. That Vertex drive does have Trim support (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM_%28SSD_command%29) so the drive will stay responsive over time unlike the 1st gen SSDs.

[DrPop]

OK, thanks for the tips, guys. I will try to do that install this weekend when I have the time and see what happens. Hopefully it will be a noticeable speed increase, but it can't hurt either way! ;)

[Cruncher Pete]

Looks like I find myself with an extra 60GB SSD drive as the one I bought for my friend didn't come soon enough, so I ended up buying another one for him up in SF when we were there. The first one I purchased from Newegg just came today.

If I choose to install it in my front desk office rig, will it make any difference at all? Currently using a 500GB SATAII 7200rpm HDD in that rig. It runs an appointment scheduling and billing software for the office; miscellaneous web surfing for Kim, occasional Word and PDF document creation/viewing, minimal Photoshop use for graphics creation, and then of course it crunches BOINC 24/7 - DiRT currnetly on AMD quad core CPU and GTX 460 GPU, with PG thrown in when DiRT is out of GPU WUs.

My current thought is...reinstall Win7 on the SSD drive and use that for the OS and program installs, and then use the 500GB HDD as the Data Drive to store everything on. I'm guessing there will be about 30GB free on the SSD after I install Win7 and our programs on it. Everything else (photos, documents, other files) will go on the HDD.

If I do that, does it make sense to put the Win7 swap file on the SSD drive itself, or on the "data drive" 500GB HDD? There is 4GB of DDR3 RAM in this rig if that matters.
Thanks for any tips on this!

Nah, you got it all wrong DrPop. You do not need to improve your office system, the SSD will not make any diffrerence in observed time to your observation. Therefore, your best option for it is to send it to me, I could make good use of it to improve the management of my "Farm" output.

On a serious note, I should shut up for a guy on a pension can only envy toys like that and since I haven't got one, I can not advise you, so I should shut up already.:)

[NJCaNS]

Nah, you got it all wrong DrPop. You do not need to improve your office system, the SSD will not make any diffrerence in observed time to your observation. Therefore, your best option for it is to send it to me, I could make good use of it to improve the management of my "Farm" output.

On a serious note, I should shut up for a guy on a pension can only envy toys like that and since I haven't got one, I can not advise you, so I should shut up already.:)Truthfully, CP's original response is correct and he can make better use of the drive for the team. I'll PM you his mailing address in NJ in a few minutes. :)

[DrPop]

Haha, that was good. ;) Well, truth is, I would have never bought something so frivolous for myself. However, it was for a friend, and his lappy - well, I don't know what he does to it - but he's on his THIRD HDD in that thing! :D So...it was going to be a gift for him, but didn't arrive in time. I ended up getting him a different one up North so I could redo his computer while I was there over the holiday. (Much better than him trying to do it and calling me several times in the middle asking what to do next, LOL!) :D

Now I have this extra SSD sitting here. I could send it back, but that seems such a waste to pay shipping and restocking fee, so I was thinking I should just give it a try.
CP - do you really honestly have need of it? I haven't installed it yet, and...I can't believe NJ is running enough rigs for it to make a difference in NJ! :)) :D ;) hehehe...

[Cruncher Pete]

Haha, that was good. ;) Well, truth is, I would have never bought something so frivolous for myself. However, it was for a friend, and his lappy - well, I don't know what he does to it - but he's on his THIRD HDD in that thing! :D So...it was going to be a gift for him, but didn't arrive in time. I ended up getting him a different one up North so I could redo his computer while I was there over the holiday. (Much better than him trying to do it and calling me several times in the middle asking what to do next, LOL!) :D

Now I have this extra SSD sitting here. I could send it back, but that seems such a waste to pay shipping and restocking fee, so I was thinking I should just give it a try.
CP - do you really honestly have need of it? I haven't installed it yet, and...I can't believe NJ is running enough rigs for it to make a difference in NJ! :)) :D ;) hehehe...

Yes DrPop, in all honesty I would say that I have a need for it. Having said that, let me be honest, I would not expect anybody even a friend to post an item from the states to here. The cost of shipping is prohibitive. A few years ago I purchased a brand new rig for my Brother in Huntington Beach locally thinking to ship it to him as a surprise. I returned it and arranged a local guy to supply and install a lot cheaper. Install it yourself my friend and enjoy the benefit of it...

[DrPop]

...I would not expect anybody even a friend to post an item from the states to here. The cost of shipping is prohibitive...

Hmmm...the rate does not seem too bad in my mind. SSD is quite small, actually. I will PM you. ;)