128GB vs 32GB SSD boot up speed

[rizzo183]

I have a Dell XPS 15 9560 with a 32GB SSD, and a Dell Inspiron 7000 with a 128GB SSD (both have an additional 1TB 5400 rpm HDD)

The Inspiron boots up 3-5 seconds faster than the XPS.

The Inspiron also has double the RAM (16gb vs 8gb), and a better CPU (i7 7700 vs i5 7300).

But does the boot-up speed depend on anything other than what storage the OS is installed on?

SIDE NOTE: On the Inspiron, there is a separate partition for the 128GB SSD. However, on the XPS there is just one partition. It's a 950GB partition and that's where the OS is installed. So what's up with that?

 

[USAFRet]

The Inspiron is 2 discreet drives. 128GB SSD and 1TB HDD. Not partitions...individual physical drives.

The XPS has a 32GB SSD that is a cache for the 1TB drive. It is not directly addressable as an individual drive. You see the 'two' as just a single drive.

And a 3-5 sec difference in boot time is trivial. That may be due to many other factors.
CPU, what applications are started up at boot, etc, etc.

 

[rizzo183]

The XPS has a 32GB SSD that is a cache for the 1TB drive. It is not directly addressable as an individual drive. You see the 'two' as just a single drive.

So is it like an SSHD? Why are they calling it an SSD if it's "part" of a HDD? Basically is it faster than if the OS was installed in a regular way on the HDD?

And a 3-5 sec difference in boot time is trivial. That may be due to many other factors.
CPU, what applications are started up at boot, etc, etc..

It's trivial, but it's slower than a year-old Asus x-series laptop with tons more startup programs, weaker specs and $500 cheaper price tag. Both the XPS and the Inspiron are fresh out of the box and have the same number of startup items.

 

[USAFRet]

It is an SSD, but it is configured to be just the cache for that HDD.
Yes, faster than if it was HDD only.

 

[derekullo]

The only things that can affect boot time are:

1. Your cpu speed.
a. If your cpu was made in the last 4 years and is at least an i3 or higher you should be fine.

2. Your storage device and its read speed. This is the biggest one.
a. Your 32 gigabyte ssd probably has about 200 megabyte a second read, not too shabby versus a hard drive, and most likely is only a read cache.
The write speed of a 32 gigabyte ssd is most likely terrible.
b. But your 128 gigabyte ssd depending on the model has anywhere from 300 to 500 megabyte a second reads and 300-400 writes.

3. Your ram. 8 gigabytes should be enough for light gaming, recommend 16 gigabytes for a gaming computer
a. You need enough ram to not have to use virtual disk space on your ssd or hard drive as virtual memory.
When you run out of super fast ram, your computer goes to its next storage device so it can store data so the computer doesn't crash.
Unfortunately even the fastest ssd's today are many orders of magnitude slower than the ram it uses.

4. The Operating system used.
a. Windows 10 boots up faster than windows 7, just the way it is. There is a more scientific reason but it isn't important.


So in conclusion, if your cpu is from the last 5 years and you have a least 8 gigabytes of ram then the biggest bottleneck for your computer is the ssd or hard drive's read speed.