I've got some questions on SSD's

[ckaz]

I will be getting the intel x25-m 80gb. I currently have a WD Caviar Black 1TB

So here are my questions.

1) On the SSD, I will put my OS, Microsoft office, Firefox, itunes, and a game or two. With an app like iTunes, I actually have quite a large music collection. So what I would like to do is have my actual music stored on my 1TB, and just have the app itself on my SSD. This way, I can get the fast loading times when opening up itunes, but when I clck a song to play, it pfinds the music file on my 1TB, and not fill up any valuable space on the SSD with songs.
Is that possible?

2) The same as #1, but with Microsoft Office. I want the actual app to load fast on my SSD, but then I want to store my office files on my 1TB. Can I do that?

3) I have my games played through Steam. I want one game on my SSD, and one to stay on my 1TB. Would I just install the actual Steam app on my SSD (so now I have it on both drives) and then move the game that I want by copying and pasting its folder?

4) I don't understand this. Everyone says that the intel x25-m is basically the top sub-$350, under 80gb, SSD. What I don't understand, is that some of its specs are quite a bit lower than that of say an OCZ Vertex Turbo. The specs go as follows; for the Intel X25-m 80gb: read speed = 250mb's, write speed = 70mb's. For the OC Vertex Turbo 60gb the specs go as follows: read speed = 240mb's, write speed = 145mb's.
Both of these SSD's can be found for around $250 canadian. Just to be sure,this is the up to date, 34nm SSD by intel, right? http://pccyber.com/?v=product&i=SSD-SSDSA2MH080G2C1
So the read speed of the OCZ is just 10mb's behind that of intel's, yet the write speed is over double the mb's of intel's!
So which is better??

That about wraps up my questions. Any answer is appreciated!

 

[sminlal]

1) Sorry, don't use iTunes so I don't have the answer to this question. But I'd be surprised if it wasn't possible.

2) Yes, you can definitely do this. To edit a word document on the 1TB HDD, just double-click it's icon in Explorer. To create a new word document on the 1TB HDD, just right-click inside an Explorer folder and select "New -> Microsoft Office Word Document". You can also use Word's "Open" and "Save As" dialogue boxes to navigate to any folder on any drive you want.

3) Sorry, don't use Steam so I can't help you here, either.

4) For some unknown reason everyone seems to get hung up on transfer rates. That's not the most important speed metric for most people who are buying an SSD - what's more important is access time, which is the biggest factor in booting and application loading performance. When looking at benchmarks, pay more attention to the "Random I/O" figures (which measure access time) than the transfer rate figures.

You should only be interested in transfer rates if the main reason you're buying an SSD is to speed up the copying of large files, or if you run programs that regularly have to read or write large files very quickly (such as editing video or large RAW camera images).

 

[ckaz]

access time = read speed?? transfer rate = write speed??

And so, for the ways I will be using my SSD (I just want things to load faster i.e. OS, itunes, microsoft office, video games), which SSD would you recommend?

 

[sminlal]

>access time = read speed?? transfer rate = write speed??
No. Both Transfer rate and random I/O performance can be measured for both reads and writes. For the kind of thing you're looking for, random I/O read performance would be the most important measure.


>which SSD would you recommend?
I've just purchased an Intel X-25M G2 drive. I chose Intel because their drives have as good or better random I/O performance as other drives, because tests have shown that they retain their performance even after all of the flash memory blocks have been overwritten, and because Intel is the only SSD manufacturer I've seen that actually gives a life expectancy for it's drives (at least 5 years if you write 20GB/day to the drive).

But new products are coming out all the time. You may want to check out this review of the OCZ Vertex 2 Pro at Anandtech.

 

[ckaz]

wow thats a great review.
From the looks of it, that product will be very expensive though, plus it isn't coming out till march.

Also, I noticed that there is an intel x25-m G1 and G2. I'm assuming G2 is newer, and therefore better..?
Now I will be buying from this store, so please tell me which of their intel x25-m 80gb's are G1, and which is G2. They are both the same price, so it is a bit confusing.
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/Computers%28ME%29/ComputerComponents%28ME%29/HardDrives%28ME%29/SSDs%28ME%29/Default.aspx

 

[Pailin]

You will definitely be wanting the newer G2 model.

As it uses the newer 34nm memory moduals it is also cheaper for Intel to produce.
When it 1st came out it was cheaper than the older G1 model!

 

[ckaz]

alright.
Well I have made my decision, and all of my questions have been answered.
Thanks a million!

 

[sminlal]

As Pailin implied, all of the Intel SSDs on the page you linked to are "G2" drives since they're all listed as using the 34nm process. You'll probably want to get the model whose number ends in "R5" rather than "C1". The "R5" part number refers to the retail kit which includes a mounting bracket that lets you mount the drive in a standard 3.5" drive bay.

G2 drives are better because they're cheaper, slightly faster, and because they support the Windows 7 TRIM feature which helps to keep them running fast even after all of their flash memory cells have been used at least once. The first batch of drives had older firmware with no TRIM support, so you may need to download the latest firmware from the Intel site in order to get it.