SSD OS or not

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moepkid

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Mar 26, 2013
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hey all,

recently i bought a mushkin deluxe 60gb ssd. The poroblem is, is that i dont know if i install the os on the ssd or my games. I read things like a limited lifespan of an ssd if you write to much to it so i dont know what to do.

 
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IMHO, your SSD is too small but without a doubt the first thing you must put on it is your OS. You will then need another storage medium for everything else. SSDs do wear themselves out but not at a rate that should affect most users although it's always a good idea to have a replacement plan.
 
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Yeah i have an 1tb harddisk with it. But the os writes allot so i thought it would be bad for the lifespan. Any advices on using an ssd?
 
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I also have a 60GB as my primary OS drive. I use it for my OS, and a few programs (like Lightroom). But it's not big enough for my games. But keep in mind, game load times are more-dependent on CPU speed than disk performance. Not entirely, but very dependent. Because game data is stored as a compressed format, and a majority of game load time is during the CPU decompression portion rather than the data transfer from the disk to the RAM. This is a gross generalization. You will see improved load times with a SSD, but I can't say it's vital vs. an OS.

You don't have to worry about disk life with using the SSD for your OS. Most drive firmwares are quite intelligent now compared to when SSDs first came out. They are much better at writing on already-used sectors vs. a clean sector, and are good with garbage collection in general. I haven't noticed much of a difference in performance over the course of a couple years with my current SSD; have never reformatted/reinstalled during this time either.

If you find performance diminishing over time, you can simply reformat and reinstall using the same drive, and you'll get back to initial performance.
 
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My advice is to beware of hype. Most people are attracted to SSDs by performance claims so OEMs make excessive claims to compete. SSDs are faster but IMHO, the best reason to invest in an SSD is reliability. No moving parts, no heat & very low power. There's really no reason to treat your SSD any differently than an HDD although I predict you will soon wish for a larger one.
 
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If you are really worried about performance degradation you should change where temp files to your OS go. You can also decrease the amount of caching your comp does to the SSD and you can disable hibernation and virtual memory as those probably provide the most amount of the writes to the SSD for an OS. I have a 128 GB SSD for only my OS and my favorite games to provide an extra boost to load times there. Other posts are right about game performance and SSDs, load times dont increase by that much, I notice about a 5 second increase in some games but thats the most ive seen. However OS load times are way better.

So what I recomend is to install the OS and maybe your most played game on the SSD if you are debating between the two.
 
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Yeah, the reason i bought the cheapest and smallest one is that i wanted to try an ssd. I have set funds aside to buy a bigger one if i really like it. Thanks for the answers :)

So when it arrives i only install the os on it and disable features like virtual memory and hibernate. More things i should consider with my os to increase lifespan? I was just afraid that i had to treat my ssd way different than my hdd

sorry for my english :/
 
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You don't need to do too many special things. If you want to benchmark your SSD, just make sure to use a "SSD" benchmarking tool, as opposed to standard HDD ones that make many reads/writes (wastes cycles). There are many guides about what to do with SSDs. Windows (7 and higher) is pretty smart in doing what needs to be done when using a SSD--you won't need to do much.
 
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Thanks all! i really know a lot more about my problem. As i understand now, i just install windows 8 on my ssd and reroute my libraries to my hdd and windows 8 should do the rest i guess? things like disabling defrag and enabling TRIM?
 
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aha, i see now. Windows 8 automatically detects an ssd and changes the defrag option to TRIM (supported by my ssd) and disables the superfetch option. So i think i shouldnt be messing around with the settings and just install windows 8 and leave it as it is.
 
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BTW since you seem to have solved your issue, check this out.

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Moral things aside. Many performance enthusiasts love to compare how awesome their PC is by showing their points tally, or points per day capacity, for folding. Tom's Hardware has its own team right here! Come in and comment! http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1580785/folding-home-thgc-team-40051/page-173.html
 
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well, i just recieved my ssd and installed only ccleaner, chrome and windows on it (also the ati drivers). the rest of the programs like hwmonitor, steam and others are installed on the 1tb harddisk.
 
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Ow, sorry for the late reaction, but i installed windows 7 and then everything on my 1tb hard disk including ccleaner. My games dont take forever to load so it should be ok now. I also checked if TRIM is enabled and did some tweaks i found on the internet.
 
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