Whats the point of having an SSD and a HDD?

[Vanquisher71]

Hey people, so I have my own PC (for gaming, editing, photoshop, surfing), and I have a 1TB HDD. But during my time on here, I've seen people with builds that include a SSD and a HDD. I know and understand the differences between the two (SSD: Better performance and longer life HDD: Bigger sizes and cheaper), but what I don't get is why some people have an SSD and a HDD inside their rigs

 

[ThatVietGuy]

SSDs still haven't quite reached the same price/GB as a mechanical HDD. People have both so that any extra programs/files/whatever can be stored on the HDD instead of being on the SSD and taking up space.

 

[Vanquisher71]

But why not just have a larger HDD in the first place? Surely the money saved on not buying a SSD makes that possible

 

[ThatVietGuy]

Try using a system with an SSD as a boot drive and booting in <20 seconds.

Can't go back after that.

The speed an SSD provides a system is a huge improvement.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

And it's not like using the two together involves any black magic or any more involvement in your day-to-day activities.

 

[Vanquisher71]

Ah ok. I though it was something like that, installing your OS helped improved your PC's performance. If you've already installed your OS to your HDD is there a way to move it to an SSD? (Might do this one day)

 

[ThatVietGuy]

There are programs to clone your HDD to your new SSD.

For example, Samsung SSDs come with Data Migration Software for you to use.

 

[Vanquisher71]

Ah ok thanks

 

[USAFRet]

SSD - OS and applications
HDD - Large, for all that other stuff.

Having the OS and applications live on the SSD significantly speeds things up. Even more so if you can put some of your files on that as well.

For instance, a mediumly complex Excel file
On my office PC, approx 5 secs to open. All HDD
On my home PC, approc 0.5 sec to open. Mostly SSD.

The exact same file.


The SSD speeds things up that need to be. Applications, etc.
The HDD for large drive space.
Slowly, my main system is becoming SSD only. It currently has 5 drives. 4 x SSD and 1 x 3TB HDD.
That HDD may be moving to a different system here soon.


My Adobe Lightroom application and catalogs live on the SSD. Weekly, when you close it, it does a backup of the catalog. Takes maybe 2-3 secs. If that were to live on the HDD, it would take much longer.

3 secs vs 10 secs does not seem like a lot, except when you see that delay over, and over, and over.
Once you use an SSD, you won't go back.