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Best small SSD for htpc

S

SLS

n00b
Joined
Dec 20, 2010
Messages
46
I need a small ssd to install OS on.

I have been looking at these on Amazon:

Patriot Torqx 2 32GB ~ $69 270MB read, 230MB write.
OCZ Vertex ~$57 210MB read, 75MB write.

Surprisingly there is so little choice at this level. I would think there would be a huge market for small cheap ssds.

The next step up seems to be at ~$100 level which there is so much choices.

For the little extra it doesn't seem worth it to go with smaller. On the other hand I definitely do not need so much space and I am limited to sata2 ports.
 
Which OS are we talking about here? 32GB is pretty tight for Windows. If you're talking Linux you're fine.
 
Windows XP, possibly 7. But other than that a few codecs and xbmc so that's a huge amount of space even with 7.
 
The problem I see with these older drives is that you might be walking into a performance or reliability nightmare. And then the price per GB for the smaller drives is pretty bad.

But if you are looking to save some money, you might want to try buying a used (or open box) but good (latest- or next-to-latest-gen) 64 GB drive from eBay or whatever... where you can find the good ones for about $1 / GB. It may take you 2-3 weeks if you're picky enough, but you can usually get a decent deal. It can be hard to find good, quality drives in low capacities. (There might be some 40 GB Intels out there though.)
 
If your storage is iSCSI capable, invest in an Intel NIC that can boot off of iSCSI directly. Should be more than enough for HTPC purposes.
 
TCM said:
If your storage is iSCSI capable, invest in an Intel NIC that can boot off of iSCSI directly. Should be more than enough for HTPC purposes.
Click to expand...

You should be able to get iSCSI boot to work with any NIC if you boot of a USB and use ipxe.
 
32 GB is too small for Windows 7. I had to move from a 60 GB drive to a 128 GB drive because it was always full (only a few apps and Windows 7 was on the SSD). Between the browsers cache and applications that couldn't understand that I want them on anything but the C drive, it filled up quick. And often.
 
40 GB - 64 GB is fine/ideal for an HTPC. Disable the hibernation pagefile and system restore.
 
tonyb said:
32 GB is too small for Windows 7. I had to move from a 60 GB drive to a 128 GB drive because it was always full (only a few apps and Windows 7 was on the SSD). Between the browsers cache and applications that couldn't understand that I want them on anything but the C drive, it filled up quick. And often.
Click to expand...

Buddy just built a new HTPC with a 32gb as well, used his spare copy of Vista. He's pissed that there's almost no space left after getting everything installed and updated (MediaPortal also). 32gb is too small in my book, he's sitting at 5gb remaning.
 
The two drives mentioned, the Torqx 2 and Vertex 32 can be sufficient for 7 if you drop swap files, restore points, and hibernation (that will get Windows 7 down to 15GB. But skip the Torqx2 and go with the Vertex.
 
If you're just going to be doing HTPC duties, why go with Windows at all? On a slower system XBMC Live will seriously outperform Windows, not to mention no need for AV software and such. And for that you could just get a decent USB flash drive and save some $.
 
I agree that Windows is overkill for an HTPC. I guess if you already have a license it's not that much of a ripoff. :)
 
I'm running a 30GB Vertex 2 Turbo in my HTPC and I couldn't be happier. Windows 7 + XBMC and a few other apps nets around 14GBof use out of the 28GB. More than enough to keep the SSD quick.

It boots up (from pressing the power button, to XBMC) in less than 20 seconds. That's perfect for me!
 
I am going windows route because there is much that doesn't exist in Linux realm. MADVR for one thing. But lets not get into a Windows vs Linux argument.
The main reason I want to ditch use of a hard drive is for response / access time. I want it responding and loading as fast as possible.

Seems like smaller SSD is too much a headache trying to guage performance and reliability. $$$ saved is too small to make it worth the compromise so I guess I'll put out for the 64GB.
You would think there would be a market for small cheap performance ssd around the ~$50 mark.

Now which 64GB is another headache.

I am also going to get a 256GB for my workstation. Corsair Performance Pro looks great but hard to trust it without much more time in service. Crucial M4 or Samsung 830?
 
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Been using 32-40GB SSDs in all of my HTPC endpoints for awhile now. I actually use two very old Patriot PS-100 32GB drives and Intel X25-V (can't believe these have not been mentioned yet)

You tend not to install much on the system once setup so size is not a big deal other than a price control lever. Also you don't have to do a full Vista/ Win7 installation since there is a ton of stuff you won't need.

Older drives like the X25-V have had much more time to mature on the market if you are concerned about firmware issues and you don't need a 300MB/s drive in there. Most reads are sequential from the network anyway.
 
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