SSD Boot Drive Questions

[iCrayon]

I will be using my computer mainly for gaming and streaming on Twitch.tv. This is my first time trying to use a SSD as a boot drive and a secondary traditional hard drive. My question is, does anyone know a decent tutorial on setting it up correctly? I have checked out this link so far:

http://www.overclock.net/t/664738/h...rive-with-secondary-hard-disc-optimization/10

----------------------

However I would like everything possible (default install location, etc.) to default to the secondary traditional drive, and to have the choice of switching certain programs to C: (the SSD) when needed.

----------------------

Another question is, do you recommend that I install my video games (WoW, Starcraft) and my streaming program (Xsplit) onto the SSD, and everything else (Skype, Vent, etc.) onto the secondary traditional hard drive?

Thanks for your replies in advance =]


edit: using intel 520 120gb SSD and a seagate 250gb 7200rpm traditional drive (yea the secondary is pretty small, but it is more than enough for what I want to put on this rig, which is going to be strictly for WoW/Starcraft and streaming those as well as my xbox on twitch.tv)
Everything else (word, excel, powerpoint, and other applications like surfing the web and all will be done on my laptop, desktop is for gaming/streaming only.)

edit: thank you for moving thread to correct spot =]

 

[jwcalla]

I would install the OS and just about every program to the SSD and leave your games on the HDD if they're too big to have on the SSD.

If you're using Windows 7 I wouldn't do anything other than install it. I hate those tweak / optimization guides personally. The only other thing is if you don't intend to use the hibernate feature you can disable it to free up some space.

Splitting up programs between drives just seems like an easy way to fubar stuff, with almost no gain.

 

[iCrayon]

I would install the OS and just about every program to the SSD and leave your games on the HDD if they're too big to have on the SSD.

If you're using Windows 7 I wouldn't do anything other than install it. I hate those tweak / optimization guides personally. The only other thing is if you don't intend to use the hibernate feature you can disable it to free up some space.

Splitting up programs between drives just seems like an easy way to fubar stuff, with almost no gain.

So what you're saying is that if I have the space just put it on the SSD? I was worried about the maximum write stuff on SSDs, but come to see that you can write hundreds of terabytes to an SSD before it can no longer be written to. I guess what i am going to do is put Xsplit, and WoW on the SSD and I guess my AV, and then put my other secondary games that I dont play as often on the secondary drive, I will mostly be playing wow and streaming wow/xbox like literally 49% wow streaming 49% xbox streaming and 2% some other game lol

 

[hotcrandel]

I would install the OS and just about every program to the SSD and leave your games on the HDD if they're too big to have on the SSD.

If you're using Windows 7 I wouldn't do anything other than install it. I hate those tweak / optimization guides personally. The only other thing is if you don't intend to use the hibernate feature you can disable it to free up some space.

Splitting up programs between drives just seems like an easy way to fubar stuff, with almost no gain.

I would do this as well. If you need more transparency, do some reading on the command prompt command, mklink, it creates symbolic links between directories on NTFS partitions and is really handy for having a DIY hybrid SSD/Mechanical HDD.

 

[Disposed]

For the most part games wont get any benefit from the SSD outside of load times. One of the big exceptions is WoW though, WoW is like a whole new game on an SSD. I load EVE on an SSD as well, that precious couple seconds between jumping can really save your ass.

 

[slh28]

Just install all the programs on the SSD but keep your documents, music, downloads, etc, on the HDD. If you're running out of space then you can disable system restore or reduce the pagefile.

By the time your SSD deteriorates due to excessive writes a new 120GB SSD will cost peanuts so wouldn't worry about that too much. Just make sure TRIM is enabled.

 

[Impulse]

Guides like those (and several others on OCN) are pretty outdated, they were really meant for <64GB drives were space was at a premium and/or for early Marvell drives that could have all sorts of stutter issues. You shouldn't need to do anything special when dealing with a moderately sized modern SSD, specially if you're doing a clean OS install.

If you have 8GB+ of RAM you might wanna disable hibernate and/or limit the page file size in order to reclaim a couple GB, but that's about it.

I'd just install the OS and every possible app to the SSD, then have games and data on the HDD. You can use symlinks or something like Steam Mover (a GUI for links) to very easily move whatever game you're playing the most over to the SSD without breaking the install, at all, since the OS still sees it as if it were in it's original location. Takes all of two clicks.