Need some advice with regarding SSD

I just bought a Vertex 2 120GB SSD, i obviously would have loved a bigger drive but sadly they are so expensive i don't have 1000$ for 500gb's. In any case, my question is, i want to do a fresh install, put in all the drivers, update everything (windows mostly), how much space would i have left after doing all that.

I also wanted to know if it's a good idea to install everything on my secondary drive, big programs, games and other stuff. Don't really care if games take more time to load, i was just looking for a dramatic increase in OS speed and basic functions.

thanks

 

Well, I've got a Vertex 2 and I don't "feel" the difference... but fwiw, windows and such takes about 30gb.

 

I have the intel SSD 80 GB and i installed the system, anti-virus and some applications I use everyday as well as some games.

Right now I have 30 gigabytes left and it has been like that for over 4 months now. however I installed all other programs and games on the 500 GB drive, pretty much anything I don't use everyday.

It is a GREAT difference to use an SSD on this machine, AMAZING performance boost.

 

You're kidding right??? Youre telling me you dont feel the difference between what and what, because i seem to totally misunderstand what youre saying...if youre talking between SSD and HDD, you must have been seriously ripped off

 

At minimum, I would recommend redirecting each of your User folders to the HDD (docs, musics, etc). That's the biggest culprit for storage creep. Beyond that, I went ahead and installed Steam to the HDD so that I can keep a massive library of games with me wherever I go. If this isn't an issue and you don't mind trimming your library (if it ever gets that big) then keeping it on the SSD might be the better choice.

I kept WoW on the SSD, though... it deserves it!

 

I have a 120gb Sandforce drive also. I think windows takes up about 12-14gb with updates, that is with pagefile&hibernate disabled. I keep all my documents , photos, music, videos, & downloads on my 500gb D: drive. All my programs and games are on the SSD. To give you an idea of how much you can fit on it I have windows 7, office 2007, iTunes, mediaMonkey, foobar, winrar, CCC, etc etc and a few other odds and ends. Games wise I have Fallout 3 FOTY, COD:BO, BFBC2, Crysis, Civ5, Supreme Commander, Borderlands, &Team Fortress 2 (both the last 2 are 12-15gb+). Even with every program I'd want and all those games I still have 27GB of space left. Ideally you want to never exceed 90% of capacity, so I have 15gb usable remaining. If I need more space I'll just delete a game I am not playing and reinstall in another time if I want it (or move it to the D drive if it is a rarely played game)

In short 120gb is pleanty of space if you manage it correctly.

I should also note I edit photos and perform other projects on the SSD for faster access an them move them over to the D drive for archiving.

 

I guess I should be more clear. I do see a difference, it just doesn't make a *huge* difference. Before having the SSD, prefetch and 8gb of ram was doing a fine job keeping my "must have" applications in memory so there was almost zero delay when they would load.

I'm not saying that there is ZERO difference, I'm just saying that i don't find the upgrade worthwhile. I've done all the benchmarks and tweaks, so I know I don't have a bad unit - it performs like every other sandforce drive. I just don't think it is a good use of $80. Maybe I had read so many stories that said "SSD FTW" and so my expectations were waaay too high. For whatever reason, it's not providing me a huge benefit. Then again, I'm still using it - so I guess that means *something*.

But your mileage may vary.

 

If you don't feel it, than imo there is something wrong.
I swapped the loud XTs with my Intel G2. This is real workflow.

 

I also have a question for anybody who uses itunes and i'm sure a lot of people have the question. i hav over 235GBs of music on my C: right now, obvisously since i bought a 120gb ssd, that wont work. I know before when i formated i used to copy the music folder and replace it after itunes install after format but one day i realised that i made a mistake in the spelling of my computer, all my computers were names Patrick-PC and i did a mistake and named it Patrik-PC, at that point my entire itunes library was corrupted and none of my tens of VERY precious playlists were working.
My question is, if i have to put all my music on my D:, if i simply reassign the muscin folder there, will it corrup my library?

 

It shouldn't. Redirecting your User folders is different than your typical copy-paste. All you'll do is right click on each sub-folder individually (eg: My Docs) go to "Properties > Location" and change C: to E: (or whatever your HDD is now). Windows will move the files and update registry values accordingly.

 

With the sandforce 1200 drives(the Vertex 2) then you want to avoid putting any non-compressible data on it. Which means you don't want to fill it up with things like movies and music.

You should put all your system files on it, and your programs, along with the games you frequent. But all of your other data should go on your secondary drive.

Another tip with the Vertex 2, do not run the benchmarks on them frequently. The more you run those benchmarks the slower your drive will seem. These drives can pull out of it, but it can take up to a month sometimes for the TRIM to catch up and restore your drive to optimal performing speeds.

I'm not trying to deter you from the Vertex 2 or say its a bad purchase, as I have one myself. But if you don't use them correctly then they will act very very slow for a SSD.

 

There's a huge difference when I put the sandforce in my netbook. But in the g73, prefetch (for me, not going to work for everyone) seemed to replace the need for a SSD.

 

How did you use prefetch, I want to try it.

 

I have a 60GB ssd and Installed a clean copy of windows, disabled hibernation, lowered pagefile to 400mb, installed photoshop, dreamweaver, and all the programs on the disc that came with it and I have a little over 40gb left. The windows alone is probably around 15GB.

 

I find its not that much different. Other than amazing boot time, and quick response to programs. Games perform much the same manner.

I would say if i were to choose again, probably just stick with the original HDD.