Basic SSD use question

Hi all,

I have a shiny new Intel 320 160 GB SSD on it's way for my Alienware M18x. I figure I will use it as my OS drive, but is there any reason (other than space concerns) why I wouldn't also install my games to it as well? I read another post that recommended installing games to a secondary drive, but if I have the room...well, shouldnt I use the SSD?

Still totally new to SSD tech, so apologies for the noob question...

Thanks!

 

Programs, games, operating system, they should all be put on the SSD to get the speed the SSDs are known for.

Music, movies etc don`t benefit from a SSD which is why you can put it on a secondary HDD. But there is no wrong in putting it on the SSD if you have room for it there. It is just some precaution of what people with small SSDs can do

 

In a laptop environment, the SSD pretty much needs to be large enough to fit everything you want stored locally on the laptop.

Installing games/etc., to a seperate HDD is something just used for desktops with people who are too cheap to buy a SSD large enough for their entire system.

 

An SSD won't help with gaming performance, but will help with level load times.

Personally the amount of games I run, my 160 GB SSD would fill up way too quickly. Ideally I would need a 512 GB+ to put my OS, programs and games. My Vostro 1500 is my dedicated gaming laptop with a 60 GB OCZ Agility 2, has Team Fortess 2, Day of Defeat: Source, and Modern Warfare 2 (Single and Multiplayer) installed with the bare minimum of other programs and Windows 7 Home Premium and I only have ~11 GB left free. So after formatting I had 55.7, 15 GB for the OS, 3 games takes up 30 GB nearly. And also considering space is king for SSD, meh it's really up to the end user. Also with Steam, the drive it is installed on is where ALL games will install (for multi-hard drive systems).

 

evil mike,

If I'm reading your sig correctly: you can put both the SSD and the HDD internally?

Then I would use the following link to move the users folder to the D: drive:

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...gramdata-folder-separate-drive-partition.html


So, what I'm recommending is not to install your programs/games to a secondary drive - I'm saying to install your DATA to a secondary drive and allowing your SSD to have the room it needs to do the work it needs to.

I would also recommend partitioning the SSD to as small a capacity as possible for your use (for example, 100 or 120GB instead of the full 160GB...) - the Intel SSD's can use this extra spare area to keep/sustain the initial high performance of the SSD over time much better than allowing your O/S, programs and DATA to use the full capacity. This strategy can also give your SSD more robustness too as it's total writes are dramatically increased (TB's written for the lifetime of the drive) with each few % additional 'spare area' you allow it.

Define how much O/S and programs capacity you need (remember that you only have ~149GB of formatted capacity too...), keeping in mind that your DATA will be on the HDD (D: drive) and make a partition on the SSD of that size. Even an extra 10GB can make a positive difference to the durability and sustainable performance levels your new SSD will give over it's lifetime.

Good luck.

 

Thanks Tiller and everyone else! That actually makes a lot of sense.