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    Vista on a SSD???

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Jimko, Mar 11, 2009.

  1. Jimko

    Jimko Notebook Consultant

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    Was just browsing around parts and looked at some SSD's and I thought, would it actually be that beneficial to perhaps put 64-Bit Vista Premium alone on a secondary SSD?

    How big would one want a SSD to be to hold just the Vista OS?
    How much of a difference would it make, if at all?
     
    Jimko, Mar 11, 2009
    #1
  2. ahl395

    ahl395 Ahlball

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    Just to hold Vista, you should have 12GB i believe, to have a little room for some other small stuff.

    A difference to have Vista on a separate SSD than all the programs and things? No. AFAIK
     
    ahl395, Mar 11, 2009
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  3. Charr

    Charr Notebook Deity

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    You'll see faster boot and OS related things, but your programs will be the same speed.
     
    Charr, Mar 11, 2009
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  4. ahl395

    ahl395 Ahlball

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    Yeah, possibly.

    But programs could actually be slower, because it has to access another drive to get them. So then programs will be using two drives. One that its stored on, one that its runnign on.
     
    ahl395, Mar 11, 2009
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  5. Jimko

    Jimko Notebook Consultant

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    It sounds like for what I'd spend on that SSD just to hold that, it would be a wiser investment to either just get another regular hard drive for stuff or just save up the cash. Hope those SSD's get cheaper sooner than later.
     
    Jimko, Mar 11, 2009
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  6. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

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    SSD will help a little in boot (not a huge amount), but Apps that are launched from the SSD are very fast. If you really want a good SSD get an Intel 80GB. wait till the new ones are released, then hopefully they try and sell them off cheap.
     
    yuio, Mar 11, 2009
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  7. ViciousXUSMC

    ViciousXUSMC Master Viking NBR Reviewer

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    SSD will be faster or slower depending on the quality & speed of the device. There is no way anybody can tell you its going to be faster/slower with no information as to what your going to use.

    Cheaper SSD's are very often slower than even an average HDD, only the really expensive ones really show any benefits in speed.
     
    ViciousXUSMC, Mar 11, 2009
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  8. swarmer

    swarmer beep beep

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    You'd need at least a 32 gb drive for Vista. Unless you want to play around with lobotomizing it with vLite etc... but personally I'd make life easier and run a different OS at that point.

    Vista x64 will use a few extra gb than x32, but it should still fit ok in 32 gb.

    Here's how my Vista Business SP1 x64 installation (with 2 gb RAM) breaks down on my hard drive:
    C: Partition size = 70.3 gb (according to Windows)
    C:\Windows (and subdirs) = 16.5 gb
    C:\Program Files = 463 mb
    C:\Program Files (x86) = 1.13 gb
    C:\Users = 1.41 gb (includes personal documents, downloads, etc.)
    hiberfil.sys (hibernate file) = 1.98 gb
    pagefile.sys = 2.28 gb
    Volume shadow copy storage = 10 gb
    Recycle Bin = 308 mb

    A few things to note. I have all my music on a separate partition. Otherwise I haven't made any attempt to shrink anything. Hibernate file size is equal to the amount of RAM you have; I think you can turn it off if you don't need the hibernate feature, but I haven't messed with it. Volume shadow copy storage will shrink as needed: I think 3 gb is the minimum size if it's on, or you can shut it off but then you lose system restore.

    Pagefile is by default around 1.5 times the amount of RAM I think, but you can shrink it if you want in the control panel.

    So, basically I think Vista plus a few gb of programs and documents can fit ok on a 32 gb drive. Put other stuff like media files on a separate drive.

    That'll make things faster, not slower. It can access both drives in parallel.
     
    swarmer, Mar 12, 2009
    #8