Suggestions For Using An Extra SSD (or two)

I recently upgraded my 80GB Intel X25-M SSD to a 128GB Crucial M4. It's a long story, but I also have come into possession of a second 80GB Intel X25-M. I originally planned on using the old Intel SSDs as boot drives in my two spare computers.

The thing is, my spare computers are not really used for anything which would benefit much from an SSD. One has two printers and a scanner attached and also contains a couple of spare storage drives where I stash my belt-and-suspenders backups. (I have a large drive in my main computer which serves as my primary backup location.) The other computer basically serves as a fancy mp3 player in my living room. Neither gets rebooted except in case of a power failure or when it's required by Windows Update.

It seems a shame to use a couple of nice SSDs in machines which really don't need them. What I would really like to do is put them to good use in my main rig.

I am looking for creative ideas for speeding up my main computer using one or both of the 80GB spares I have. Any suggestions would be welcome. :)

If you dual boot you can use one of the Intels for the second OS. If you game you can use the Intel for games. The games won't run any faster but you won't be waiting for them to load. Or, you could use one for a data drive.

Another obvious use would be to raid the 2 Intels, which would give you more SSD space as well as much greater speed. The downside is no trim. But you can image them, break the raid, SE them and put them back together and restore the image. It could be done in 30 minutes.

How about a dual boot for Windows 8 Prof?

Golden said:

How about a dual boot for Windows 8 Prof?

golden, I have an X25-M with Windows 8 already installed on it. I would be happy to trade him mine for a blank one.

essenbe said:

Golden said:

How about a dual boot for Windows 8 Prof?

golden, I have an X25-M with Windows 8 already installed on it. I would be happy to trade him mine for a blank one.

Get in line.........

Use 1 drive for your OS, 1 drive for apps/games, and 1 drive for temp files, caches, page file, etc. In practical use, this should outperform a RAID0. Sure the RAID0 will out benchmark it, but the downfalls of having to deal with it far outweigh it in my opinion.

essenbe said:

If you dual boot you can use one of the Intels for the second OS. If you game you can use the Intel for games. The games won't run any faster but you won't be waiting for them to load. Or, you could use one for a data drive.

Golden said:

How about a dual boot for Windows 8 Prof?

GeneO said:

Raid 0 and use them for browser and other caches. Also put any games you have there and the bulk of your pagefile.

Actually, the reason I ended up with two of the Intel SSDs is that I bought one off my housemate when she upgraded with the intention of doing the RAID 0 deal. I had trouble using Macrium to image my drive over to the new array and since school had just started I didn't want to go for a clean install right now.

Maybe down the road, though. :)

pparks1 said:

Use 1 drive for your OS, 1 drive for apps/games, and 1 drive for temp files, caches, page file, etc. In practical use, this should outperform a RAID0. Sure the RAID0 will out benchmark it, but the downfalls of having to deal with it far outweigh it in my opinion.

Yeah, for me RAID is one of those things that looks good in theory but always ends up being a pain in the long run. I still remember the day back in 2001 when I woke up to a "No OS Found..." message and spent several evenings trying to recover it to no avail.

I ended up installing one of the drives and have followed your suggestion regarding "temp files, caches, page file, etc". I also made a folder on the second SSD named Program Files 2 where I intend to install some of the "nice to have around" stuff I didn't want cluttering up my main drive.

Thanks to all for their advice! :)