So basically... your best bet is to get something like a 16GB SSD, put your OS on it... and maybe a few of your main applications/software? Whilst you install games and lesser software onto normal old HDD's?
Here's another question... what if you put anti-virus/spyware/adware software onto a SSD, would that speed up the scan times? I dotn see why it would from what I've learnt from all you lot but I'd figure I'd ask?
Yes it will speed up scans on the OS portion,
DATA on spinning drives will scan slower.
I would go with at least a 30GB. And yes, all programs and the OS.
You may also want to do a few tweaks with a SSD.
Disable Windows Defrag, Disable Hyberfile, and move page file or disable it if enough RAM.
Also, move pictures, music, Vide, Documents to a spinning drive and install Games to a directory on a spinning drive.
Doing this, 30GB will house the OS and all programs just fine.
if you can go bigger, then fine :) i just wouldnt get smaller than 30GB
You don't need to defrag as a solid state drive can access any part of the hard drive almost instantly. Plus, solid state drives have a limited number of writes...so no sense wasting them on defrags...which don't really benefit these drives.
Hibernate, if enabled, creates a file as large as your RAM on your C drive. So, if you have 8GB of RAM, you would have an 8GB hibernation file. And if you only had a 30GB hard drive, dedicated 8 GB to a hibernation file is almost 1/3 of the drive. Page file is pretty much the same thing.
No, defrag defrags the entire hard drive. YOu don't want to defrag the SSD, but may want to defrag the standard mechanical hard drive that you might be using for storage.
Another note about defrag, some manufactures say defrag on SSd is OK, and can help the SSD's performance when used as maintenance:
BUT:
only once or twice a month or so
and ONLY with something like Perfect Disk using Consolodate or Diskeeper HYPERFAST.
(both of which you must purchase)
They all agree Windows own Defrag is bad for them as it offers no consoladate, which is where the benefit comes in. Its just making writes with no benefit gained for a SSD.
<<In fact, my own sugegstion would be to grab one of the 2, which ever you prefer and disable Windows defrag all together. Even for mechanical drives, as either one is far superior to Windows built in.>>
My own personal experience, PD10 consolodate every 6-8 weeks would be good.
It doesnt seem to help in real world scenarios doing so more often. It feels just as fast with or without, but does show some improvement on benchmarks. (Again, just my own personal opinion with my Vertex)
30 is a little on the small side. i would go no less than 60.
Yeah, I personally went with the 80GB intel. With hibernate turned off, page file on storage drive, browser caches on storage drive...my box with Windows 7, all of my apps installed and a couple of games used about 25GB leaving me with about 50GB free.
I have 2 SSDs (for 2 different systems) - one Intel 80GB and one OCZ 60GB. In my book there is nothing that can speed up your system as much as an SSD for the same amount of Dollars. The OCZ Vertex 30GB was on sale at Newegg for $99. That is a wonderful disk and completely sufficient for the Windows7 OS. Just put your data on the HDD.
Win7 supports Trim and also a few tweaks like alignment and service disabling (e.g. superfetch). So you really need not do much tweaking yourself. I would not want to go back to HDDs for the OS.
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