Dedicated drive for programs? Worth the cost?

sternfan2011 · 23 May 2011

Hi all,

I'm setting up a new PC and was doing some thinking... Currently I have plans for a 120g sata3 SSD for the OS and platter drives for data. So I was thinking of getting another SSD (will be a different model - buying off a friend) and using it as a dedicated programs drive (D:\programs). Basically I would point the installer to this location instead of the default.

So would this help in performance? Anybody out there done this?

Thanks,
Rob

TheReaper · 23 May 2011

Hello there, welcome to Seven Forums.
Here's a useful read for all newcomers:basic etiquette for first time posters

It's better to keep the OS and program files on the same partition/disk, 'cause programs may install files in windows directories and create registry entries, startup shortcuts in addition to installing to their own directory. Some programs may not run properly or at all, if they're not installed in C:\program files.

Bare Foot Kid · 23 May 2011

Hello sternfan2011, welcome to Seven Forums!

Have a look at this tutorial at the link below.

User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installations

sternfan2011 · 23 May 2011

Thanks a bunch. Looks like I'm not going to get the second SSD.

Rob

murmatron · 23 May 2011

It's hardly worth the effort if speed is all you're after. SuperFetch will pull most of the stuff you use regularly into standby RAM anyway and any performance bottleneck is more likely to be due to the throughput of your virus-scanner.

Fumz · 23 May 2011

sternfan2011 said:

Hi all,
Dedicated drive for programs? Worth the cost?

Yes. I do this. I have a 120GB SSD for the OS and a few apps (will load bf3 on it when it hits) and an F3 for all other games and programs. I also put all Temp files (windows, IE and Firefox) on the second drive. The swap file I leave on the SSD.

The system is very fast, even though it has to pull from a mechanical drive. As has been pointed out, games don't use hard drives other than to load the map.