Questions re hybrid drive choice and usage

Megahertz07 said:

In my opinion, you don't need a bigger SSD than 120G that cost US$50. A 500G 850 EVO cost US$180.

When you move \Users from the SSD to the HDD all users temp, browser cache etc are also moved. This files are always changing and writing to the SSD.
If you see the SSD.txt file, I also move the virtual memory to the HDD.

To clean a SSD is the same as to clean a HDD. On the new computer, boot from the installation disk, go to Install - Advanced - Delete all partitions and abort to keep it clean (raw) or create new - proceed to install win on the new computer.

SeanHL has already stated he is a gamer so having extra room on the SSD is desirable so he can put his most frequently accessed games on the SSD.

It's not necessary to move the entire Users folder to the HDD. In fact, it could create problems down the road. It's better to just leave it on the C: drive and just drag the Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos folders to the HDD. Without those last four folders in the Users folder, the remaining amount of writes going into the Users folder has little to no discernible impact on total SSD write life.

SeanHL said:

Before i go, i do have one last question:

What if i want to move the SSD to a new pc in the far future? I have found guides on how to clear the data, but all of them require me to be able to have the SSD in an already running PC. Could i just clear the SSD while it is still in a soon-to-be-replaced PC? I'm aware it would clear the OS, but would it then be ready to use in a new install?

It depends on just how thoroughly you need to clean the SSD. If you are going to reinstall in a new machine and do a clean install of the OS onto it, just pull it out of the old machine, install it in the new machine, then let the OS installation media install the OS over the old one. It will reformat the drive for you. If you are going to retire that SSD, use the new machine to Secure Erase the SSD, using the SSDs support software (in the case of Samung's SSDs, the software is called Magician).

Frankly, if it's several years down the road before you move to a new machine, I would use a new SSD in the computer rather than an outdated one.

SeanHL said:

Allrighy. The drive should arrive tomorrow, and i've marked the thread as solved. Thanks for all your input!

Good luck and enjoy your new toy drive (the "new" on my new toys SSDs I bought last month hasn't worn off yet!).

Megahertz07 said:

Samsung Magician is more part of the problem than the solution. Don't use it.

read post 2 System cache - all drives?

I've never had a problem with Magican.

SeanHL said:

I'm having to ask you guys another question, since i've been looking into the section of the help topic (SSD Tweaks and Optimizations in Windows 7) where you need to check if the ATA/ATAPI ACHI controller is set to use trim, and ran across a bit of an issue (note: i have not tried to install the SSD yet, i'm just researching things before i do).

Firstly, i'm using an intel chipset, but the download link the help topic points me to (Download RAID: Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology for Intel Desktop Boards) does not feature compatibility for my board. I've seen something about a program called Samsung Magician (of which version 4.5 is included on a cd with the drive), however, and i was wondering if this program also takes care of the drivers. The 850 EVO doesn't seem to have a download link for them on samsung's website.

Samsung Magician also takes care of something called overprovisioning, which is something i've not seen mentioned in either the help topic or in this one. Should i install the program? Some people say it causes issues with steam games and other things. On the other hand, some people say their machine won't work without it. This topic has both:
Does anyone make use of the Samsung Magician SSD software? - MOBO | RAM | CPU | HDD | SSD | Desktops | Laptops - The AVSIM Community

I'm probably overthinking all this. It's just that the help file now seems to contradict what i need to do in some ways, since supporting software seems to have advanced to take care of some of the issues that topic tries to solve.

Unless you are planning to use an SSD to cache an HDD (I don't recommend caching, btw), you don't really need IRST (Intel Rapid Storage Technology) installed on your computer. IRST is normally supplied with your MOBO's other drivers if the MOBO has the ability to use IRST. The disk that comes with Samsung SSDs will not have any "drivers" on it because you don't need any.

Magician is a utility that comes with Samsung SSDs. It's use is optional since there are programs that can be used instead to accomplish the same things other than, maybe, changing overprovisioning. However, you do not need to worry about overprovisioning. SSDs come from the factory already overprovisioned and there is no need to increase the amount of it and it would be unwise to reduce it.

I've never had a problem with Magician on the three computers I have installed it on. However, it's always possible for any program to interfere with another program. If you find Magician does cause problems, you can either avoid running it while the program it doesn't get along with is running or just simply remove it.