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Two SSD for OS ?

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 1:10 am
by crooked windows
wishing to have my OS (win 7 prem 64) only on a Samsung 120GB and all the programs CAD , sims etc on a WD 1TB HDD. So what I was wondering was Is it feasible to use a second small capacity SSD (forget about cost) for all the rewriting stuff the OS does? pagefile etc instead of using part of the HDD
would it work? & would it be faster?
I have been told to use 1GB for pagefile on the HDD if it ever needed it, or if a software program needed to install without error.
Ps I still know JS. about this subject but slowly learning

Re: Two SSD for OS ?

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 12:34 pm
by DragonDaddyBear
Using an SSD for "paging" would offer benefits under two conditions:
1) You actually use your page file (the swap on my Ubuntu systems is barely used)
2) You can use the TRIM command on that drive (unless it's a SLC drive)

due to your lack of exp with this stuff, you're better off letting the OS handle how much of a page file you should use but still direct the OS to use the SSD (assuming contitions one and two are both true)

Re: Two SSD for OS ?

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 12:48 pm
by puppetworx
Don't buy a second SSD. If anything buy more RAM with the money you would've used on a second SSD, RAM is still an order of magnitude faster then SSDs. Ideally you won't ever use pagefile or at least very infrequently, it's always slower then using RAM. It's good to have it for emergencies sake but in that case you don't care about it's speed so much so either the SSD or HDD would be fine. I prefer using my HDD because it frees up a little more space on my SSD.

EDIT: Just noticed you're concerned with more than just pagefile. I've moved pagefile, hibernation and all temporary locations (as well as Users and ProgramData) on to my HDD off of my SSD, you can absolutely do it. Personally I wouldn't bother with another SSD, it's not going to noticeably effect your experience much and the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Re: Two SSD for OS ?

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 2:21 pm
by DragonDaddyBear
puppetworx wrote:
Personally I wouldn't bother with another SSD, it's not going to noticeably effect your experience much and the money would be better spent elsewhere.


I agree.

Re: Two SSD for OS ?

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 4:16 pm
by My Johnson
I'll third that and ask if you have at least 16GB or RAM yet. Last time I looked 16GB's was $100+.

Re: Two SSD for OS ?

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 10:08 pm
by morphine
1) As others pointed out, more RAM is much better than more disk I/O. Remember: the fastest disk access is the one that doesn't need to be performed.
2) Even if you decided to go ahead, I very much doubt you'd ever notice a difference with a second SSD, as modern models have more than enough IOPS to handle the OS + pagefile.