Laptop - Small primary SSD for OS with 2nd large HDD for storage - advice

altomic on 04/08/2015 - 18:33

so saw this 32gb ssd for $21 delivered at aliexpress.

could I obtain some advice on utilising this?

(A) Is it worth buying this drive, setting it up as a primary drive with OS and then having a regular sata HDD in a caddy where the dvd drive was with all regular files/folders?

(B) Is it possible to make the 2 drives look like 1 drive? i.e. the regular files/folders I usually have on my laptop windows "desktop" would be stored on the HDD but would appear on my laptop windows "desktop"? yeah.

(c) is it worth the hassle? the cost?

(D) is there any real advantage of having a primary OS SSD and then everything else on HDD?

Computing

Comments

  • Findo on 04/08/2015 - 18:36

    Is 32GB (without any formatting loss) even enough to install the OS?

    • altomic on 04/08/2015 - 18:38

      feedback indicates that installing win7 occupies 20gb.

      so "plenty" of room

      • ledski on 04/08/2015 - 20:11

        I currently have a 32GB ssd on my laptop and while Windows will fit on it, I would recommend that you get a bigger ssd.
        You can install programs on the secondary hdd, but some programs may leave temp files and other stuff on the main drive and fill it up really quickly.

      • jzdhgkd on 04/08/2015 - 23:21

        I've no idea what happened to my win7 installation but after 4-5 years it ballooned to about 50gb (and that's running CCleaner and the inbuilt windows clean-up pretty regularly too!

        I would agree with others in their recommendation to get a bigger SSD - at least 64gb.

  • iridiumstem on 04/08/2015 - 18:44

    I wouldn't buy SSD from Aliexpress. I think I've heard too many horror stories about memories being fake (i.e. the capacity is actually less than what's advertised etc etc). Also, the vendor has slightly too low feedback score in my opinion to risk these kind of stuff.

    Wouldn't you be better off getting an SSD from MSY?

    • altomic on 04/08/2015 - 18:46

      possibly MSY. but still, in regards to my tech question..

      • iridiumstem on 04/08/2015 - 18:54

        I think there is definitely a benefit of having just the OS on SSD (i.e. booting speed would be so much faster).

        Personally, I think it's worth the hassle, though that'd be up to you to decide (my monitor takes longer to turn on completely than the booting speed itself after installing SSD). You'd look at the price for SSD and the price for the caddy (for the SSD or HDD you are putting inside the DVD ROM slot) etc etc (I've never done it on laptops, so I am not sure about the price for the caddy, it was around $10 from eBay from my brief search). MSY sells SSD from like $60~$70 for 60GB ones.

        Not sure about B).

  • scrimshaw on 04/08/2015 - 18:50
    +1

    They really like tacking the 'King-' branding on SSD's don't they… Kingfast, Kingston, and now KingRich.

    A 32 GB ssd translates to roughly 26~28 gigs of usable storage, depending on partitioning and a number of other variables.

    Beware that Windows installs tend to eventually bloat as more updates / drivers are applied, and your operating system accumulates more in the %appdata% and temp folders.

    As you run out of space, the seq and random write performance drops significantly and read performance drops quite a bit too.
    Wear leveling and TRIM is also not as efficient. It's generally a good idea to have at least 25% free space, that's not really achievable if your Win 7 install takes 20GB already. Which is why I'd dissuade anyone from buying such a pointlessly small SSD. Unless you really like running a lean build with no reliance on locally stored content (e.g think of the HP Stream 11 laptop)

    A good starting point is 64GB, 32GB will eventually run out forcing you to optimise the drive and continually deleting the cache (which is hassle to do). The sweet spot nowadays is a 200GB SSD, which you can get for $110-ish.

  • Davo1111 on 04/08/2015 - 19:05
    +2

    a) no, don't bother buying an SSD from aliexpress. Buy one from the front page of ozbargain, with an australian warranty, and some checks and balances in place to make sure you don't get screwed with a fake. The cost difference is marginal. EC/TA regularly post SSD deals.

    b) I think you can with a laptop, but not 100% sure. Anyway, it doubles your risk. If a drive fails, then you lose everything. Better to have 2 drives with separate data.

    c) no, Buy an SSD and just swap the drive. If you need extra storage buy a microSD card.

    d) SSDs are very fast, but space is expensive. HDDs are slower but space is cheap. So having 2 drives is the best of both worlds when you have a lot of data. If it were me, i'd buy just a larger SSD and be done with it, no raid

  • freddofrog42 on 04/08/2015 - 19:13

    Several options and yes I would avoid any 32G boot drive without question…. 64G is questionable depending on how many apps you have.

    How much space do you really need? You often see 240G SSDs for about $100/110 and 500G for $250-ish. You can get a 120G for $70-ish and that's heaps for the operating system and lots of apps.

    You can also get SSHD - a small SSD (8G) paired with a large HD in the same laptop-friendly 2.5" size. These are about $140 for a 1TB drive and work pretty well. No where near pure SSD but certainly quicker than most comparable HDs.

    Windows 8 and 10 both boot really quickly with UEFI BIOS and either disk format.

    I wouldn't try to complicate matters re dive letters/partitions on a laptop etc unless you know exactly what you are trying to accomplish. I'd go for a single disk solution. Sure you can partition it to have system files and data on separate partitions but is that what you want or are comfortable with creating/maintaining?

    Keep it simple, use something like OneDrive to backup data and go from there.

    On a desktop it's a no-brainer to have a small SSD for the OS and a large HD for data etc…

  • indium on 04/08/2015 - 19:24

    I think (not sure) you can use the ssd for Intel Rapid Start Technology.

    You install windows and all your other stuff on the HDD then IRST will use the SSD for storing short term information I think.

    It is on my acer aspire s3 and after shutting down the laptop it will boot up and be ready to use in 7 sec. Only about 1 second when you shut the lid and reopen it.

  • ihfree on 04/08/2015 - 20:44

    Think it's been fairly well covered so far…

    (A) Not worth buying the drive mentioned.

    Second part is possible. I bought a Silverstone SST-TS06B which contains a USB enclosure and a caddy. Tip with the Silverstone SST-TS06B: Disconnect HDD power light - It burns with the light of a thousand suns.

    (B) As suggested in previous comments, possibly as a cache.

    You can move the location of folders
    -Open your user profile directory
    -Right click on a special folder (eg: desktop)
    -Select Properties -> Location

    Only downside I have had with this is that the hard drive occasionally spins down creating a second or two of lag. Though this can easily be fixed with power options.

    Steam allows you to create a library folder on a second drive.

    (C) Not for 32gb. Depends on your usage. For suggested scenario, personally i'dbuy a 120/240gb SSD to use with a HDD, or stretch the budget and buy a 480gb and not have a HDD.

    (D) PC will boot quickly..

    A larger SSD with commonly used program/games on it, and lesser used programs on the hard drive works better in my opinion

  • mskeggs on 04/08/2015 - 22:02

    I had this set up in two laptops. Both were dramatically faster, well worth the effort.
    The 32gb drive is too small. I had one 64gb and one 128gb. I found even the 64 on the small side as it meant shuffling stuff around. In both cases I had 500gb second disks. If I was buying again I would just go with 240gb so I wouldn't have to fuss with it.

  • Oofy Doofy on 06/08/2015 - 18:12

    As big as you can afford for main SSD HDD for OS. Secondary drive should be an 8TB Archival Seagate or something similar. Then a decent cloud storage subscription. Ta-Da!

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