Advise on SSDs and OS Please

[box bundy]

G'day peoples,
I just wanted to get the guru's opinions on my Windows OS set up please. I'll probably give windows 8 a shot.
It will be on a z87 mobo with a 4770k cpu.
I have 3 SSDs: Kingston hyper x (120GB or 160GB - I can't remember. The fast one anyway)
Samsung 840 pro 256GB
Samsung 840 250GB (dumbest purchase I've made - check out the write speeds)

I was thinking of having windows installed to the kingston and programs installed to the samsung pro. Then I thought about getting another kingston to raid 0 it.
I don't know what to do with the samsung 840. I figured I'd just use it to backup the samsung pro SSD or use it for storage of program install files and isos etc.

I also have several HDDs : a 1.8TB Samsung
1TB WD Green
160GB Seagate
3 x 120 GB Hitachi (small HDDs from old PS3s)

What would you do with them all? Can I have some suggestions please along with pros and cons.

 

[Janus67]

Put OS and applications on the Samsung 840 Pro (it's the fastest)

Anything left over (if you manage to use all that space for installs), you can toss on another SSD if you feel you need to.

For the last SSD (whether it is the 840 non-pro or the kingston) put it into a laptop or something.

The non-pro 840 is still a good drive, I highly doubt you would notice the difference in write speeds.

I wouldn't bother doing RAID0 as you will not notice the difference between RAID0 and normal, and yet you take more risk of if a single drive dies you lose all of the data. Unless you are working in very very large files and constantly moving them around there will not be a noticeable difference.

Use the 1.8TB (2TB) drive to store media/ISOs/etc. If you find that you need more space than that you can add the 1TB. I wouldn't bother with the 160 or 120s.

 

[box bundy]

I hate the non pro SSD and notice a difference. I don't notice much difference between the kingston and Samsung pro. This has been confirmed from some benchmarks/reviews I've read on the net.
My thoughts were to keep the windows installation completely separate in case I need to re-install for some reason or another so that I'm not losing all the programs and user data all the time. I do transfer larger files a bit.
I also figured that if I was using a drive for windows and another for programs then that would help my tranfer speeds??
Why do you say to use the HDD instead of the Samsung non pro for iso media etc? I have no other use for it.
please keep the suggestions/thoughts coming everybody. It's all appreciated
thanks

 

[EarthDog]

I figured one may notice a difference. The IOPS and rate are half of modern SSDs. In fact I was just having this discussion in another forum I frequent, LOL!

The thing is, if you lose your OS and have the programs on another drive, you will still have to reinstall the other programs as there are no registry entries pointing to that location upon windows' resinstallation.

That said, when resinstalling the games it should be quick as it will find the data already there.

It would not help transfer speeds noticeably.

 

[Ajay57]

box bundy as for the type of OS the Home Premium 64 Bit version would be a good idea as you can utilize the majority of your amount of Ram. AJ.

 

[EarthDog]

This thread is about SSD's. Did I miss something, LOL?!!

 

[Ajay57]

Sorry ED yes my good friend!!

Advise on SSDs and OS Please???

OP'S Post no 1.

 

[Janus67]

I hate the non pro SSD and notice a difference. I don't notice much difference between the kingston and Samsung pro. This has been confirmed from some benchmarks/reviews I've read on the net.
My thoughts were to keep the windows installation completely separate in case I need to re-install for some reason or another so that I'm not losing all the programs and user data all the time. I do transfer larger files a bit.
I also figured that if I was using a drive for windows and another for programs then that would help my tranfer speeds??
Why do you say to use the HDD instead of the Samsung non pro for iso media etc? I have no other use for it.
please keep the suggestions/thoughts coming everybody. It's all appreciated
thanks

I guess it depends on the amount of media/ISOs that you have. I have about 4TB of ISOs and Media that I backed up digitally, which would not be useful for storing on an SSD as a mechanical drive is a better (more cost-efficient) use of storage where an SSD shines is access times.

If you can honestly notice the difference, why not sell the 840 non-pro or return it?

 

[EarthDog]

Ok, no, I got that Ajay... he is using windows 8, and appears to want advice on how to set it up with all the SSD's he has.

 

[box bundy]

The thing is, if you lose your OS and have the programs on another drive, you will still have to reinstall the other programs as there are no registry entries pointing to that location upon windows' resinstallation.

That said, when resinstalling the games it should be quick as it will find the data already there.

It would not help transfer speeds noticeably.

I have stuff there that doesn't need to be installed as well and doesn't use the registry

Sorry ED yes my good friend!!

Advise on SSDs and OS Please???

OP'S Post no 1.

yes both are linked together for this thread

I guess it depends on the amount of media/ISOs that you have. I have about 4TB of ISOs and Media that I backed up digitally, which would not be useful for storing on an SSD as a mechanical drive is a better (more cost-efficient) use of storage where an SSD shines is access times.

If you can honestly notice the difference, why not sell the 840 non-pro or return it?

because I stupidly already used it
I already told the sales rep that I felt like throwing it at his head

focus on speed not cost

Ok, no, I got that Ajay... he is using windows 8, and appears to want advice on how to set it up with all the SSD's he has.

I can use either. I have windows 7 ultimate and the windows 8 pro 64bit upgrade from there. I have a touch screen and thought I'd just give it a go.

 

[EarthDog]

The key is 64bit for over 4GB of ram is what BB needs to know.

Also, please don't hesitate to use the EDIT button on your posts to prevent quadruple posting.

 

[box bundy]

I just wanted it to be clear who I'm talking to. I haven't got the hang of the quote thing yet. It doesn't really matter does it.

 

[EarthDog]

You can use the multiquote to quote multiple people. If you want to reply to post XX, hit the multiquote button, go the next post you want to quote and hit the multi quote again. For the last person you want to quote, hit the quote button on that post. Easy breezy once you know it.

 

[box bundy]

no worries. got it now. I was pressing it before and nothing was happenning.

 

[EarthDog]

TO 'finish' that multiquote you have to use the regular quote, yup!

 

[box bundy]

What I'm thinking is to increase the speed by dividing the load on to more than 1 SSD. I've seen a good video on this and read a bit. I wish I could find the links. I have them at home. On windows 7 it involves some changes to the registry. I think the windows 8 installer can help with it - I'm not full bottle on it and can't remember all the details.
I'm not talking about a conventional raid 0 setup. I was thinking a raid 0 windows 8 installation on 2 kingstons 120GB and then user data and programs on the samsung pro. Also the temp, page file etc to another drive, wherever that may be best suited (like a RAMDISK).
The non pro I figured I'd use to backup the partitioned drives.
This is what I'm getting at. Thoughts anyone?
Maybe I just think too much

 

[EarthDog]

All this manipulation, especially on SSD's, is a lot of effort for very little returns IMO. You would split up MECHANICAL drives like that to help, but even then, it was hardly noticeable.

As far as R0... if you manipulate large files a lot, it may be worth it. Otherwise, for the most part its not, and also gives you almost 2x chance of failure (lose one drive in R0, lose it all). Boot times may/may not improve due to the RAID having to load up at POST.

The PF on another drive was also a HDD thing. The PF should be on the same drive. Access times on SSD's are .1ms seconds versus HDD's that are 10ms+.

 

[box bundy]

What about Internet downloads? I'd think having that writing to another drive would help when performing multiple tasks? I do lots of things at the same time.

 

[EarthDog]

Nope. At least not remotely to a point you would notice. You are looking at this setup way to granularly IMO. From a data management standpoint I can see it going to a different drive, but not for performance reasons, no.

Also, though you are 'multitasking', unless you are actually working on the SSD/HDD in question with moving files and such, there is not a lot of activity at all going on there in the first place as most of what multitasking is about, after you load the application, is in RAM.

K.I.S.S.

 

[Msi.]

I just thought I'd drop by and give my 2 cents.

First off: the OS.
In the end this is a personal preference, some people have shown that the windows 8 boots up faster but for most things there isn't going to be a very big difference other then what interface you're going to be working with (how it looks), sure getting a pro version might give you more options but if you don't think that you'll be needing them then just stick with a 64 bit version of home premium (windows 7 or 8).

As for your SSD / HDD questions.
It's a little bit more difficulty and really depends on what you're doing. I have the following hardware and tried the following setups:

Hardware:
5x adata 32GB SSD - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211717
3x Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120GB - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226236
2x OCZ Revo Drive 110GB - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227709
1x 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM

Gaming Setup #1
1x Revo Drive 110GB - OS
3x Mushkin 120GB Raid 0 - Games

Gaming Setup #2
1x Revo Drive 110GB - OS
5x Adata 32GB Raid 0 - Games

Gaming Setup #3
1x Mushkin 120GB - OS
2x Mushkin 120GB Raid 0 - Games

The end result?
there was no difference that I could notice between the setups. The games would load much faster then any of my friends (mostly due to hardware differences, my 3rd gen i5 vs his 1st gen i7) and there was a considerable speed difference from using my 2TB drive but comparing one SSD to another there was pretty much no difference even with raid. Although I will admit that I was not doing big file transfers, I was gaming and editing pictures... If I was dealing with editing video or recording video directly to the drives then yes I might have seen some difference but still it doesn't really justify the cost in some cases to raid SSD's together. You will also have to take in account that you LOSE some SSD functions when you are putting them in raid (such as TRIM) which on the long term...as far as I know... could slow down the drives.

The boot times actually took longer with more then one drive because it had to initialize the raid before loading but I would still load my PC in under 30 seconds. Another thing to keep in mind is the over all effectiveness of your raid will depend on the raid controller as well.

I am using the one that comes with the motherboard ASUS Maximus V Gene (socket 1155) & ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4-M (socket FM2), this is kind of interesting because my Asus board did not support 3x 120GB SSD's in raid 0, but my ASRock board allowed me to, I hope that helps!


on a side note, I find it interesting how you can noticed the difference between the pro and non pro version, what where you transferring to notice the difference?