Having second thoughts about purchasing second SSD for OS only.

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NHDataHound

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Apr 8, 2014
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I currently have a Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB SSD and a WD Caviar Black 2TB. The SSD is used for operating system, core applications and games like BF4 that can benefit from higher speed access.

I would like to purchase a second 840 EVO 120GB for use as a OS drive only. My proposed configuration is:

Samsung 840 EVO 120 GB - OS, Office, Utilities
Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB - Fast games storage
WD Caviar Black 2TB - Storage

My problem is that according to the specs that I have seen the write speeds are significantly slower on the 120GB drive than on the 250GB and larger drives. I am loving my current system performance and do not want to suddenly find the computer feeling slower and less responsive

Any experience or real world insight would be hugely useful. I really like the idea of having 3 drives, each with a dedicated purpose (and more free space), but I don't want to sacrifice my currently fantastic level of performance.

I could buy a second 250GB for OS only, but that seems wasteful as I would never use more than 50-60GB.
 
Solution
USAFRet


I personally never recommend smaller than a 120GB.
A 30GB is simply too small.
A 60/64GB will work, but it will be a pain managing the free space.
The price difference between a 64GB and 120GB is not that much.
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H

HEXiT

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Mar 13, 2011
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if your just gonna go o.s only then you can go much smaller. 30-60gig would still be more than enough as windows installs at about 23 gig with updates and addons. if we get another service pack for win 7 that would likely rise to about 26gig all told. so as you can see there would be a lot of wasted space if you bought another 120gig drive.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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I personally never recommend smaller than a 120GB.
A 30GB is simply too small.
A 60/64GB will work, but it will be a pain managing the free space.
The price difference between a 64GB and 120GB is not that much.
 
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Solution
USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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Y

Y0GI

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Jul 22, 2013
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You say that the 120 GB Evo would be for "OS, Office and Utilities". None of these do much in the way of writing, so I wouldn't worry about write speed, in your particular case. Additionally, writes can be sped up significantly by using Rapid Mode.

Yogi
 
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NHDataHound

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Is there any downside to the use of Rapid Mode? I'm starting to lean toward getting the extra drive as long as there is no actual difference in game or Windows UI performance.
 
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Y0GI

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The only "downside" that I can think of, and I may be wrong on this, but I believe that you can only use it on one drive at a time. So, if you have already enabled Rapid Mode on your other Samsung SSD, you MAY not be able to use it on the new one. Somebody tell me if I have this right?

Of course, the other caveat that always applies is that Rapid Mode will use up to one GB of your system's RAM.

It works really well for me!

Yogi

 
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