Large ssd with no hdd or small ssd with large hdd

Blenderhead

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I will be building my computer in the beginning of august and before i finish ordering the parts i have a quick question. Should i go with a 500gb ssd without a hard drive, or a 120gb ssd with a 1tb hard drive.Right now the best 500gb ssd i can find for price to performance is the crucial mx100 for $217
 
Solution
You'll want a smaller SSD with the larger HDD.

Your SSD will hold your operating system and various other small files / programs.

You can then use your HDD for storage of all data, games, videos, other files etc.

Huge benefit to doing it this way... if you ever have your OS crash, ever need to reformat due to some crazy virus, or whatever else can go wrong - all of your important files will be on a separate drive and remain completely unaffected.

Trust me, that has saved my sanity so many times.

Things can happen, and they find a way to happen. Think of it as not putting all of your eggs in one basket.

Plus that way you get all of the great speed benefits of having the SSD, and the storage benefits of the HDD. It's win/win.
May I suggest a compromise:
A 240gb ssd will hold the os and a fair number of games.
Start with that and defer on the hard drive.
When the time comes that you will store large files such as videos, then add a suitably large hard drive.
I like Samsung EVO and Intel for quality.
 

Calvin3200

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You'll want a smaller SSD with the larger HDD.

Your SSD will hold your operating system and various other small files / programs.

You can then use your HDD for storage of all data, games, videos, other files etc.

Huge benefit to doing it this way... if you ever have your OS crash, ever need to reformat due to some crazy virus, or whatever else can go wrong - all of your important files will be on a separate drive and remain completely unaffected.

Trust me, that has saved my sanity so many times.

Things can happen, and they find a way to happen. Think of it as not putting all of your eggs in one basket.

Plus that way you get all of the great speed benefits of having the SSD, and the storage benefits of the HDD. It's win/win.
 
Solution

Blenderhead

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May 17, 2014
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Would starting with a 500gb ssd be a good idea?
 
I can see a very good argument for starting with 500gb.

It all comes down to what your anticipated usage will be.
A larger ssd will be a bit faster and last longer.
Prices are still coming down so 500gb is not the awful price it used to be. If you have the budget, go for it.
 

Brogan

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Jan 24, 2009
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So, if important files are on a HDD and not the SSD, they will not be affected by a virus?

Seriously?
 

Calvin3200

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Seriously.

Very few people have more than 1 hard drive, and viruses typically attack your opperating system, or email, or whatever.

What I'm saying here is, if a virus locks up your computer, or you can't start it, or if you get that crazy virus where the hackers hold your computer hostage until you get a prepaid credit card and send them money... you can simply reinstall your windows backup (if you backup your files), and your non-C drive will not have noticed.

Now if you get one of those viruses where the hacker can get control of your system, obviously what I said earlier is out of the question.

I've managed to get a couple viruses over the years where I had to boot my computer from the CD to an earlier restore point - before i got the virus - just to get around it. If it locks up your OS, and your OS is on your C drive, your E drive won't have noticed.
 

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