How to best use the Samsung 840 EVO SSD?

t0rch · Sep 18, 2014

Hi everyone,

I have just bought a new system (haven't started yet due to a part yet to get delivered) and here are the specs:

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro x64
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 4GB x2 Dual Channel Kit @ 1600MHz
GPU: MSI R9 290 TwinFrozr 4GB GDDR5
PSU: Seasonic S12G-650 650W
ODD: LG GH24NS95 DVD Burner
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 (non-K) @ 3.5GHz
Motherboard: MSI H97 GAMING 3
Monitor: BenQ GW2255HM 21.5" LED Backlit FullHD
Cabinet: Corsair Obsidian Series 450D ATX Mid Tower

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB MZ-7TE120BW

What I need to know is that should I use the SSD entirely as a boot/system drive with all frequently used essential softwares
OR
Use XXGB as cache and the rest as the boot drive and all?

Please help and also explain the pros and cons of each method. If you can, please tell if there is a better method or something or should I do something else.

Also, please tell me the steps of how to do it.

Thanks in advance and Regards,
t0rch

Eli Little · Sep 18, 2014

If I were you, I would definitely use the EVO as a boot drive, as it will improve the speed of your OS considerably, especially boot speeds and Read/Write speeds. I would also put any major software you use on it as well. This includes things such as Photoshop, AutoCAD, and the games that you play the most or have the longest loading times, that way the OS will start them and allow them to load much faster, since the Data Transfer rate will be much faster (although game performance itself will not increase at all, FPS wise). Using it only as a boot drive only would use at max 20GB of the SSD. Don't want to waste space on such an expensive piece of hardware, do you?

Ra_V_en · Sep 18, 2014

Personally id use half of it as a boot/system partition and other half used for ISRT, but the real question is.. is it enough for you to have 60GB as a os partition. In that case almost all non important software should be installed on non OS drive.

Edit:
SSD as a boot drive = perfect performance boost over files on that drive
SSD as a cache drive = good performance boost from mostly used files over all drives

MIX of 1 + 2 = perfect every day solution.

t0rch · Sep 18, 2014

Eli Little :

Well, if I install the SSD as OS only drive, then there will be just the OS, some everyday applications like VLC, WinRAR, etc, Steam, Origin, the anti-virus and nothing more. Everything else on the HDD. I don't use rendering utilities and furthermore this PC will just be for 1080p gaming. Also I've read less space in an SSD slows it down.

Regarding installing games, I am skeptical that the Battlefield 3 and 4 map loading times will be beneficial to me or not because I read that the Barracuda is an excellent drive and is quite fast.

Ra_V_en :

Well, as I said above, I won't be installing much on the SSD so I guess 60GB will be enough for everything. Games and other stuff goes into the HDD.

According to you the "MIX of 1 + 2" is the perfect everyday solution. I want to know is it worth it to waste 60GB on caching the HDD for, like, most frequently played games as I will be primarily using it for gaming only. AND, is 60GB too much for caching a 2TB HDD or is the ratio just fine?
Also, please tell me how to do the OS-cum-Cache drive mix.

Thank you both for your quick answers.

Regards,
t0rch

pikeman · Sep 19, 2014

I am closely following this thread since I just bought the same drive. Pardon my butting-in, but if content from the old HD needs to be divided between two drives, won't it require a special application to accomplish this and avoid the need to uninstall/reinstall?

Ra_V_en · Sep 26, 2014

Sorry for the delay in response, didn't get the notification over email.
I've found some quick guide to setup IRST: LINK

With the 120 GB SSD drive id make it 60/60. 20-30 GB is a must for the Win7/8 considering further updates. If you keep swap file and hibernation file over OS drive u need (as a default) 2x amount of RAM size only for those 2 files, so +16 GB. You can turn off hiberfil.sys to get to half that number LINK
So we have ~40 GB for OS only, 20 GB left for junk. For my personal PC it would be enough since my hugest software packs are MS office and Photoshop, but for my working laptop even 60GB was really harsh battle for empty space (considering VS 2013, MSSQL Server 2012 and other programming junk).
Keep in mind that with 60GB OS drive, non important software like games should be always stored outside that partition.. or this space would wipe out immediately.

The awesome thing having OS drive over SSD and part as a cache is that all major applications (installed on OS partition) will have full speed of SSD and the files which are installed on HDD (for example game files) will be boosted as soon as they are used often (if i remember correctly after 2-3 loads of the same files cache starts to pay out). In my scenario, I'm usually keeping 4-6 games installed all the time, but play them periodically (few days/weeks one game then back to other title). Obviously keeping them all on SSD would be a waste of space, but with smart cache, read times are getting boosted after just second run of the game.
Even if u somehow get to fill the OS drive and need more space you can always change the size of cache and repartition it without loosing data. You can either turn off caching and see the difference yourself with test and trial, but once you realize it works, you wont turn it off again

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How to best use the Samsung 840 EVO SSD?

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