40gb SSD as OS Drive, Am I understanding this all correctly?

[technician1986]

Hey guys, I just bought:

Intel X25-V SSDSA2MP040G2R5 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Will this be good enough to load just Win 7 64-bit? I am using this for a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) using Cubase 5 64-bit software.

I have two other Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives for storage so I'm hoping that I have enough storage... these will store all sounds, projects, samples, recordings, etc.

Can I load the Cubase application on the SSD as well and just keep Cubase's libraries on the other drives? How will this work? Will it ask me during the Cubase install where I want all the sounds, etc. stored? If it's possible to load ALL of Cubase on the SSD instead of just part, how much space does Cubase take up? Is a full Cubase/Win7OS install going to tax the SSD? Do I need to partition the drive or can I just load the OS into the whole SSD drive and then just install Cubase to "C:"? And does loading Cubase to the SSD make it load any faster or is it pointless and I should just install it to one of the Seagates?

Just to clarify, I don't want to save my projects or sounds to the SSD, just wondering what needs to go on it, keeping in mind it's only 40GB.

This was posted as a review on NewEgg. Is this what I'll have to do with my OS install? Strip it down?:

Pros: Super fast boot, under 10 seconds. Updated firmware with the ISO provided on Intel's site. Windows Experience Index is 7.6 with this bad boy. Firefox and Microsoft office open instantly now, things are just snappier.

Cons: I customized a Vlite edition of Windows 7 Ultimate to make the install around 4 gigs since the drive isn't that large. 7 can take upwards of 16 gigs with a full install and I wanted to cram in all of my apps so I recommend anyone else do the same.

 

[technician1986]

78 views and no info? LOL someone has to know this questions... lol

 

[welshmousepk]

not entirely sure what you are asking.

you CAN strip it down with vLite if you wish to make room for more stuf on the SSD. but you dont have to. windows scales the install file to the drive you install on anyways, but it will take up alot of that.


i dont know anything specifically about that program, but it will load faster if saved to the SSD, and as long as you can chose where to save the files it creates, putting them onto your Tb HDDs shouldn't be a problem.

 

[technician1986]

Okay so the Program I'm installing takes up 4gigs of space. So between that, and Windows 7 64-bit without stripping it down with vLite, I should be okay? Is the drive going to run any slower?

 

[andyKCIUK]

40 gigs is plenty for Win7 and Cubase. I can't see any point of installing your DAW onto HDDs if it's going to be your most used application. There's a thread about SSDs in audio recording on gearslutz, you may want to look it up. I was actually going to get a 32GB SSD for Win7 and Sonar. I did a bit of research on that and it looks like even a 32 gig SSD would be enough. Just turn off hibernation, disable/reduce page file and you should be fine. And don't bother with partitioning your SSD.

 

[technician1986]

Andy, thanks so much! I have 32g, so it should be feasable it sounds like!

Okay so set the pagefile to like 200/200 and turn off hibernation...

Will that have any affect on the fast boot times?

 

[andyKCIUK]

This is one of my threads about getting a small SSD, randomizer gives some useful info there.

 

[technician1986]

That's perfect! So it sounds like I'll still even have 5-10 gigs left over, especially after those modifications. Thanks Andy!!!

 

[technician1986]

I stripped the OS down to 8 Gigs! SUPER fast with plenty of space left since I have the (2) 1TB 7200RPM drives.

Loaded the OS and all programs in like 40 minutes! Boots windows in 7 seconds!

 

[technician1986]

Best answer selected by technician1986.

 

[notty22]

This program does almost everything for a new ssd user, especially one without trim. These mods this little program does eliminate almost all OS writes(needless)
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/SSD-Performance-Utility-Tweak-Windows,9655.html