Best set up with SSD and HDD combo for encoding large files

[rob76]

Hi, I am going to install a OCZ Vertex 3 Series 120 GB SSD on my computer which already has a 2TB hard drive on it. The reason I bought the SSD drive was to reduce the time it takes to encode and to transfer large video files (15gb and above) to the 2TB hard drive on my computer from the DVD disk drive and external USB hard drive. I am thinking these options.

1. Leave the OS (windows 7) and all the programs on the 2TB hard drive, then when I use the program to encode or transfer the large files I make the output target the SSD drive, would this help increase the transfer rate and help prevent or reduce bottle necking.

2. Or the other way around, install the OS and all programs on the SSD drive (which I am worried it will take up half the space of the SSD) and when I use the program to encode or transfer the large files I make the output target the 2TB hard drive, I am thinking this way may help increase the transfer rate but also increase the chances of bottle necking.

3. Or would windows allow the video encoding program work with it installed on SSD with the OS still installed on the 2TB hard drive.

I am thinking that if I install the OS on the SSD and use the encode program with the output target to the SSD drive also I would run out of space to quickly. My computer is a Intel i7 3770 with a ASRock H77 Pro4 MVP Motherboard, 16GB ram, Windows 7, 2GB Nvidia gt440 graphics video card, 2TB hard drive. Any ideas, suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[RetiredChief]

Best advise would be to use the SSD as an OS = Program drive temporairily. Obtain a "LOW" end 60 gig (or 120) 2nd SSD and use as your scratch/working disk.

1) If you do a High volume of writes (as it sounds like) your SSD may die much earilier than you expect. Most (not all) here are gamers that only occassionally do encoding.
2) Transfer to and from a slow device to a SSD will be improved, but still bottlenected by the slowest device.

 

[rob76]

I just bought the computer less than a week ago and I am trying to avoid installing the OS on the SSD because I am inexperienced with computers and I haven't installed an operating system or a SSD before. I may pay someone to install it. Thanks for the advice.

 

[RetiredChief]

It's really very easy.
1) With only the SSD connected - Connect the SSD to the INTEL sata III port. (disconnect the HDD).
2) boot to BIOS and set/verify that the Hard drive control is set to AHCI
3) Insert windows DVD in DVD drive
4). Save and exit and let the computer boot to the DVD.
5) tell windows to install

walla - Done, just some drivers to load, let windows do it's updat thingy, and install programs.
6) power off, connect up HDD
Boot to windows and if the HDD has never been used, you need to Rt click on MYComputer, select manage, then on left side select Disk management.
Click on DVD drive and change drive letter to say "E" - Note Windows will issue a warning - IGNORE IT.
Click on drive 1 (Your HDD) - Your SSD should be drive zero and show a tiny 100 mb system partition and the rest of the SSD as drive C
Initialize/partition/formate the HDD.



When done come back with a new thread on tweeks, ie I always:
A) disable Hibernation
B) Set page file Min and Max to 1024 mb (providing you have 4 or more gigs of ram.
C) LIMIT the folder size that restore points can use
D) mover the .... User\(Yopu)\ Mydocuments to the "D" drive (your HDD

 

[djscribbles]

Don't pay someone to install the SSD for you it is EXTREMELY simple, but you'll probably be charged 50$ for the service anyway. You simply hook up a wire from the power supply to the SSD and plug a wire from the motherboard to the SSD. All the plugs will only fit where they belong (you cannot plug it into the wrong place and damage things).
Here's a youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=installing+an+ssd+in+a+desktop&oq=installing+an+SSD&aq=2&aqi=g4&aql=&gs_l=youtube.3.2.0l4.1240.4413.0.7096.17.11.0.6.6.0.86.772.11.11.0...0.0.RE1yU_h0apo

If you just got the computer, your task of reinstalling windows is quite a lot simpler because you don't a lot of personal data/settings to preserve. The biggest question will be what sort of recovery tools the computer has, as you'll want to do a clean windows install and not a factory-restore, because with the SSD, you're no longer 'factory'.

Here are some basic steps to follow:
Go to your PC manufacturer website and download drivers, put them on a thumb drive (also, be sure to get the ethernet/network driver, otherwise you will need another PC to get the driver from the internet).

Copy your personal files to a thumb drive just to be safe (you don't really need to wipe your 2TB drive though).

Once you are ready to put Windows 7 on the SSD, unplug your original 2TB HDD (until you finish the windows install).

Set your DVD drive as a bootable device in BIOS, insert your windows 7 install disk, and hit a key during the "Press any key prompt" when your computer is starting up. This will take you into the windows installer, from there just follow the on screen instructions.

 

[rob76]

The reason I bought the SSD drive was because when I purchased the computer I was disappointed in the time it was taking encode video files, it is taking about the same amount of time as my old computer which is only dual processor with 2 gb of ram, I think this is due to the fact that there is a bottleneck affect, the reason I think that there is a bottleneck effect is that when I am encoding video the computer cores are only idling which is why I thought the SSD would help to prevent or reduce the bottleneck effect by allowing the transfer of data at a much higher rate which would allow the computer to encode the files faster, I suppose I just misunderstood how SSD's work. Anyway I now have 2 choices wait until I have enough money to buy a more reliable SSD for the OS, an Intel or Samsung 240gb and then use the OCZ Vertex 3 Series 120 GB SSD in combination with the better quality SSD or just try encoding the files to the OCZ Vertex 3 Series 120 GB SSD to see if it relieves the bottleneck effect, because I do not want to install the operating system on a SSD that might not last.

 

[rob76]

Sorry I was wrote the last post and didn't realize there was more replies posted

 

[RetiredChief]

It may be your software package. Some software is Byfar faster than others.

Also, where it pays to do some research, since you are primarily interested in video encoding.
The SB (Z68) and I think also IB (Z77) MBs when coupled with a SB or IB CPU that has a internal GPU (iGPU) and software that can take advantage daul GPUs (dGPU + iGPU) considerably improve on encoding time

Quote "Applications that use Intel’s integrated video decoder benefit greatly from the Z68’s ability to activate it. The P67 instead uses the Nvidia decoder in the above chart."

This part has nothing to do with Hard drive as it is the same in the test.

SEE: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asrock-z68-extreme4-asus-p8z68-v-pro-gigabyte-z68x-ud3h-b3,2939-14.html
Note encoding time is cut from 44 to 18 for MediaEspresso 6.5
For MediaConverter 7 from 1.44 to 0.45

I'm sorry, but for what you wanted you bought the wrong MB. Your CPU does have the HD4000 iGPU.
IE you needed a Z series MB.

 

[rob76]

I bought the computer off an eBay store, when I was going through the process of getting the upgrades I spoke with a guy over the phone, I told him I mainly wanted to use the pc for video encoding, I asked him about the Z77 mb and he told me that it would be a waste of money to upgrade to it because it would not improve the performance video encoding, he probably just didn't have it in stock. I will look too upgrade to Z77 in the future. Thanks for the help.

 

[RetiredChief]

Many Times these people are Just a sales person getting close to min wages. There Knowedgle is not always Up to par.

 

[djscribbles]

More likely he didn't know that it would make a difference and was simply trying to save you money.

Out of curiousity, what software do you use to encode? As Chief said, it can make a big difference, if most of your CPU is idle, it maybe because your software doesn't leverage the extra cores available (taking advantage of multiple cores requires more advanced programming techniques, it is by no means automatic),

It's easy to spot if your encoding is running on only a single thread by looking at the performance tab of task manager, you will see one graph of CPU Usage history at 100% and the other 7 at almost zero, and your overall utilization will be approximately 10-20% (100/8 = 12.5%).

I was always under the impression that encoding was more processor bound than anything, since you are taking a large format from optical, encoding it to a smaller(?) format via a ton of math, and storing to internal storage. I wouldn't really expect HDD speed to matter a lot in this case, but I don't do any A/V type stuff with my PC so I'm only speaking from theory.

 

[rob76]

Best answer selected by rob76.