SSD Help please

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nikonuser

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Dave
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I'm a bit of a dinasaur when it comes to computers so any help greatly appreciated.
I have been recommended to add a SSD to my drive to improve file rendering etc, my main use is Photoshop, Lightroom 4 and general web browsing.
I have a 8GB Sansung DDR3 Memory (4x2GB)
1 TB Nvidia hard drive
Intel i5-760 Quad core 2.80 processor
Are SSD's external drives, would it replace or work side by side with my current hard drive and what capacity would you recommend please.
Also please do they work with USB 2 ports??
Thanks
Dave
 
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It's best to have your main internal drive as an SSD to run your operating system and applications. I have a 256Gb one in my laptop and it absolutely flies, boots up in seconds and opens applications in a flash. I store all of my images and data on external drives so the SSD doesn't become cluttered. I think 256 is probably overkill and I could easily manage with a 128Gb.
 
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There are two general ways SSDs can be used (both alongside your current drive)

  • As a boot drive with all your user data on your other 1TB HDD
  • As a scratch disk to improve LR/PS rendering

The first of these will improve program boot performance, the second will improve program running speed (assuming you can set these options in the program of course).

SSDs tend o come in 3 main sizes 64G, 128G and 256G (you can get sm,aller and larger though). Generally, the larger the SSD, the more perfomance it has as it can use more parallel lanes of flash to increas performance. Having said that, unless your motherboard has SATA III ports, you won't benefit from read/write speeds above 300MBytes/sec as the interface will limit you.

Good drives (in 128 or 256G) to get are:
  • Corsair Performance Pro (my first choice but pricey)
  • Samsung 830
  • OCZ Vertex 3 or 4 (4 is faster)
  • Crucial M4

Unfortunately, not all SSDs are equal, so don't just go with the cheapest.

A 128G drive will be enough for Windows+ a smallish (~50G) scratch area. 256G will probably be enough for Windows, your workspace + current photos with any archives held on the 1TB drive and a 50G scratch drive.
 
Thanks Rich, so they fit inside the pc do they rather than as an external drive??
Is it easy to move the operating system and applications over to the SSD??
I'm thinking of the Intel 120GB 520 series.
Appreciate your help
Dave
 
Many Thanks Andy for your detailed reply, that has help me a lot to understand SSD's.
The Intel was the first one to be recommended to me but I will follow up your suggestions on the others.
Thanks again
Dave
 
Yup 520 is pretty good. You can look here: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/582?vs=529 for some touchy-feely comparisons of different SSDs. Just remember benchmarks are benchmarks and not real world performance.

It's easy to move OS/apps over if the partition on the HDD is smaller than the partition on the SSD. This will be the case if you have separate OS install partition and data partition, but if it is all lumped into one, you will have to move some data files off onto another drive and resize the partition (using Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management) until it is small enough to fit on the new disk. Then do a system image (assuming Win 7) on a USB drive, install SSD and resstore the system image va a Windows recovery disk.

Sounds complex, but isn't....
 
Sorry.. a bit busy today. That was a very hurried response, but it does have all the right info - you just may need to read it a few times ;)
 
Thank you so much, unfortunately, as said ....I'm hopeless with pc's so may (will) need to get someone to do it for me.
Appreciate the explanation and link
Dave
 
There seems to be quite a downward spiral on SSD prices these days. It's worth keeping an eye out for the latest price drop on HotUKDeals. Here is a link to the general section on "computing" deals. Plenty of SSD stuff in there....

http://www.hotukdeals.com/computers/deals/hot
 
I have 2 SSD drives both 128GB

Currently one is trhe boot drive in my PC with only windows CS5, Lightroom and Battelfield3 installed on it.

All the my docs photos etc, have had locations changed to another hard drive in the system.

The second SSD I won recently, is a cruciall M4SSD

This comes with a cd and usb connector to clone your existing hard drive onto the SSD, then just replace the drive.

I am using it as a spare because with no moving parts you will get no warning when the SSD fails it will just stop. (before anyone asks I have other backups on other normal drives too).
 
PsiFox said:
I have 2 SSD drives both 128GB

Currently one is trhe boot drive in my PC with only windows CS5, Lightroom and Battelfoeld3 installed on it.

All the my docs photos etc, have had locations changed to another hard drive in the system.

The second SSD I won recently, is a cruciall M4SSD

This comes with a cd and usb connector to clone your existing hard drive onto the SSD, then just replace the drive.

I am using it as a spare because with no moving parts you will get no warning when the SSD fails it will just stop. (before anyone asks I have other backups on other normal drives too).
Click to expand...

which reminds me i need to re-image my system.. thanks :)
 
No problem Neil :)
 
Thanks Guys, really appreciate your knowledge, very helpful comments and the useful links
Cheers
Dave
 
An SSD will do much more than speed up the boot process, or load apps faster. It makes the whole Windows experience zippier. That's because Windows and the apps that run under Windows are forever loading and running little snippets of code in dll files. Each of those files will load around 100 times faster with an SSD than with a HDD. Each individual one is just a small saving in time, but they sure add up and make the whole thing snappier.
 
i had a 64 a couple of years ago and loved it
but ran out of room so have 2 x 64gb raid (striped)
like it a lot

for brands I like the samsung ones. solid and good performance
you will really notice the difference
I put on my operating system, essential programs like photoshop for yourself and then keep the 1gb drive in there for your documents etc
the swap file disappears which means you don't need to use that space (I think) on the disk but it will fill up fast
value for money is a 120gb drive at the moment

preference is this one
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...al/solidstate/128gbandabove/mz-7pc128neu.html
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...al/solidstate/128gbandabove/mz-7pc256neu.html
 
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I run an ocz vertex 2 as my boot drive and have a small ocz agility ssd purely as a scratch disk for photoshop. It loads photoshop in a second and is really quick compared to pre ssd. Money well spent
 
Whats a scratch disc, Simon, please
 
If anyone is in two minds about SSDs, wait for either later today or tomorrow. I have just received a couple of SSDs (Vertex 3 and Corsair Perf. Pro) and will be putting them through their paces for Lightroom usage and will publish the results here. My current thinking is it is more important to get your source data on a fast SSD rather than the scratch disk on a fast SSD.
 
hollis_f said:
why not both?
Click to expand...
Both would be better (and in fact, I'll probably try moving my scratch disk around now I have 3 SSDs here) but the vast majority of reads seem to be of the original files rather than the scratch disk files - at least in my limited testing...
 
I'm "lucky" in that I don't have too many images. My plan is to put the Vertex 3 120G as system SSD and my home directory and last 2 years images on the 256G SSD. I'm not sure where the scratch disk will go just yet. Everything else will go on the 1TB HDD.
 
Is it ok to have the scratch disk on a separate hard drive? An external one?
 
neil_g said:
i guess you could store the RAW temporarily on a 265 then move it in lightroom to main storage once edited.
Click to expand...

This is what I do - Windows, Apps, LR and it's cache are all on the SSD. I also use it to store the images I'm currently working on. When finished they get moved to a HDD.

samems said:
Is it ok to have the scratch disk on a separate hard drive? An external one?
Click to expand...

Ideally you want the scratch disk on a fast drive - so definitely not an external.
 
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