SuperFetch vs. SRT. Both, or just SuperFetch?

Question

I've looked around and haven't found an answer to my specific scenario.

Building a new desktop, using the Z68 chipset, 1.5 TB Caviar Black HDD, 60 GB Agility 3 SSD.

I have about 200 GB of applications and games, plus the OS.

Is it better to install the OS on the SSD and everything else onto the HDD and rely solely on SuperFetch for performance gains, or should I install everything onto the HDD and use the SSD for Smart Response Technology? In terms of sole OVERALL performance gains.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It's better you list the profile of your workload. Using words like overall performance yet trying to get information tailored to your specific scenario sounds like the most contrived plan I've heard.

Since you have not given enough information about overall performance for your specific scenario, we will have to speculate.

The areas that SSDs shine are load times. An SRT has to guess. Using the SSD as a fixed disk however means you have to plan ahead. And changes are tougher to implement.

Another piece of information you did not mention is the amount of RAM. Superfetch won't do jack if you have only, say, 1GB of RAM.

Now, if you are the type of person to shutdown their computer often (as in more than once a week), then the fixed disk option is the way to go. Load the OS files there. Softlink the Program Files to the Harddrive.

If I were to take the fixed disk route. I would look at what applications that may take over 30 seconds to load. Programs like Visual Studios comes to mind. Then just move their files from the harddisk to the SSD and softlink them.

If you are the kind of person like me, who can't even remember the last time they booted their machine, the SRT route makes more sense. Plus, if you are like me, you realize RAM is cheap.

I've pushed hard to get lots of RAM loaded for my users. They, of course, don't notice the speed differences. Without a benchmark, it is hard to do anyways. But with more RAM, that means I can tell my users to quit closing their applications like it's 1999.

Answer 2

Not sure what surfasb means by SRT being better for people who don't reboot? It's actually the other way around.

SRT caching is persistent with the SSD while superfetch loads apps into spare ram to speed up your system. So which one should you use?

If you just want fast speed on your OS and a few select apps install on the SSD alone, but you will have to be careful managing space.

Using the SSD as a cache would make alot more efficient use of the space, loading only necessary boot files & frequently loaded application data to the ssd, so overall you would get faster speed across the entire system since you can install more apps on an accelerated 1.5TB hdd than a single 60gb ssd.