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I've always thought that you'd want to use an SSD drive for your Primary drive to boost overall system speed, then use a larger secondary drive for storing files and such.
Is that true? If I have an SSD drive and a 6 Gb/s SATA drive, what's the best use for the SSD drive?
Background Ordering a new computer from Dell.
Comes with several options:
- 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Dell Solid State Drive
- 1TB 3.5 6Gb/s SATA with 32MB DataBurst Cache
- 500GB Hybrid 2.5in, 6Gb/s SATA with 8GB NAND Flash
(I'm trying figure out how to get more info on the components)
Dell, for some uknown reason, does not support making the SSD drive the Primary (e.g., "C:").
Clay Nichols
Posted 2013-06-13T19:57:27.897
Reputation: 4 494
Being primary refers to parimary partition. It has nothing to do with drive letters. Although the most common configuration is that the disk drive has only one primary partition and this is then the system disk and it is assigned the drive letter C. Most laptops also have an additional partition called the recovery partition for restoring the system to factory settings (essentially reinstalling Windows).
– Samir – 2013-06-13T20:10:50.137http://superuser.com/questions/164276/which-hard-drive-should-one-install-the-os-on-for-the-best-program-run-time-perf?rq=1 – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2013-06-13T20:15:09.867
So the SSD doesn't have to be primary. It can have more than one partition. At most, you can have 4 primary partitions on the same physical disk drive. It doesn't matter if it's SSD or a traditional HDD. A disk drive can also be formatted with only one extended partition, and this partition can then be subdivided into logical partitions. However, Windows can only be installed on a primary partition. But the drive letter can be anything. But in probably 95% of all cases it's assigned as C drive. – Samir – 2013-06-13T20:16:21.397
You say that Dell does not allow making the SSD drive the primary, as in primary partition, do you have a source for this claim? If you are buying a computer from Dell and you choose the 128 GB SSD option, I'm sure they will make it primary. They must, they are bound to do so, if they are to install Windows on it. Installing Windows requires a primary partition. And also, the drive letter will most likely be C. – Samir – 2013-06-13T20:20:03.920
The question you need to be asking yourself is will 128 GB be enough space? I bet that Windows alone will occupy approx. 40 GB (especially if it's an OEM version with custom Dell software that come with it, and other trial/limited versions of different software a.k.a. bloatware). So don't count on having 128 GB for your own software and documents. It will more likely be in the range of 60-90 GB. – Samir – 2013-06-13T20:25:41.007
An SSD will probably be a better choice for running Windows and other critical software from. You will get a faster and a more responsive system. But if you have a lot of software to install then a 500 GB hybrid might be a better option, or even the 1 TB HDD. – Samir – 2013-06-13T20:26:39.963
@Sammy, I should have said "boot" not "primary". When I select options on Dell's website, the SSD is not listed as one of the Boot drive options, on an option from the Secondary. I talked to a CSR from Dell. He said they do not offer the SSD for the Boot drive. – Clay Nichols – 2013-06-15T01:58:57.677