Solid State Drives

Greetings, all.

My new Vanquish 4 is on the way and I have to say I'm very excited. This will be my first real gaming rig and most definitely the best computer I've ever owned. It's so good, in fact, that I'm not entirely sure what I should be doing with half of it (see: my question about overclocking over in the performance forum).

I want to make sure I'm well educated so I can jump right into things without wasting time when the rig arrives. One of my questions has to do with the solid state drive. As you're probably all aware, the Vanquish 4 comes with a 1TB HDD and a 120GB SSD.

I've never used a SSD, but I've heard that they should be used slightly differently from HDD. That is, one should be careful what one puts on a SSD as opposed to a HDD.

Assuming the Vanquish doesn't come with Windows pre-installed, I know that the SSD is definitely where the operating system should go. But what about other types of programs? My understanding is that commonly accessed files (images, music, video, etc.) should all be on the HDD. But what about games and other applications? Obviously there is limited space on the SDD, but if I have a game I play a lot (in my case that would probably be Crusader Kings 2) that doesn't take up a lot of space, could it be put on the SDD? What about something bigger like Skyrim?

If I do put games on the SDD, should I make sure that certain aspects (such as saved games) are routed to the HDD? Again, I understand that anything accessed a lot should be on the HDD, and saved games would seem to fall into that category.

Thanks in advance,

DR

The OS will come loaded on the SSD for real fast boot times.  In addition,

Saves should be good.  Just keep an eye on the storage.  Each Skyrim save is about 6-7 megs and I'm not sure about other games.   

Hardware discussions without me!  I feel so betrayed...

Originally posted by Meller Hardware discussions without me!  I feel so betrayed...

I can always use more advice. I am ready to receive any wisdom you wish to dispense.

I, personally, have a couple of 256GB's in a RAID 0, I have Windows installed, my games, all of my programs... everything is on my SSD.  Only thing I keep on my 4TB drives (yes I have a couple) is my movie, music, and random things.

SSD's + Windows have come a long way.  You really have no worry about than how much space is left. The controller isn't really an issue anymore either.  120GB isn't big, so put your games and programs on there, and your big ticket items like 1080p movies and what not on your 1TB.

You have no worries about what you can and can't put on your SSD anymore, bro.  Literally treat it like it's a normal HDD (minus the fact that you don't have to defrag it anymore. TRIM does all the work for you.)