Seeking Help : Choosing HDD/SSD

[Shortlee]

Computer uses : Gaming, Web browsing, and Video editing
My issue is .. idk what type of hdd/ssd to setup in my build.
I know there are many variations like.. RAID0 SSD ..or RAID0 HDD's
or HDD with ssd cache drive.. and i dont get how any of those work.

Basically im asking
1) Whats the Pros & Cons of each (not just the setups i listed: but also other popular ones )
2)Whats better for gaming,web browsing, and video editing?
3)What would be the least expensive, and most efficient ?

 

[Zap]

HDD with SSD cache... only works if you have a Z68 chipset motherboard.

1) Too much info to list. You should go read some guides.
2) SSD for Windows and all applications. HDD for games and videos.
3) See #2.

 

[Shortlee]

New question !
better to have SSD RAID0 and have another internal hdd for bulk storage.
And if i did that, would the hdd slow down my performance?

 

[mikeyikeey]

Question to add to that, Zap-

Why an HDD for games? Will they not perform great off an SSD?
I was planning on using my future SSD for gaming
The speeds look so amazing! I'm getting a 120GB so it can hold the OS, apps & games too!

Just repeating the above as a courtesy, you've already commented and helped out a lot on my thread http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2197840.

Shortlee, I was considering this as my main (one and only) drive for my future comp:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

 

[Shortlee]

I was looking at this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211529
its cheaper, and it -Seems- to have no significant difference in performance, if not even better performance

 

[greenhawk]

Why an HDD for games? Will they not perform great off an SSD?
I was planning on using my future SSD for gaming

HDD for games as most games you will not be playing all the time. Just copying the game that you currently want to play to the SSD.

Then there is the issue that some games do not benifit from being on a SSD noticably to matter to most people.

As to anothe reason, it depends on the number of games you have installed. My steam folder alone is large than my SSD, let alone having space for windows and it's needed files.

 

[greenhawk]

would the hdd slow down my performance?

no

using the hdd will make the computer "feel" slower as you would be use to the SSD.

 

[greenhawk]

1) Whats the Pros & Cons of each (not just the setups i listed: but also other popular ones )
2)Whats better for gaming,web browsing, and video editing?
3)What would be the least expensive, and most efficient ?

1- too many to list. it is like asking how many ways to cook a cake.

2- for the first part, SSDs help, but only on loading data. Once in ram, SSD's have zero effect on the game. On the second, does not matter what drive is being used as 99% of the content is stored in RAM, not on the hdd/s. On the third, a good write speed (and in the case of SSD's, good write speed for incompressable data, which is where the sandforce chipsts get brought back to earth from their high performance numbers).

3- that would be just sticking with normal HDD's, no SSDs.

 

[mfenn]

I was looking at this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211529
its cheaper, and it -Seems- to have no significant difference in performance, if not even better performance

It's hard to tell what controller is actually in that SSD. My gut says SF-2281, but they are normally sold as "120GB" instead of "128GB". At that price point though, you might as well go with a known quantity like the Crucial M4 128GB.