Hi to all,

I am in search to find the best SSD for my OS. For file storage, I`ll use HDD. So we talk here only about OS and apps. There are 2 components in my search:

1. It is better to have 2 SSDs: one for OS and the other for apps OR shoud I choose a single, bigger SSD for both OS and apps?

2. What SSD(s) should I go for, in both of the above situation and in what capacities?

Lets say that the price of Samsung 850 EVO 500GB is the upper limit for my budget.

Thank you!

IMVHO it's pretty much unimportant which one you'll pick, but anyway in that price range the best candidate probably is... the Samsung 850EVO 500Gb:

• http://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD15/1199
• http://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD15/1200
• http://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD15/1203
• http://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD15/1209
• http://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD15/1196
• http://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD15/1198

To me its better to have a single ssd, over time you might upgrade your pc and things over time tend to get bigger. I have discarded some very small ssds, but i still contrinue to use old ssd like Intel X25m because i bought 160gb back in the day, and still is enough for one of my pcs. So my suggestion is a bigger single drive over multiple small ones.

For a budget SSD, i recommend Samsung 850Evo or Crucial MX200, whichever you prefer, and the size... really up to you and your needs and what your budget allows. But for the best sata III ssd, atm Samsung 850pro is right up there.

So, probably I will go with 850 EVO 500GB. Is there any special care I should take when installing the new SSD? It will be my first SSD and at least I know that SSDs are a little different than HDD. A good guide for a newbie @SSD world.

Personally i used to follow a lot of ssd optimization guides, but i no longer do it, there are things that i really dont want to lose, and really ssds work really well on their own, there is no need to do anything special, i still do the following on a new installation,

1) Make sure you bios is on ACHI for the sata, else you wont get trim, this is very important to do before installing windows.
2) Make sure you disable the defrag schedule on the ssd.
3) If you download a lot, for example torrents, move the download folder to a mechanical hdd.
3) If you don't need hibernation, disable it. To me SSDs are so fast to boot, that i no longer use sleep nor hibernation.
4) If you don't need system restore, disable it. It till give you a space back. This is tricky as for some people this feature is important, to me its not, if i screwed the OS i simply reformat.

Great, thank alot. Samsung, here I come...

The Samsung Magician tool will let you know what to optimize in your Windows settings.