# Is an 8gb SSD worth it?



## mitya (Feb 27, 2014)

I'm sizing up a laptop one of the options on which is an 8gb SSD.

This is clearly very small, so my question is: is it worth it, for such a small size?

What sort of progs would you install on it - games? Music production e.g. Cue Base (in my case)...?

(Incidentally, the other option if I reject the SSD is a low-end GPU and 2gb more memory.)


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## suraswami (Feb 27, 2014)

8GB? is it a typo?  did you mean 80GB?

If its 8GB I would just use for windows page file.


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## Jetster (Feb 27, 2014)

Its just a Cache drive. You don't install anything on it. As long as your laptop is running it keeps the programs you use the most ready so they will load fast.
But give us a link so we can check it out


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## Devon68 (Feb 28, 2014)

It cant be a 8 GB SSD.
Is it not an 1TB+8GB SSHD (solid state hybrid drive)
If it is a SSHD it serves the function jetster pointed out to store the most used and opened programs and opening them faster when they are accessed again.


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## Jetster (Feb 28, 2014)

They put msata slots on some boards for small cashe drives. You can also use it as a standard drive but the design is to run Intel software for cashing 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Response_Technology

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/software/intel-cache-acceleration-software.html


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## mitya (Feb 28, 2014)

Sorry, yes, you guys are right - it's a 1tb + 8gb hybrid SSHD.


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## RCoon (Feb 28, 2014)

mitya said:


> Sorry, yes, you guys are right - it's a 1tb + 8gb hybrid SSHD.


 
Bah, hybrid drives are as useful as snakeoil and wolftickets. Better off getting a 256GB SSD for £130 if you need the space. If you actually need the huge storage space of 1TB, then buy an external HDD.
A proper useful SSHD, should have 1TB of space and 120GB of SSD. That's a real useful hybrid drive, but they costs a ridiculous amount for no reason.


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## mitya (Feb 28, 2014)

Yeah I think we're all waiting for the price of SSDs to come down. Give it a year or so, I reckon.

The Lenovo G505s comes in two options:

- one with an extra, dedicated Radeon 8570M (2gb)
- one with a 1gb + 8gb SSHD and 2gb more memory.

It's these two I'm choosing between. Seems the choice isn't amazing; over on another thread it sounds like the crossfire in this case is largely pointless and here we've established the 1tb + 8gb is largely pointless! Still, 2gb extra memory...


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## RCoon (Feb 28, 2014)

mitya said:


> Yeah I think we're all waiting for the price of SSDs to come down. Give it a year or so, I reckon.
> 
> The Lenovo G505s comes in two options:
> 
> ...


 
How much RAM is in the 8570M laptop? The 8570M is a good onboard GPU for light gaming, and if/when hybrid crossfire does work, it will be pretty good!


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## Jetster (Feb 28, 2014)

mitya said:


> Yeah I think we're all waiting for the price of SSDs to come down. Give it a year or so, I reckon.



SSD prices have never been lower. Newegg has a 240Gb on there Shell Shocker right now for $119. And its a fast SSD. My bet is prices will go up soon. 

i keep thinking about AMD video cards and what happen.


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## mitya (Feb 28, 2014)

@RCoon - it's 6gb.

@Jetster - I must admit, having just consulted a few prices, they are cheaper than I thought. Still pricey.


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## RCoon (Feb 28, 2014)

mitya said:


> it's 6gb.



For your use, 6GB is a perfectly servicable amount of RAM. I'd rather have the possible Hybrid crossfire and in general more powerful video performance than a SSHD that isn't going to cache the things you actually want it to alongside a 720M. Besides, you can always swap one of the ram sticks (I assume its 1 x 4Gb and 1 x 2Gb to make it to 6GB) for an extra 4GB module.


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## Dent1 (Feb 28, 2014)

mitya said:


> Sorry, yes, you guys are right - it's a 1tb + 8gb hybrid SSHD.



Hybrid SSD are very slow, most cases its not much faster than a regular high end HDD.  Usually its still disk based, only the cache element is really SSD.



suraswami said:


> 8GB? is it a typo?  did you mean 80GB?
> 
> If its 8GB I would just use for windows page file.



Rather more RAM, then disable windows page file completely.


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## mitya (Feb 28, 2014)

@RCoon:

>> "The 8570M is a good onboard GPU for light gaming, and if/when hybrid crossfire does work, it will be pretty good!"

Does this mean crossfire owners (of the 8570M sort) are waiting on something to happen - AMD or games developers to release something - and then it will suddenly prove its worth? So even if it didn't do much to start with it might eventually be worthwhile?


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## RCoon (Mar 1, 2014)

mitya said:


> @RCoon:
> 
> >> "The 8570M is a good onboard GPU for light gaming, and if/when hybrid crossfire does work, it will be pretty good!"
> 
> Does this mean crossfire owners (of the 8570M sort) are waiting on something to happen - AMD or games developers to release something - and then it will suddenly prove its worth? So even if it didn't do much to start with it might eventually be worthwhile?



Hybrid crossfire (aka AMD dual graphics) only works for a few dozen games. It's been improved upon, but as it stand Richland APU's won't see any more improvement I don't think in terms of whatit supports. AMD will most likely be focusing on improvements for hybrid crossfire on their new Kaveri chips whenever they come out of laptops. I wouldn't count on AMD making improvements to 8570m dual graphics in honesty, as it's a small market. Truthfully, even without hybrid crossfire, that 8570m is more powerful than a 720m. I get the feeling I'm replying to the wrong thread, you have a few on different subject matters and I get confused.


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## mitya (Mar 1, 2014)

RCoon said:


> I get the feeling I'm replying to the wrong thread, you have a few on different subject matters and I get confused.



Haha yes I sympathise; I started a couple of threads with different intentions, but they sort of conjoined towards the same fundamental points.

OK that's great, continued thanks for your help. The only thing I believe I'm yet to get an answer to is: if I play a game that doesn't support my dual GPU set-up, which GPU gets used: the on-board or the dedicated? Presumably, like with any dedicated GPU set-up, the dedicated?

[EDIT] - Game Debate even *suggests* the on-board GPU is better than the dedicated... now I'm really confused. What would be the point of that!?


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## RCoon (Mar 1, 2014)

mitya said:


> Haha yes I sympathise; I started a couple of threads with different intentions, but they sort of conjoined towards the same fundamental points.
> 
> OK that's great, continued thanks for your help. The only thing I believe I'm yet to get an answer to is: if I play a game that doesn't support my dual GPU set-up, which GPU gets used: the on-board or the dedicated? Presumably, like with any dedicated GPU set-up, the dedicated?
> 
> [EDIT] - Game Debate even *suggests* the on-board GPU is better than the dedicated... now I'm really confused. What would be the point of that!?



Game Debate is completely wrong, drastically so. I don't understand their review, they're claiming the iGPU is better than the dedicated for no discernable reason whatsoever. It's literally completely wrong!

4.3 GPixels vs 20.8 GPixels. Huge difference.

Even the bar charts say opposite to the rating! As for playing games, it will switch to the deciated GPU, and back to the integrated for low power situations, like watching films etc.


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## mitya (Mar 3, 2014)

Thanks, @RCoon. Not the first time doubt has been cast on the reliability of GD's GPU comparisons.


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## TheBrainyOne (Mar 30, 2014)

Let's see what this G505s is. EDIT: Woot??


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## RCoon (Mar 30, 2014)

TheBrainyOne said:


> Let's see what this G505s is. EDIT: Woot??
> View attachment 55851



That made me chuckle on a dreary sunday afternoon


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## Athlonite (Apr 1, 2014)

TheBrainyOne said:


> Let's see what this G505s is. EDIT: Woot??
> View attachment 55851



now that's some funny Sh@t right there made laugh quite hard and I'd have to agree with RCoon on the dual graphics I'd take that over the skimpy SSHD it's not going to do you much good as it will probably never cache what you really want it to leaving you as if you were only using an HDD anyways


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## sneekypeet (Apr 1, 2014)

I ripped the SSHD out of my Lenovo, its nothing like an SSD at all, and mostly felt the crawl of a 5400 RPM spinner!


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## BarbaricSoul (Apr 1, 2014)

sneekypeet said:


> I ripped the SSHD out of my Lenovo, its nothing like an SSD at all, and mostly felt the crawl of a 5400 RPM spinner!



Heh, I'm pleased with my 7200 rpm desktop SSHD. It's not as fast as a actual full fledged SSD, but it's definitely faster that a regular or high performance hard drive.


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## cameronh779 (Apr 1, 2014)

Based on your choices I would personally go with the better graphics no matter what you decide to do with your laptop. Although I must say, if you don't plan on doing anything graphic intensive then might as well go with the larger HDD and the SSHD. It couldn't harm anything even though I see that it seems to be an opinionated space when considering the performance or necessity of it. You said you were ''sizing up'' a laptop and I am not sure if that means you are purchasing a new one or deciding on upgrade options of one you already own. Either way it would be nice to know how much this is costing you because I am assuming you can buy a HDD that is much cheaper and install it yourself and save lots of cash.

cameronh779


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## Schmuckley (Apr 2, 2014)

No.Make RAM Drive


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## wug (Jun 10, 2014)

I have same situation here. I got a SSD hdd 2.5". There is no label and is white color with shiny silver bottom. I put it on my desktop (win7 ultimate) for testing and i couldn't open it so i went to  Control Panel/System and Security/Administrative Tools/Computer Management and Disk Management. There i was able to format and label it. I could only see 7,xx Gb. Please advise.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jun 10, 2014)

For linux - its fine

For Windows - its too smaller, would be better used as a cache drive.


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## TRWOV (Jun 10, 2014)

These small SSDs work very good as cache drives for FreeNAS and unRAID. I have Dell branded Samsung 16GB SSD as cache for my home server and write speeds are pretty good (80MB/s vs 30MB/s when writing directly to the pool). I have another one that I'll use for a FreeNAS server.


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## wug (Jun 10, 2014)

Thanks guys for quick replies !


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