Consider a hybrid drive, made by Seagate. They have a cache (4, 8, or 16GB) that acts like an SSD, and they say you get 90% of the performance of SSDs. I’ve used them in the past on Mac Mini’s and they really make a HUGE difference in performane over a regular drive. Apple’s hybrid drives are similar, but you need their disk manager to properly work with them. Otherwise, they look like two separate drives — a small SSD and a larger spinning drive. The Seagate drives only look like one device. I’ve got a MacBook Pro with a large SSD on it. It kicks ass! I find that I get extremely impatient now any time I’m working with a machine that doesn’t have a hybrid or SSD drive in it. The difference in performance is striking. You still want to backup your drives periodically — it has nothing to do with the reliability of SSDs. You’re far more likely to have your machine stolen than to have the drive fail. In which case, a backup onboard is useless. USB 3.0 is extremely fast, backing up 60 GB in minutes. So get one of them and backup regularly. -David On Sep 2, 2014, at 10:23 AM, Mark Phillips wrote: > I am looking at a new Linux laptop, and I have the option of a mSata SSD drive or a conventional drive. I am considering a 1 TB Samsung 840 EVO mSata SSD for the OS and all my partitions. > > 1. Are there any reasons not to use a SSD for the full disk, as opposed to just for the OS? Other than saving money, as a small SSD would cost a lot less! > > 2. I have seen recommendations on the net to backup the drive to a spinning drive. The laptop has a couple of bays, so I could put a back up drive in one of the bays. Does this make sense, or have SSDs matured enough that they will last like a spinning drive? > > 3. Anything else I should be aware of when moving to the world of SSDs? > > Thanks, > > Mark > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss