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Windows on SSD or external HDD

K

kevindk2

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 21, 2012
24
0
Hello fellow mac users!

I have been struggeling with a hard decision to make since im going to buy an vertex 4 SSD soon, right now I have an 500gb HDD. Im going to put the HDD as external instead of the optical disk drive, and the SSD as internal. Which comes to my question:

Should I have windows 7 on my SSD or my external HDD? I use the windows partion for gaming and I rarely use my Mac OS X partion anymore. :confused:
If I only use my mac for schoolwork and movies is it worth using an SSD on that?

I know you cant install windows on an external HDD but I was thinking about because I already have a windows partion on it so if I switched it over to external i will still have a windows partion.
 
J

jrabbit

macrumors member
Jan 30, 2008
66
0
St. Louis, MO
On my 15" MBP (late 2011), I have replaced both the stock HDD and the optical drive with SSDs. One SATA III drive in the HDD bay for OS X, and one SATA II drive in the optical bay (using a data doubler bracket) for a Boot Camp partition and extra storage (like Linux VMs).

On the Boot Camp partition is Windows 8, which is pretty snappy from an SSD. I use that for gaming and to force myself to really learn Win8. I also use VMware Fusion, so I can run Windows virtually from the Boot Camp partition (Parallels can do that as well).

With the fairly reasonable price of SSDs now (especially the SATA II models), it was an easy choice to make. I think I've used the optical drive (now in an external enclosure) maybe twice.

If your SSD is large enough and you will have only one internal drive I would still recommend putting Windows on the SSD--pretty much everything is better from an SSD. Also, unless you are connecting the external drive via Thunderbolt (not likely), then there would be a fairly substantial data rate difference between the internal SATA connectors and external USB. Combined with the HDD penalty vs. SSD, and Windows externally would feel like a slug, I would think.
 
K

kevindk2

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 21, 2012
24
0
jrabbit said:
On my 15" MBP (late 2011), I have replaced both the stock HDD and the optical drive with SSDs. One SATA III drive in the HDD bay for OS X, and one SATA II drive in the optical bay (using a data doubler bracket) for a Boot Camp partition and extra storage (like Linux VMs).

On the Boot Camp partition is Windows 8, which is pretty snappy from an SSD. I use that for gaming and to force myself to really learn Win8. I also use VMware Fusion, so I can run Windows virtually from the Boot Camp partition (Parallels can do that as well).

With the fairly reasonable price of SSDs now (especially the SATA II models), it was an easy choice to make. I think I've used the optical drive (now in an external enclosure) maybe twice.

If your SSD is large enough and you will have only one internal drive I would still recommend putting Windows on the SSD--pretty much everything is better from an SSD. Also, unless you are connecting the external drive via Thunderbolt (not likely), then there would be a fairly substantial data rate difference between the internal SATA connectors and external USB. Combined with the HDD penalty vs. SSD, and Windows externally would feel like a slug, I would think.
Click to expand...

Alright thanks for the tips. I think im going for windows on my SSD. I dont want to spend too much money on my computer as its only an 13-inch late 2011 which isnt that good for gaming. I would love an 15-inch instead but I have to wait a bit to save up...
 
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