SSDs and swap files

[Joel95]

I have a 128GB SSD+optibay HDD setup. Should i symblink/move the virtual memory folder to my HDD? As far as i know, swap files makes a lot of writes and it uses valuble SSD space as virtual RAM. Is it wise to make the HDD do the virtual memory instead?

 

[after5cst]

In terms of SSD longevity, or in terms of overall system performance?

If you're not paging things in and out of the swap file regularly, then the delayed read/write time to a HDD won't be much of an issue... but you're not really adding that many write cycles to the SSD if you had left the paging file there instead.

OTOH, if you're paging things like crazy, a swap file on the SSD will burn through write cycles much more rapidly. But if you use the HDD as the swap file, you will instead suffer through HDD thrashing and crippled system performance.

Pick your poison. If my system were SSD-based. I'd make sure to minimize swap file usage by having lots of RAM, and put the swap file on the SSD... assuming that the premium I paid for the SSD means I'm interested in performance, not life cycle.

 

[accessoriesguy]

if you got some extra moola invest in some RAM 8GB kits are available for <$100 this would be faster then having to do any swap, increasing your over all performance and sparing your SSD!

Or you can go crazy and install 16GB RAM @_@