Has anyone installed an SSD on a Z77?

 

 

You raise solid questions, and I believe my answers will help you make a decision.

 

Although I do not own a Z77 board (P67 chipset is my current ASUS board) but I do have two Crucial M4 128GB SSDs in RAID 0, and it's running flawlessly. I chose the Crucial M4 series SSD based on solid reviews, experience at AVADirect, and feedback from our customers. Out of all of the SSDs we offer, the Crucial M4 series has had (by far) the least amount of failures out of any SSD, including Intel, to date. Read some reviews on Newegg.com or TigerDirect.com and you will see what I mean.

 

As for the storage solution, that all depends. Originally, I had a single 128GB Crucial M4 and a 320GB Western Digital SSD. The SSD was used for Windows and all applications/games that I wanted a performance benefit out of. The Western Digital was used for my Music, Pictures, Video, and other applications that I did not need a performance benefit out of (Diagnostic software, burning applications, etc...) and it worked out for quite a while. I decided to purchase another SSD, place them in RAID 0, and increase the SSD capacity for the sake of gaming. (My main use for my computer). Originally, I had felt a 128Gb was enough, but I began to notice that I like to have many games installed at once. I play many different multiplayer titles, so constantly removing and re-installing them, based on what my team mates wanted to play that day, not only became annoying but would also chew through the read/write process life of the SSD. So, increasing my capacity via RAID 0 allowed me to keep many different multiplayer titles installed, while installing and remove single player titles once I began to play them, or complete them.

 

Bottom line, if you won't be frequently changes the installed applications for the SSD, then the 128GB should be just fine. If you will be adding many things, in a short amount of time, then you may want to consider a larger SSD. Keep in mind, the lifetime of an SSD is determined by the amount of read/write processes it goes through daily. This is much different than hard disks, in which lifetime is determined by operation time. There are many programs available, such as SSD Life, that will help you keep track of your SSD health and also determine the expected death of your SSD based on your average usage; apparently, mine is expected to die in 2020.

 

If you go the route of a 128GB SSD, there are many things you can do to get the most out of your SSD space/performance. Vedran Ikonic has actually compiled a guide on the preferred tweaks to allow you to make these modifications easily within Windows.

 

 

Although I have 238GB of usable SSD storage, I still complete these modifications to have a leaner, faster-performing operating system. I love it!

 

 

 

 

 

You're most certainly welcome, always a pleasure!

 

Unfortunately, when SSDs begin to fail there's no obvious signs; like hard drives, which will give you audible signs, reduced performance, and even disk write errors in Windows. I mentioned that programs like SSD Life can tell you the approximately lifetime left on your SSD, so the only way to prepare for a failure is to check the status of your SSD, using a program that is capable of doing so, and keep on top of it. For anyone using an SSD, whether it be reliable or flighty, we always recommend using a back up solution (Acronis, Windows backup, etc...) to be safe and keep your data out of dangerous failures. Many things can cause early SSD failure, such a disk defragments (not necessary, nor recommend for an SSD since it uses TRIM) and editing applications that involve hundreds of read/write processes within seconds. As I mentioned above, do your best to keep the applications on your SSD unchanged from constant installs or uninstalls to get the most life out of your SSD. It's alright to run it normally, but if you plan on using any application that manipulates files, visual or audio, you can expect your SSD to fail quite quickly.

 

If you don't have a large requirement for storage space, a large SSD would definitely be in your favor.  Although, it's recommended to keep your SSD as light as possible for the best performance; I believe the rule is: keep 20% of your SSD free for the most optimal performance. Even if you don't have a lot of data, it's still a great idea to have a hard disk. You can offload your user folders to the hard disk, freeing up as much space as possible, and keeping your SSD light and fast.

 

 

Joe,

 

     I just ran SSD life got 98% excellent report with est lifespan of 2020 on my Intel 25-m g2  SSD as well. Heading on 3 yrs in nov.

 

Joe,

 

    I would bet your more aggressive in your use of your SSD then I am. So my lifespan is better but, I'm still pleased with the results. I figure SSD's will only get better.

 

My SSD usage honestly is   70% browse internet 10% games 10% streaming video's 10% office etc. 

 

 

SSD is are fast, and some are very reliable as well. I myself have the M4 Crucial drive, just like Joseph. However the fact of the matter is failures are imminent. Whether they occur 3 months or 3 years from now, they're going to happen eventually.

 

The great thing about HDDs is when they begin to fail, they let you know. Usually Windows will start reporting bad sectors, you'll begin to notice drop in performance and so on. When the SSD is about to hit the dust, it rarely gives you a heads up. Most of the RMAs we had to do on OCZ and other SSD drives, customer contacted us stating that everything worked just fine. Next morning he turned the system on and it was not booting.

 

What I'm getting at is that when the SSD fails, the data is probably gone forever. The data recovery is extremely expensive on SSDs and has lower success rate than HDDs. A recent quote I had to get for an SSD recovery was a possible north of $5000.

 

Therefore depending on how important your data is to you and if you already have means to back it up, additional HDD may or may not be necessary.

 

That's wonderful. It's good to see some of these early SSDs still holding up strong. 98% is what sometimes brand new drives report so you're golden with your 3 year old ssd.

 

It's always best to offload raw data (pictures, documents, etc) onto a secondary drive. For example, if you're hosting  file server, you want the files to be located off the SSD. Your CPU/Memory will handle the requests, and your SSD won't have to constantly read/write the data. You also won't gain a significant increase in performance because you will be limited by the network speed.

 

There are a lot of ways to improve the usage of your system, you just have to do an assessment of your frequent activities and then find out the best way to set it up.