Ubuntu 12.04 on SSD with separate Home partition? (1 Viewer)

[Hedon James]

Time for a new rig. Seriously considering installing Ubuntu 12.04 OS on SSD, with home partition on a separate drive, probably 500GB-1TB. Any of you guys done this before?

Looks like I can get a 32GB SSD for about $50, or a 64GB SSD for about $70. 32GB should be plenty for a linux OS, but an extra $20 for double the capacity seems attractive too.

In considering how to setup this situation, I don't really want a separate Home partition on a separate drive, I don't think. I want my installed programs (single user) and config files on the SSD for speed, but I'd like my DATA, i.e. documents, spreadsheets, pictures, music, videos, downloads, PPA/tarball files, etc... on the separate hard drive. I would then like to regularly Rsync (LuckyBackup) my SSD Home Directory (programs & config files) and my DATA directory to an external USB drive. Is there a practical way to do this? Or a better solution?

Also wondering, if I decide to definitely go that route, if it's better to setup this way from the beginning, or if it's a big deal to convert to in the future. If I just stick a conventional 500GB-1TB disk drive in a new machine, and decide to add a SSD at a later date, will I wish I had spent the extra $50-$70 and time to setup the SSD at install time?

Thanks in advance for any advice & insight you fellas might be able to offer!

 

[Hedon James]

Hmmm...NONE of you gurus has this contemplated 2 HD setup? I'm guessing I'll be the guinea pig for ya...

Before I make the jump, do any of you guys run Linux on a SSD? If so, what are your experiences? Are the read/write limitations really that different from a physical hard drive, or is that an artificial concern that doesn't really affect the average desktop computer user? Does Linux make satisfactory use of that technology, in your opinion, or is it still in the maturation process? Maybe I should wait a little until Linux and SSD tech is a little more mature...

Just looking for ANYONE who has experience with an SSD in their system.

 

[Buickman]

I guess I missed this thread when you first started it.

I've been running Ubuntu on a ssd, in addition to Debian and Gentoo, and have no problems at all. I run the whole thing on it, including /home. I also have a 3ware raid card with 4 1.5T drives in raid 10 that I have mounted to /files. I wanted to keep the OS completely off of the raid array. I just like having that separation.

Like I said, I've had no problems at all with it. I'm using ext2 for /boot and xfs for /.

 

[Hedon James]

I guess I missed this thread when you first started it.

I've been running Ubuntu on a ssd, in addition to Debian and Gentoo, and have no problems at all. I run the whole thing on it, including /home. I also have a 3ware raid card with 4 1.5T drives in raid 10 that I have mounted to /files. I wanted to keep the OS completely off of the raid array. I just like having that separation.

Like I said, I've had no problems at all with it. I'm using ext2 for /boot and xfs for /.

I'm starting to feel a little warm & fuzzy again! Can you tell me more about your SSD?

Brand? Size? I just saw a SanDisk 120GB SSD on sale for $79.99. Helluva deal, and much bigger than the 32GB I was considering, but I don't know much about SSD tech; I've HEARD that Crucial & Kingston are currently tops, but I don't know what that's based on...# units sold, price per GB, quality of components, etc... Any thoughts on this?

 

[Buickman]

The one I currenty have Ubuntu running on is a G.Skill Falcon 128GB SATA II. I'm a big fan of G.Skill and also use their memory in both of my systems. Pretty cheap on newegg.com.

One thing I look at on newegg is the read and write speeds. I also read the reviews, because some have had a history of failures. I'd suggest starting there and look around.