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I found a "Locked to Win8" bios


Kelsenellenelvian

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Good quality SSDs have something like 2 million hour MTBF figures, which makes sense since there's motor, moving parts...  And no one should be without system image backups. 

 

My experience (just a data point):

 

I'm running my entire computing environment with everything I use interactively on a 2 TB system volume made from four SSDs.  I've been doing this for a few years now.  I'm using about 1 TB of the space right now.  I do have 3 TB of additional internal HDD storage in my system for very low-access data (basically downloads, installation images, etc.), and backup.  These drives are almost never spun up.

 

My nightly backup is incremental to an external USB HDDs, and time to complete depends on how many data blocks I touch in a given day.  It's usually done in an hour or two, and covers everything on C:, which is convenient.  At the moment I have 14 snapshots available for restoral from one 3TB external drive.

 

I have two main subtrees of files that take up the lion's share of my 1 TB of used space right now:  They're my photo library and my virtual machines.  These total about 700GB of the used 1 TB, and could very easily go on another volume if the 2TB C: drive became inconveniently cramped.

 

At this time I have a dozen or more system image backups on my 3 TB external USB HDD.

 

If I were building a new system today and looking toward the future, and wanting to go all SSD, I still wouldn't feel 2 TB is unreasonably small.

 

-Noel

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My experience (just a data point):

With all due respect :), no. :no:

 

Not a "data point", just the X coordinates of a data point.

 

Let's say that you want to place your "data point" on a XY graph where X is "speed, convenience, reliability" and Y is cost.

 

What is your Y (expressed in US$)?  :whistle:

 

(my guess is that it is well above the line that - being extremely cheap :ph34r: I would draw at 45° - X=Y - and that I call conventionally "limit of an awful amount of money" ;))

 

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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It's not a reasonable metaphor.  Everyone's graph has different scales for both axes.

 

If a person is willing to settle for a junk computer they may well get junk results.  Not my problem.

 

But if you want to talk about serious computing, I'm here to help.

 

Perhaps my experience was gained with hardware that cost more than most, but today's SSDs are at the cheapest price point yet.  You can gain from my knowledge because I've done for two years what's now becoming more affordable than ever.

 

At 200 bucks each plus another 150 for a RAID controller, four 512 GB Crucial MX100 drives could make up a dynamite 2 TB RAID 0 that would give you a system that would blow your hair back and you'd be the envy of anyone who saw it run.  Motherboards based on such processors as the i7-4770 are not break-the-bank expensive today.  There may be configurations where you needn't even plug-in a controller card, just use the Intel ports on the board.

 

If you really don't want to drop a thousand bucks on a good I/O subsystem, why bother talking about the technology at all?  Just try not to get in the way of the big boys with the big boy toys.

 

On the other hand, If you want a great computer, you just have to pay today's prices for great, which are affordable by mortals and are NOTHING like they were just a few short years ago.  You should feel lucky.

 

-Noel

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And anyway, the pertinent question to the discussion just above is not "how much does your computer cost", but this:

 

How many gigabytes is your OS + applications + data you need sub-millisecond access to?  Be honest, double that, and that's the amount of drive C: storage you really need.

 

I doubt the math comes out to more than 2 TB for most folks.

 

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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You see :), you are a professional, doing professional things and I am pretty sure :yes: that every single US$ you spend on hardware and software is well spent.

But you belong - like it or not - to an elite of people (professionals in the software industry, that make a living out of using this "tool"), what is good (and appropriate) for you may well be not good (or appropriate or affordable/justifiable) for the "average Joe", that was the point.

 

Of course SSD's are really nice and fastish thingies, but IMHO suggesting that everyone should have a RAID with 4x512 Mb SSDs to have a responsive system is a lot like saying that everyone should have - say - a McLaren P1 in order to be able to get "serious" car driving experience.

 

So, in my perverted mind, a single 128 or 256 Gb SSD (for actual System) + a "conventional" hard disk 512 or 1 Tb in size (for Data) + 2x (external or internal) 1 Tb drive for backup, are already what I would consider "more than enough" for - say - 85% of people needs.

 

But the point here (and on this we are actually saying the same thing) is that - at the moment - noone, not even a software developer, has an actual *need* for a device bigger than 2 Tb, and in any case there is no actual need for booting the OS from a larger than 2 Tb device.

 

If you check a few "standard" desktop PC's, let's say the homepage of Dell :w00t: and HP, you will see how the price range goes roughly from 500 to 1500 US$ and offer a single hard disk from 500 Gb to 2 Tb.

 

You just confirmed how even in your "faster than average" needs and highly tuned, custom built, PC you don't *need* more than 2 Tb.

 

So, the "right" answer about benefits of EFI/UEFI for the final user (which was the direction in which shae shifted the topic :whistle:) is still "None, yet".

 

The industry is pushing like mad this new EFI/UEFI "standard" (which as said IMHO is a "non-standard" at the moment) since a few years that provides no real benefits/advantages to the final users (and won't produce them for the few next years).

 

 

jaclaz

 

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How many gigabytes is your OS + applications + data you need sub-millisecond access to?  Be honest, double that, and that's the amount of drive C: storage you really need.

 

I doubt the math comes out to more than 2 TB for most folks.

 

Just wait for Win9 and you'll see. :)

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