SSD + HDD virtual Memory

[miragetetra]

Heya all,

So I'm getting a G73SX soonish and I happen to have a spare SSD that might do well in the new machine. I'm thinking of using the SSD as my main drive and the 500gb HDD as my storage (as well as home for older games) and it dawned on me, which disk should I use for my virtual memory?

The machine will have 16gbs of memory and the SSD is a 160gb drive.

If I put the virtual memory on the SSD, then a little more then a third of the drive will be virtual memory.

If I put it on the HDD I'm not sure how that will affect performance (maybe it will negate having an SSD?).

So overall not sure which direction I should go here.

[Simba7]

BAD IDEA!!! Do NOT put your swap file on an SSD, unless you want to kill it rather quickly.

[miragetetra]

That was my thoughts as well. As well as the issue of the Virtual Memory file taking up most of the SSD capacity. That said, how much of a hit will the machine take if the Virtual memory file is on the HDD?

[Simba7]

Not alot. I have 24GB in my G53SX and I never get close to touching the swap.

It all depends on how much stuff you run.

[AQUASTEVAE]

yeah, i have a 256 gb crucial m4 as my os drive on my g74sx, and i put my virtual mem on the 750 hdd. this works absolutely perfectly. the swapfile will wear out a ssd, so you don't want it on there. and you should always put it on a partition that isn't going to be used much. most of the time i make a partition just for the virtual memory. that allows it to run unfettered. with this setup, my system is blazing fast. good luck, and post back once you have set it all up.

[BrodyBoy]

Thanks for the explanation...I hope the G74 lives up to your expectations. (And I thin k Asus should be flattered that you chose their machine for this!)

[miragetetra]

So updating here,

I tried the approach of making a 1gb-2gb Virtual Memory file on the SSD (SSD is my primary drive) and Windows Experience Index rated my drive at 7.4. Then I took the approach expanding that file to it's full size ( 24gb - 48gb) and same thing.

Then I put the swap file on the external HDD and my index rose to 7.5. So at least according to windows, it prefers it's virtual memory on different drives if possible. My guess? It's probably because there is a greater speed up in being able to simultaneously read and write (Asynchronously) versus one at a time

[JRd1st]

miragetetra wrote:
So updating here,

I tried the approach of making a 1gb-2gb Virtual Memory file on the SSD (SSD is my primary drive) and Windows Experience Index rated my drive at 7.4. Then I took the approach expanding that file to it's full size ( 24gb - 48gb) and same thing.

Then I put the swap file on the external HDD and my index rose to 7.5. So at least according to windows, it prefers it's virtual memory on different drives if possible. My guess? It's probably because there is a greater speed up in being able to simultaneously read and write (Asynchronously) versus one at a time

Yup! You guessed correctly. I wonder what that does to the theory that Windows doesn't use the swap file if you have a lot of RAM.

[BrodyBoy]

JRd1st wrote:
Yup! You guessed correctly. I wonder what that does to the theory that Windows doesn't use the swap file if you have a lot of RAM.

Nothing..... 😉

[BrodyBoy]

miragetetra wrote:
HSo I'm getting a G73SX soonish and I happen to have a spare SSD that might do well in the new machine. I'm thinking of using the SSD as my main drive and the 500gb HDD as my storage (as well as home for older games) and it dawned on me, which disk should I use for my virtual memory?

The machine will have 16gbs of memory and the SSD is a 160gb drive.

If I put the virtual memory on the SSD, then a little more then a third of the drive will be virtual memory.

If I put it on the HDD I'm not sure how that will affect performance (maybe it will negate having an SSD?).

So overall not sure which direction I should go here.

I'm going to diverge from the opinions offered here.....

First, with 16Gb RAM, you only need a page file "in name only." That is, you will virtually NEVER use it, but some programs expect to find one when they are configured. Not that they'll ever necessarily use it, but part of their set-up is knowing where it is, and they can get pissy if they don't find one. Therefore, you just need a nominal page file of 1-2Gb, not the 3x that used to be recommended when 1-2Gb RAM was the norm.

Second, there is no harm at all in putting it on your SSD. SSDs use wear leveling algorithms that prevent particular cells from getting used significantly more or less than others. And as mentioned, it's not going to get used anyway.

So go ahead and put it on your SSD. On the rare occasions that it might actually get used, why wouldn't you put it on the next fastest location in your system (after RAM)? SSDs aren't nearly so fragile as some might suggest....they're meant to be used, not babied.

FWIW, I have 1-2Gb page files set up on the SSDs in both my laptops (i.e., 1Gb min, 2Gb max). They work just fine.