Linux on SSD & 2nd drive?

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...perhaps sym-linked to Home Partition on SSD? Not sure...I start to question the pros & cons at that point.

And I'm a chronic backer-upper. 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 the above scenarios a practical way to do this? Or is there 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!

 

hi HJ,

here's a bit about linux and ssd's

http://www.ab9il.net/linux/solid-state-drives1.html

personally i'm still old school, using sata drives,

and i'm still on ext3,
i image my / partition for back-ups using partimage which doesn't support ext4, it also only copies used blocks and can compress the image file to around 1.5gb for a 12gb / partition,
the image is a clone and can be used for recovery or even installed to a new drive/partition in case of hdd failure

and as a fall back i have a hdd with a fully configured o/s on,
located in my pc but not hooked up,
2 mins to swap drives - bit overboard but you just never know

all my important vids, audio, photos, docs, various settings, etc are manually copied to an external,

its just how i find it easy and maybe a little food for thought

 

Thanks for the link Hawk! I got the SSD idea from the most recent issue of Linux Format, as I didn't realize Linux already accommodated that hardware. But since it does, I'm trying to determine whether to wait a little for the technology, hardware & software, to dovetail a little better as we all know it will, or just go for it now and tweak along the way. Seems like the biggest issue with SSD is the limited read/write lifespan, and eliminating the unnecessary writes to extend the life of the drive (enable TRIM). However, a standard sata drive has a limited life span also, but I don't know what that is, and I've never had a drive long enough for it to fail due to use/age (not bragging, just giving thanks!). With TRIM enabled on an SSD, I've seen estimates that "typical, everyday users" can expect 10,000 read/writes or 10 years from an SSD. How does this compare with a physical SATA drive?

This sounds like the same arguments to consider in overclocking a cpu. You can make a cpu faster, but you'll wear it out quicker. For the tasks I use a computer for, the cpu increase isn't noticeable enough to accept the trade off of a shorter life span. Trying to determine the risk/reward ratio for an SSD now... Hoping ONE of you fellas has been there, done that...

FWIW, I'm still old school for now also. I use LuckyBackup to regularly rsync my home directory and data files EVERY WEEK to an identical directory on an external Western Digital MyBook. I also have a netbook that regularly rsyncs wirelessly with SSH into its own identical directory on the same WD MyBook drive. I have duplicated this setup on a dedicated Linux server for movies/videos, etc..., the wife's computer & her laptop, as well as the kid's computer running Linux Mint 9, and a dedicated recording station with Windows XP (needed for compatibilty of Cubase recording software with my remote collaborators). And 2x a month, I sync the 5 external backup drives to a 6th "master backup" 2TB drive in case any of the backup drives fail...I have backed up my backups!!! I lost nearly ALL (about 5 years worth) of my data, proprietary spreadsheets, correspondence, software programs (floppy disks back then!), etc... that I lost in a flood in my basement office about 15 years ago. It CRIPPLED ME and I realized how much easier and less expensive it would be to backup my data than to rebuild it from nothing. I've been fanatical about that ever since! How's that for old school paranoia?

And I LOVE your idea of a spare drive in the box, imaged and ready to go, just in case. I've always thought a LiveCD would boot me up and let me do what I needed, but if my hard drive, optical drive, and usb ports are all simultaneously corrupted for whatever reason (I know...a stretch, right?!), a LiveCD won't help much. I LOVE the idea of hooking the ready-to-go spare into the motherboard, or pulling the drive from a completely fried system and putting into a new rig and you're back in business within.....what, 15 minutes?!!! Genius, I love it! Thanks for the tip!

But I've digressed badly, and hi-jacked my own thread! Back to the original theme...any of you fellas using an SSD yet? Anyone configured their system in the manner I'm looking to do? Thanks in advance for any input or guidance!