SSD on Linux

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MurrayM

1927 posts

Uber Geek

#233673 27-Apr-2018 08:52

As per my other thread I'm looking at replacing my old Windows XP machine with an ex-lease PC from PB Tech and running Linux Mint on it.

Now I'm tossing up whether it's worthwhile to go with a normal hard drive or an SSD (or both?).

What's the general consensus when it comes to SSD's and Linux? Do you get a smallish one (100GB?) and install just the OS and other software on it and then put your home directory and other data on a normal hard drive? Or maybe go for a bigger SSD (500GB?) and put all of your stuff (photos, movies, documents, music, etc) on it? Where does the swap partition go?

I found an interesting article at https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd that advises all sorts of things (turning off access timestamps to minimise writes, running TRIM daily, limit swapping, etc). Are these steps advisable?

Anything else I should consider when deciding which SSD to get (are some brands known to be really good or bad, features I should be looking for, etc)?

amiga500

1488 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#2003301 27-Apr-2018 09:22

My suggestion just buy something like a 120 or 240 gb Sandisk or WD Green SSD. Just install linux with all the default options, maybe encrypt the drive if you want to. I figure that the Linux developers should have figured out what to do with TRIM years ago just like MS did, so I don't worry about it at all. Then buy a small 1 tb portable drive for extra space. The really valuable things could be left on the SSD and put onto the 1 tb drive.

cebo

59 posts

Master Geek

#2003329 27-Apr-2018 10:02

I've never treated an SSD any differently than an HDD, and never had any problems. Linux just takes care of the magic.

I would advise to put /home on a separate partition though as it makes reinstalling - or trying out something new - a lot easier. I use around 40GB for /, and currently only 8GB is used - so could probably easily cut this to 20 or less. Someone more knowledgeable might be able to advise whether a swap partition is still completely necessary, but I have one of 16GB - so about 40GB altogether.

Subtract that from your SSD and that's how much you have left for /home. So either carve up a SSD, or if you need a lot of space get a smaller SSD and put home on a larger HDD.

chevrolux

4564 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2003372 27-Apr-2018 10:27

Yea I've been running 2x 240GB SSD's in RAID 0 on my Proxmox (debian) home server for years without issue. No idea if it's advisable or not, but it really doesn't miss a beat.

frankv

3826 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2003403 27-Apr-2018 11:27

Get a PC with plenty (16GB?) of RAM, and the swap partition location becomes pretty much irrelevant. You can even use some RAM as a file system for temporary files.

I have a 240GB SSD which holds Linux and my /home directory and everything else, and a 1TB HDD for backups.

TheoM

211 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#2003465 27-Apr-2018 13:05

cebo:

I've never treated an SSD any differently than an HDD, and never had any problems. Linux just takes care of the magic.

I would advise to put /home on a separate partition though as it makes reinstalling - or trying out something new - a lot easier. I use around 40GB for /, and currently only 8GB is used - so could probably easily cut this to 20 or less. Someone more knowledgeable might be able to advise whether a swap partition is still completely necessary, but I have one of 16GB - so about 40GB altogether.

Subtract that from your SSD and that's how much you have left for /home. So either carve up a SSD, or if you need a lot of space get a smaller SSD and put home on a larger HDD.

Generally you'll want / to be at least 20GB. Linux in and of itself will only use about 15 at most. You'll also want /home to be separate in case you need to reinstall. As for your swap partition, 2x up to 2GB of RAM. 4GB for 4GB of RAM, 2GB for 8GB of RAM, and for 16+, 1GB

Personally I have a NFS server in my network that holds /home so I generally skip /home since I mount all that after the OS is ready.

Hi! I'm TheoM, but you know that already. I run Linux mirrors in NZ together with 2degrees. Like a mirror added? PM me!

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d3Xt3r

647 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#2003689 27-Apr-2018 17:55

> What's the general consensus when it comes to SSD's and Linux? Do you get a smallish one (100GB?) and install just the OS and other software on it and then put your home directory and other data on a normal hard drive? Or maybe go for a bigger SSD (500GB?) and put all of your stuff (photos, movies, documents, music, etc) on it? Where does the swap partition go?

If you can afford it and don't have tons of media (movies etc) then just get a large SSD (256 - 512GB). You can put swap on the SSD, you won't wear it out as long as you have sufficient RAM (>4 GB). In fact you don't even need swap if you've got tons of free RAM (> 16GB).

> I found an interesting article at https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd that advises all sorts of things (turning off access timestamps to minimise writes, running TRIM daily, limit swapping, etc). Are these steps advisable?

Most of that info is out-of-date - you no longer need to babysit modern SSDs on modern OSes - everything's taken care of automatically, and the drive will last for the lifetime of the PC - unless you're doing something really I/O intensive, like you compile large applications on a daily basis or run very large databases (even then it should last for at least 5 years).

> Anything else I should consider when deciding which SSD to get (are some brands known to be really good or bad, features I should be looking for, etc)?

Avoid Kingston and other smaller brands. Samsung, Crucial and Intel are the ones to get.

farcus

1130 posts

Uber Geek

#2003716 27-Apr-2018 19:41

been using my current SSD with openSUSE for about three years now without issue. 500GB (40GB root (btrfs) / 2GB swap / the rest for Home (xfs))

MurrayM

1927 posts

Uber Geek

#2004847 30-Apr-2018 09:07

Thanks for the advise guys, as usual it's very informative!

afe66

2420 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2004920 30-Apr-2018 10:37

I'm running Mint 18.3 off a USB stick as I haven't got the courage to face dual booting as my Acer laptop has w8.1 over two ssd raid.

Once I've changed things enough, I might see able mirroring my USB /home folder to w8.1.

Also run mint 18.3 as VM on w10 machine.