ssdheaderIf you are building a new computer, or looking for a great way to upgrade the performance of your current machine, many people recommend picking up a Solid State Drive instead of a spinning Hard Disk Drive. SSD's have several advantages of their spinning counterparts, including faster read and write times, and better reliability in environments where shocks and drops are common (like laptop computers).  However, they do require some management that you might not be familiar with.

Writen  by: Chad

Screenshots by: Chad

Introduction

With the recent wrath of natural disasters, HDD prices have skyrocketed, which make SSDs seemingly more affordable. But there are a couple of glaring downsides to SSDs. The one that affects the most people is the size to cost limitation. My iMac, which I will use as a reference in this article, came from the manufacturer with a 1TB Seagate drive. That is plenty of space for gaming, video editing, and general everyday computer use. However, I upgraded to an Intel 320 Series SSD with 160GB of storage space. That is a significant reduction in usable space for an increase in performance and decrease in boot times.

Now I have to do something that I hadn't had to do in a long time; manage my disk space. It is important to know what is taking up the most space, and be able to clean out old files quickly and effectively to maximize the usable space that the drive has available.

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #21004 19 Nov 2011 04:35
A little mac advice from our soon to be PC convert
L0rdG1gabyt3's Avatar
L0rdG1gabyt3 replied the topic: #21006 19 Nov 2011 06:56
Very nice writeup. Even though the hdd in my MacBook Pro is a 500GB, I think I'm going to check out some of these programs to make sure every thing is running nice.

Thanks!
chadkirchner's Avatar
chadkirchner replied the topic: #21017 20 Nov 2011 08:08
Not necessarily a convert Wes; a Mac will always be my day-to-day machine. But if I want to game, I need a PC. And if I want to write more for your audience I need a PC. That's all. :)
olorinpc's Avatar
olorinpc replied the topic: #21050 22 Nov 2011 09:47
heh, well it is good timing on this writeup as I am working on my first mod project which will also be a hackintosh build . Wouldn't call myself a Mac convert, but a new challenge is always fun :)

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