My neighbor bought a new pc and gave me the old one. It has Windows 10 installed. The pc I am using currently boots Tumbleweed, Windows 10 and Windows 7. ( I kept Win 7 because I was worried about an install of Win 10.)
My current pc came with a 500GB HD. I added a 120GB SSD when I installed Tumbleweed. I did not do the install properly. My intent was to have a fast drive for the OS only. But each OS resides on the HD. So, I got little benefit. I have BTRFS on / but the rest of the drives are split between XFS and NTFS. Each drive has 7 partitions.
The new(ish) pc has a 1TB hard drive with less than 200GB used. I will install Tumbleweed on it eventually. My question: is it worth it to add an SSD for Tumbleweed? I didn’t do it right the last time and I didn’t notice. If the answer is “yes,” what do you recommend for size/brand etc?
In either scenario (with or without SSD) what is the ideal partitioning setup?
Final question: each pc has 8GB of RAM. Will an upgrade (I guess 16GB is the next stop) make a performance difference? I don’t do anything too intensive in the way of graphics and very little gaming. I don’t do anything too demanding, but RAM is cheap nowadays and I don’t know how long that will last.
It is definitely worth using a SSD
I have three different brands in my home. My main Laptop uses WD nvme 250GB and a Seagate SATA SSD 2TB
My wife’s laptop uses a WD Green SATA SSD
And I have a SATA SSD that I use as external. SanDisk 500GB. That connects to a thunderbolt port. I use it for practice installs.
All modern SSD’s should perform well. Some with a better warranty - as in 5yrs rather than 3yrs
I still use ext4 for everything. My daily driver is Tumbleweed KDE. I don’t use snapshots at all.
My / is 60GB and /home 1TB
But really you need to decide what you need.
8GB RAM is probably fine, though I have 16GB
My installations are always expert using my existing setup rather than the current proposal that the installer presents to you
So, if I put only the OS on the SSD, 250 GB looks like plenty. I was wondering about snapshots. I don’t use them either and hoped it wasn’t that important.
I said OS only, but should the SSD have things like the browser, LibreOffice and other key applications on it? I have only the barest understanding of the file system, so I’m guessing that you can’t have the OS on a different drive from the apps I mentioned. Or, at least, you can’t separate some applications from others… What do you suggest?
I use SSDs only for an OS. And these days I follow the latest TW suggestions re. partitioning, i.e. to have a single btrfs partition with /home included. On my previous laptop I had 2 SSDs, no separate /home but a “data” partition on the other with symlinks for Music, Video etc. in my homedir to folders on /data/
But it looks like you did not pick the right disk to create the install on.
Don’t split unless there is a good reason for doing so. When buying a new drive go with a single SATA 3 or NVMe SSD. As your data will grow have some extra space. Have a large HDD for backup built into the case of the desktop. Don’t mount it during boot and put it into standby. In the long term users tend to damage their external drives.
By default openSUSE uses btrfs for very good reasons. A single btrfs partition can hold virtually any number of filesystems (snapshots). At a first glance btrfs seems to be complex. However btrfs is only complex for those who believe that btrfs should work the way they imagine and ignore the documentation. Minimal partitioning:
I typically put /efi/boot and / in the SSD and /home in the HDD. Similarly from Windows, C: on SSD and “Users” and everything non-system installed on the HDD.
As previously mentioned, I would not use BTRFS for / in your case because in my 55GB / partition, .snapshots eat up all space (https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/547704-Cleanuing-up-leftover-snapshots). I would go for ext4 since erasing snapshots kill the benefits of BTRF anyways.
If I were in your situation, I would get a ~250GB boot SSD and shove all systems (root, or C drive) alike in there.
Hi
I use btrfs without snapshots enabled for / (including $HOME) data off on another drive, backup drive on another controller…
Depends on what you are really doing with this system, general desktop use, just use the SSD and it’s speed, use the HDD for backup and power down (if supported) when not doing a backup…
I previously looked at the openSuse documentation for install. Tumbleweed links to the Leap install. I assume there are no differences. Here is what one slide says:
Initial layout proposed after adjusting the Guided Setup settings:
-do not enable snapshots for /
-do not propose swap
Changes to partitioning:
-Create GPT on /dev/vda
-Create partition /dev/vda1 (8.00 MiB) as BIOS Boot Partition
-Create partition /dev/vda2 (11.99 GiB) for / with btrfs
-10 subvolume actions
Some of these terms are unfamiliar to me. GPT? vda? Further down, there is this note:
**Note: Separate Home Partition**
The default proposal no longer suggests to create a separate partition for /home. The /home directory contains the user's data and personal configuration files. Placing it on a separate directory makes it easier to rebuild the system in the future, or allows to share it with different Linux installations on the same machine.
In case you want to change the proposal to create a separate partition for /home, choose *Guided Setup* and click *Next* until you reach the *Filesystem Options* screen. Check *Propose Separate Home Partition*. By default it will be formatted with *XFS*, but you can choose to use a different file system. Close the dialog by clicking *Next* again.
Some adjustments will have to be made for dual boot setups. One issue that comes to mind is that I will have a big, mostly empty HD with Windows on it. Since there is so much extra space, can’t I put btrfs snapshots there? I’m assuming I can/should use the HD for Documents and Downloads and Trash. Is that what the NOTE means when it says go to Filesystem Options screen?
250 GB is more than 10X the size of any of mine. I have many test installations. Most roots are less than 10 GB each, and I don’t ever use a separate /boot/ or /var/.
Thanks to all who contributed to this thread. I have a big-box type computer store a 30 minute drive from home. My plan is to get there in the next two weeks and I’ll return to this thread. I say this because I don’t want anyone to think I’m ignoring the help.
I opened the box and found, not too surprising, that there is no nvme connector. There is an open sata connector and open sata power connector. My plan is to get a 240GB sata ssd which is on sale. It got good reviews, but is not a famous brand name. Its 3 year warranty is about average. I’m guessing the proper cables will NOT come with the drive.
I’m not sure I can physically mount the ssd in the available slots. I saw a posting where a guy said he used double-sided tape to hold it in place! I took pictures of the inside of the computer. If anyone is interested, I can post them.
Typically a 2.5" SATA SSD does not fit in a regular 3.5" mount and will not come with SATA data cable. I had my SSD taped onto HDD holder on Alienware X51 a long time ago (For Alienware X51 only one SATA cable so I used a splitter to get the SSD and HDD at reduced speed). Also make sure in your power supply there is a spare power connector for your SSD. Typically this shouldn’t be an issue at all.
The wrong kind of tape can make it a chore to remove when removal is required. If this is a typical PC kept in one spot all the time, it really doesn’t need to be “mounted”. They are seriously light, and the plastic case well protects the innards from any kind of shock they could possibly encounter sitting in a case on your desk or floor. Just connect the cables and stick it somewhere where it won’t materially block fan flow. The cables will maintain its position well enough. Having a fan blowing on it won’t hurt anything. The plastic most are encased in inhibits the heat they generate from escaping, opposite a metal cased HDD screwed to the case drawing heat away. Some of the M.2 form factor NVMEs/SSDs come with heat spreaders to avoid overheating, like RAM commonly uses.
If you really want it mounted, get an adapter to fit it into a 3.5" drive space. They’re cheap enough.