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When I upgrade from XP, not in a hurry mind you. I will go the SSD route, and leave the HDD behind. More expensive yes, but worth it.

gfinms, on 27 January 2012 - 10:30 AM, said:

Probaby not worth it... the performance benefits are easily counterbalanced by reliability issues. At first, SSDs work very well, but they slow down notoriously as they fill up and the drive is forced to erase old sectors marked for "erase", having to copy the data a couple of times in order to complete the operation. Not only does this cause a slowdown, but it requires 2 extra write cycles for every erase operation, and you already know that SSDs are limited in their write cycles. I don't have a link handy, but you can easily find this info. Although better SSD's exist, they are extraordinarily expensive, and the mainstream drives available to us (roughly $1/1GB today) fall short of that quality, and I would only ever use one as a cache, or as a system drive - where most of the operations would be reading, and very little writing. Also, when it dies, only the system would be lost but private files would stay intact on your HDD.

Almost 8 months and SSD prices have dropped and more reliable (hopefully) SSDs on the market.
What would be the advantages/disadvantages of:
using a 64 GB (Plextor M5S) for Smart Response Technology
vs
using a 64 GB (Plextor M5S) as a boot drive
vs
using a 120 GB (Samsung 830 or OCZ Vertex 4) as a boot drive
vs
using an Intel 320 series 160 GB as boot drive?

Pricing is (ATM) about $55 for the Plextor M5S, $90 for the Samsung 830 or OCZ Vertex 4, $75 for used Intel 320.

Thanks in advance. My feeling is SSD pricing is leaving SRT behind, as in reality, a 256 GB around $160+ is looking better and better.
Does it make sense to save for a larger SSD or does SRT offer a worthwhile benefit ?

I am in the middle of getting parts for my first build. So far I have:
I7 3770k cpu
asus v-delux mob
G.skill Ripjaw 16 GB 1866 mem
CM storm trooper full tower case.
I am thinking of using 4tb wd black HDD along with a 128 GB Samsung 840 pro series ssd for caching and a 128 GB Samsung 840 pro series for my windows 7 os.
One thing I really am unsure about is weather or not I need 2 ssd's.
I am going for a very versatile build. Any suggestions o comments will be appreciated.

The 2nd SSD would be overkill. The OS could be loaded onto the 4TB drive and in the first few loads the SRT will notice that it is using the boot files and will cache these for faster loads. A separate SSD for just the OS would just be spending more money than necessary.