From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 374DE1381F3 for ; Sat, 20 Jul 2013 02:57:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 96E30E0A6C; Sat, 20 Jul 2013 02:57:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtpout.karoo.kcom.com (smtpout.karoo.kcom.com [212.50.160.34]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 77220E0A5B for ; Sat, 20 Jul 2013 02:57:46 +0000 (UTC) X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.89,706,1367967600"; d="scan'208";a="26310660" Received: from unknown (HELO compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org) ([213.152.39.89]) by smtpout.karoo.kcom.com with ESMTP; 20 Jul 2013 03:57:27 +0100 Received: from [192.168.11.2] (unknown [192.168.11.2]) by compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F158EAC68D for ; Sat, 20 Jul 2013 03:56:46 +0100 (BST) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1283) Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] SSD partitioning and migration From: Stroller In-Reply-To: <20130719195804.3396f60f@hactar.digimed.co.uk> Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 03:56:46 +0100 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: <5BE64A6E-94C4-461B-9A89-6CAB243297F1@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> References: <20130718182232.5c1301ce@acme7.acmenet> <20130719114234.332ff09e@acme7.acmenet> <51E96CBB.4080300@gmail.com> <201307191945.46099.michaelkintzios@gmail.com> <20130719195804.3396f60f@hactar.digimed.co.uk> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1283) X-Archives-Salt: f1fd0d44-c97e-4597-ac20-269097080a74 X-Archives-Hash: d9d123e84e73dc7c2e1fbbc4bbdbf115 On 19 July 2013, at 19:58, Neil Bothwick wrote: > On Fri, 19 Jul 2013 19:45:36 +0100, Mick wrote: >=20 >> I have a MUCH smaller /home than Dale and on a new box I was thinking >> of having it on a HDD, along with all things portage related.=20 >> =85 /home is written all the >> time with mail and various application profile folders, browser cache >> and what have you. >=20 > Which is why you want it on the fastest device possible. The whole = point > of a faster drive is to speed up IO intensive operations. If you then > consign specifically those operations to the old HDD, why bother? I don't know how any Linux apps compare, but I've found on the Mac in = the past that defragmentation of a single browser file - I think it was = the history file, and I think it was around 100meg in size - made a = significant difference to Safari's behaviour.=20 The difference can be so much on a heavily fragmented system that the = browser could become unusable, yet snappy and responsive after copying = the file and replacing it. This really illustrated to me how unaware I was of SSD / hard-disk = behaviour. I aways thought I knew when ~ was being accessed - that's = when I'm opening a photo or saving a letter, right? Well, I was wrong - = files in home are being read and written not only every time the browser = opens a webpage, but also lots of other times we're unaware of the = activity. IMO this is why it's flawed to try and pick and mix which directories to = put on an SSD. I mean, if you've ripped your DVD collection and you have = terrabytes of movies then it's easy to exclude those, but nevertheless = it's easy to accumulate so much crap that it'll no longer fit on an = affordable SSD. IMO it should be left to the o/s to decide what should be on a spinning = platter and what on an SSD. I don't know if these are yet good enough, = but they're what I'd look at first: = http://www.h-online.com/open/features/What-s-new-in-Linux-3-9-1845705.html= http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=3Dnews_item&px=3DMTM2ODM Stroller.