I have a 60gig OCZ Summit for my OS.....[it's about as small as you can get away with if you have 12gig of ram]....and I'll never go back to a spinning platter thing for an OS drive....

that's good to know, jafo. i knew you were happy with your ocz. i may get the 128 gb version. .... not sure yet.

tom, they're getting cheaper all the time. tigerdirect has the 64 gb nova on sale today for 152 bucks. they're usually 199.

How difficult are they to install and make them your OS drive?  

Is it a matter of simply installing it and installing windows on it and making it the first drive to boot?

I have had one now for more than a year and...

Well part of it is the fact that SSD's do not fragment. (no defragging necessary)

I have a 128Gb SSD.  My boot times are more than twice as fast.

I put my Windows7 Home Premium OS and my programs on the SSD.

All of my pics, photos, game saves, movies, and any other "saved" files on my 2Tb hard drive.

The programs seem to start up and respond instantaneously.

(ie. Photoshop starts up super fast... then getting the artwork off of the 2Tb hard drive takes a second or two, but then working with the artwork blazes)

It is as easy as any HD.

No, it does not have to be the first drive to boot, meaning you could have... let's say... your CDrom boot first if you wish.  What you do need to do is make the SSD with your OS of choice your "primary".

I wouldn't know but, when I decided to go SSD, I thought of the same question.  When I tried to find an answer... I figured instead of the least expensive small SSD just for an OS, why not speed up virtually everything.  I ended up spending a few more dollars, but whoa man... the speed is craaaazy. no regrets.

Now when ever I am on a computer without a SSD, it just doesn't even compare.  I'll never go back.

But it means a reinstall.  Bummer

OK, brains, what if my drive is bigger than the SSD that I can afford?

My OS and installed apps.

I was in a bit of a spot recently deciding whether or not to jump to a SSD drive or not, but I found a killer deal for 2 10,000 rpm 300 gig velociraptors at $100 a pop.  Figured I'd put that into raid 0 and give it a go.  No real complaints at this point as I think the speed and throughput are pretty close and I get additional strorage per $ (prob better in some stats, worse in others).  But, I still kinda wish I'd have tried out the SSD tech... not because its going to be that much better, but I tend to enjoy trying the latest and greatest.  Anyway, I think my setup is comparable.  Seems like it will be obsolete in the next 2-3 years though. 

Oh and as far as basic setup - I've always gone with a primary hard drive for os + installed apps, a secondary drive for storage (pics, docs, whatever), and a backup device to handle imaging.  I do the same with my current setup and would do the same with a SSD. 

OK, so I need at least a 120GB SSD. For my 7 install only. Not to mention the Vista install.  I am not certain what that would cost, gonna go check, but it's probably out of my range.

I've been cloning drives, hadn't ever used the imaging option. Thanks.

Where do I get my degree, so I can understand all that?    

That's cool JcRabbit.

Yeah, I love my SSD, but dude... 3 of 'em in raid 0?  Sounds like fun.  But that's more than I need.

I just timed Photoshop CS5 on my single SSD and it is under 5 seconds.

Dude, I have 15 GB of just programs in program files.