Should i get an SSD?

User Support
1

im convinced of getting another drive and installing qubes onto it on the i meet all the system recommendations but it says its recommended to use an SSD how much of a difference in performance would it make if i were to instead use a hard drive?

2

I use nvme and won’t ever use hdd, ssd is okay but price is not much difference 120 or 240 gb nvme / ssd would fine if you dont use qubes as storage :rofl:

for benchmark take a look at unman post [qubes-users] Using Qubes on old hardware (mail-archive.com)

1 Like
3

Using an SSD for Qubes is “strongly recommended”. The benchmarks that @51lieal linked to showcase that very well. The price difference is also negligible between SSDs and HDDs, with about a $5 difference between a 240GB SSD and a 500GB HDD from an initial glance.

1 Like
4

I’d definitely recommend a modern NVMe SSD, personally I’d say the Samsung 980 PRO is a good choice but if you don’t need as much you could consider the 970 EVO PLUS or other models with similar specs. I wouldn’t really recommend anything slower than that but if you’re fine with longer load times it should be okay to go with an older ssd. HDDs generally are less performant and reliable than SSDs so I’d always at least choose a SSD (except if you’re using a RAID setup on your home server with a SSD as a buffer, but that’s also just due to price).

5

use an nvme (or at least, sata ssd), i tried hdd and it boot in… 10 minute

i never heard that price before, if that true i definitely will buy a nvme ssd (i saw in supermarket, all pre-built pc are hdd)

6

Yes.

I don’t have figures to show you, but i remember when i switched from HDD to a cheap SSD: boot-up and opening programs were noticeably faster. Overall performance and experience is snappier. In my case even a cheap 240GiB made a difference.

7

Are you thinking of using Qubes on a Tower? or Mini?

There are some problems with a USB Mouse, USB Keyboard with Qubes.

So, what hardware exactly are you thinking of using Qubes with?

8

Here are some figures from a few years back.
Get an SSD

9

what do the 16, 12 numbers represent under the SSD/HDD column?

10

That is not a SSD/HDD column - that’s the label for each table.
12/16 is the amount of RAM

If you can, Get an SSD
If you cant, don’t listen to the “boots in 10 minutes” people - Qubes is
workable with an HDD - it just requires patience for some jobs.

I never presume to speak for the Qubes team.
When I comment in the Forum or in the mailing lists I speak for myself.
2 Likes
11

yes, and after reading some “guide”, i think i would still use hdd for very long time

12

Fair enough - I still use some laptops with HDD. They boot and work
fine.
SSDs are faster in all respects, but HDD are workable - and remember,
patience is a virtue.
No one should put off starting with Qubes because they cant afford, ( or
dont want), an SSD.

1 Like