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....

Yeah, but when you need to run three separate OS's like me... what a cost!  Love to have an SSD though, maybe someday.

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.

Jafo is right. Once you go SSD for your OS, you'll NEVER go back.

They are so fast and responsive.

OCZ Agility 128Gb here.

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?

Everyone is saying "for your OS" and I understand that at the price you wouldn't need it for storage. My questions are, where do you install your apps? On another drive? If so, how does this affect the speed? Is an OS on an SSD really that much faster?

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.

I have an Intel X-25M 80GB SSD I've been using since December and I love it. All my apps and important games are on it and the speed difference is huge when compared with a mechanical drive.

But it means a reinstall.  Bummer

No Corncob, it doesn't.

Image the old drive, align the SSD and blow the image on it. 

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

My OS and installed apps.

Imaging apps don't image 'free space', just data. Use the "Add new Disk" option.

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. 

I'm seeing 256Gig SSD's coming out soon for just over $400.

That's what's keeping me out of flash--the capacity's just going up so quickly, the prices come down so quickly.  

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.