The current thread on speeding up your PC made reminded me of a question I had.

I'm just a hobbyist re music and computers, although I have built a PC or two in the past (some years ago).
Currently I have a dual core HP machine that I can dual boot with Vista for regular stuff and Win 7 for my music.
I'm tempted to build a new one for music only but one thing concerns me:

I see ssd drives coming down in price but the sizes seem more limited. Every time I reinstall or install new (vst instrument) programs, they seem to go all over the place, with some programs (or a part of the program) defaulting to the c Program Files folder, so I have stuff all over the place. IK stuff seems a good example.

If I use a drive for the OS and then another for programs, how can I make sure a smallish ssd drive doesn't fill up with stuff I don't want there?
I know many programs give me options, and perhaps I could be tidier but even trying, it seems stuff just gets to places I didn't put it.

Or should I buy a Mac? Is it easier on the mac? I know there are tons of opinions on this but I suppose my mac question is limited to program install, if that makes sense?
Any advice on how you do it is gratefully received.
Thanks.

I just got a new machine with a 256BG SSD drive and a 1000GB standard drive. I have all my programs on the SSD and plugins but all data and samples etc. on the normal drive. I have used about half the SSD but have all my stuff on it now including Komplete, Omnisphere etc. and it works like a dream. Most of the installers allow you to specify a data drive

+ 1 here.

I built a new system around an i5 configuration early on this year, with SSD for programes and HDD for samples and library.

I've also ghosted a drive before, but was never very happy with the shoehorn, a new build means either a retail copy of your OS or and OEM version, any way, in my experience it's far better to clean install re licence and if and when you run into licence exceptions, contact the company and tell em what your doing, all the profesional company's will understand this happens in any 5 year or so period and are more than happy to refresh your licences.

SSD's have come down fantastically in the past couple of months, and sizes have rocketed I think to 1TB now fairly cheaply, you could at the very least go for the configuration we've done.

Man theirs so much I could say about a quieter, cooler, faster and altogether nicer machine I have now, I would bore you to tears..

I just checked the prices on e-buyer and I must admit, there don't seem to be any mega deals, however this OCZ, I paid basically the same price for a 64gb version only 4 months or so ago.
http://www.ebuyer.com/268244-ocz-120gb-agility-3-ssd-agt3-25 sat3-120g

I'm also thinking of building a new PC. To start with, options for processor are:
- i7-3820, socket 2011
- i7-3770K, socket 1155
as these are in the same price range (i7-3930K is too much ).
Which one would you advise, and why? Or another one?

Something to consider: if you're routinely using instruments with considerably large multisamples (big 3rd party Kontakt instruments and Omnisphere, Trilian, etc...) it makes more sense to use an SSD for that library content.

In such a scenario, the amount of time you spend loading the actual applications and plugin binaries is dramatically less than the amount that goes into operating that sample content. Every time you load a huge patch and have to wait, it would happen almost instantly.

If going this way, pay attention to the random read specs when choosing the drive. Sequential operation speeds are usually listed as the most important speed parameter, but when dealing with something like loading a huge Kontakt patch with hundreds or even thousands of samples, good random read performance pays off.

More info here: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/676499-ssd-so und-libraries-products-strategies.html

Thanks for all the advice. I'm still up in the air with which way to go. When my PC starts acting up (I recently downloaded and tried to install winamp pro - huge problems) I get so mad I'm ready to go out and buy a mac, and then I look at prices of components, Windows 8 (hoping it's stable) and compare prices against a mac and then I'm back in the PC stable. It will be a while before I cough up either way, and perhaps ssd's will decrease in price even more soon.
An imac looks tempting but I already have three monitors (not that I need three).
Cheers all.