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I have read quite a bit about the placement of page files lately (researching my question) and have not found an answer specific to my question, so hopefully someone here can help.

New system being built:

  • Windows 7 pro 64bit 16GB RAM
  • AMD FX-8350 8 core processor
  • C drive: (OS only) Intel 330 120gb SSD. Currently has the page file on it.

Also... have a WD 2TB HDD which I will partition out for Applications, and data as separate partitions.

My question is about the pagefile being moved to the HDD to keep the SSD only for the OS. Since the SSD has limited writes to each cell the thought is to preserve the SSD by having the pagefile not on it.

I generally set my pagefile to a fixed size = RAM + a little more.

The plan would be to move the pagefile to either a separate primary partition on the HDD, or include it in say a data partition, again, on the HDD not the SSD.

With the current configuration mentioned above, would I be better off leaving the pagefile on the SSD and not worry about the impact of constant read/writes to it, or move it to the HDD?

What would be the performance hit moving it to the HDD? Is there a difference there (on the HDD) if it is in its own partition or shares with a partition with the data or less used partition?

One last consideration, is that AutoCAD is one program that will be used on this PC (not professionally) but in a learning environment.

Oliver Salzburg
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Garry
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6 Answers6

17

According to Microsofts MSDN blog, put it on the SSD to get the best performance.

Should the pagefile be placed on SSDs?

Yes. Most pagefile operations are small random reads or larger sequential writes, both of which are types of operations that SSDs handle well.

magicandre1981
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11

You have two options really:

  1. Put it on the SSD for better performance from your page file. This will DRAMATICALLY shorten the lifespan of you SSD if you are frequently writing/reading from your pagefile.
  2. Based on the amount of RAM you're running, you could potentially disable the pagefile in its entirety (or just hide it on the HDD).

I'm running Win 7 Ultimate with 12GB of RAM, frequently gaming, photoshop, etc and I never hit 12GB. But even if I do, I tossed a small page file on my HDD to handle the case. It increases stability.

Edit:
Seeing that you're planning to use AUTOCAD, you may want to think of investing in a bit more RAM but definitely keep a pagefile around. RAM is cheap and you'll get far better performance keeping all of that info in RAM rather than needing your pagefile.

Will
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2

I have been told that using an USB Memory Stick (USB 3.0 and of significant read/write performance) is the way to go. When the memory stick gets beat up or fails, just replace it. Saves the SSD. Disclaimer: I have not done this but will be going down this path real soon.

Frank
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1

Concerning the problem of the SSD lifespan.

Usually Windows (and other software like browsers during navigation) permanently writes something to the system drive.

In my case, Perfmon shows that about 0.7 GiB of data is written to the system disk per each hour in Windows 10. And the pagefile takes up only about 8% of that. Therefore, placing the pagefile on the system SSD in such a case should not dramatically change its lifespan.

ruvim
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1

TL/DR:

Accepted answer is somewhat good in 2023, so there are some things that need to be addressed. Specifically, putting page file on HDD vs SSD issue, decreasing SSD lifespan, as well as the actual need for it on a system with enough RAM. So, recommendations are: always put it on the fastest drive you have AND leave management to Windows. It will be fiiinee.

Full answer:

I use my PC for work, entertainment, some social media and central storage and backup for all my other devices. Which means Microsoft Stack (Office, Visual Studio, SQL Server, Power BI), Python, MySQL and some other stuff (among others, a/v editing software).

It's not uncommon for my total allocated memory to hit 120GB, and for various reasons, when it happened for the first time, Windows chose to put it all on HDD, giving me a lot of grief.

My Setup is long in tooth, but at the time I believed it should bear the burden well, as it is "maxed out" where it counts for this kind of work, and is definitely more powerful than laptop I work on the other 8 hours. It is being replaced with modern setup, though, now that I can afford it.

It's Dell Precision T3620 Workstation with:

  • i7-6700
  • 32 GB of RAM
  • 512GB NVMe
  • 3x 512 GB SSD
  • 1x 4TD HDD
  • GTX1060 6GB.

When I started experiencing stability and "not enough memory" issues a while back, I investigated and was shocked to see 96 GB page file on a spinner, of all things. Then I analyzed the details and pinpointed the biggest usage to Visual Studio and SQL Server.

Eventually I freed some space on NVMe and moved page file there, but it did not solve all issues.

Contrary to some opinions offered in various places on the Internet, it was not more stable on a spinner compared to NVMe, but was significantly slower. Additionally, apparently 120GB is the upper limit my W10 Pro can handle safely (even if it is - technically - only about 80% of max that my system is supposed to support), so I was forced to juggle services and I'm shutting down SQL Server whenever not in use.

There is something to be said for systems with a lot of RAM (and for me this is at least 64GB), but regardless, my upgrade will be 128GB RAM, just to be safe.

And with SSD (any interface) not being super-reliable, in my experience, there is no real downside. To put it simply: with prices being more reasonable, I am prepared to have my NVMe replaced even every year.

AcePL
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With 16 GB of RAM you probably never gonna need a pagefile so you can put it wherever you want or even turn it off (that is what I would recommend to you). But if it's gonna be used one day, then best performance you get if you set it on SSD and HDD (basically on each physical disc in your system).

Juraj
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