how to install ubuntu on a 16gb ram 16gb msata and 1tb hdd pc

i now have it on a 1tb hdd i want to put the 16 gb msata with it

I think it is a good idea to install the OS on the 16GB MSATA and place the home partition on the 1TB HDD.

and the swub the
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Well, yes, I am in a similar position and I have 32GB of RAM on my desktop but I place a 64GB swap file on my spinning rust drive just in case I have a memory leak I don't spot in the first few GB of use.

I would put the home folder on the smaller drive if I were to do a separate home folder. The home folder stores videos, pictures, documents, etc. As well as some settings I'm pretty sure. You shouldnt need that much room for that unless you have quite the music/movie/document collection. And also put swap on a big drive but don't make the file too large. (I personally don't really give much care about the page file/swap, and I don't know how to change the size of it under Linux so don’t ask me.

(I prefer to do a one partition install, just for simplicity and to keep things clean.)

The home directory, for reasons you mention, will grow and grow. The root partition, as things are, could be anything from around 4GB to 40GB but it is more likely never to go above 20GB.
So I wonder why you advise as you do?

Good point, what I'm thinking is the fact that programs are usually installed on the root partition, so you could have more precious space for all those Linux free ware apps? It would just be simpler to use one partition for home and root and use the small one for swap since its is a separate physical drive.

...So yeah.

Thanks for that little post there.

It take a lot to get the root partition to exceed 16GB. If you do need more space then you could put things like /var on the spinny rust.
The root partition will be fine on the fast drive and the rest is up to you.