Hard Drive Help (PC)

Hardware and technical stuff
1

I want to speed up my system and, from what I can gather, the best place to start is to purchase an SSD and move my operating system and main programs to that. But I’m not sure what size to buy. I currently have two 2 tb HDD drives – one houses games (and seems to run out of space a lot). So, I’m wondering what the best set up is – should I buy a 250 gb SSD and continue to use the HDDs for games? Or Should I get a 500 GB so that there is space to install games there that seem to be particular system hogs on it. (I’m playing The Division which prompted this whole thing). Or is some other thing best? A 1 tb SSD is not feasible at the moment but is that optimal?

All that to say, what set up do you all prefer for storage?

(I should note, while I built my system, I’m still pretty clueless with the technical side of things – please forgive me if I ask stupid questions

2

256GB gives you a little free space after the OS - enough to install 4 or 5 modern games. So I bet you could install the Division on that drive if you don’t play much else. But ultimately that won’t be enough space unless you’re willing to install a game when you are playing it and delete it afterwards or unless you only ever expect to play 4 or 5 games.

So your two best options as I see it are to go with a 500 GB single drive system or upgrade the C drive to 256GB and keep a 1TB “games” drive with the thought that someday you could upgrade that to a SSD.

3

You can be pretty comfortable with 500GB. 256 is workable, but tight.

I keep the currently played games on my 500GB SSD and the OS and Apps as well. With Steam it’s pretty easy to move games around from drive to drive or you can just move them around with explorer and manually create links with something like Link Shell Extension.

An SSD is the single largest speed upgrade you can make these days, you can instantly tell when you touch a machine without one.

4

Agreed. The price gap is not so big between 250 and 500 to justify going cheap with this upgrade.

For example, $75 versus $108
https://smile.amazon.com/Samsung-250GB-Internal-MZ-76E250B-AM/dp/B07864WMK8/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1534526813&sr=8-6&keywords=250gb+ssd

https://smile.amazon.com/Samsung-250GB-Internal-MZ-76E250B-AM/dp/B07864WMK8/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1534526813&sr=8-6&keywords=250gb+ssd

5

I wouldn’t go smaller than 500GB for a gaming PC, and of course bigger would be better.

What’s your budget for the SSD?

6

I use a 500GB ssd for my OS / Programs / Pictures, a 2TB ssd for my games.

I also use a 8TB HDD WD MyBook External for backups and misc storage.

:)

I’ve had great luck with the Crucial MX series. Wirecutter recommends them also.

7

Thanks for the replies. I had set my mind on the Samsung 860 Evo which I can get (here in Canada) for $180 for the 500 gb. But I see that I can get the 1 tb Crucial MX for $260. Which it seems kind of silly not to do if the quality is the same. Reviews seem to say there is not a whole lot of difference between different brands, but can I ask what you guys think?

If I go that road, does it make sense to buy a 250 gb for OS and a 1 tb for games and other crap? Then I don’t have to faff about moving games around. Or for that matter, would it make sense to have that set up and keep one of the HDDs for photos and video files?

8

The Crucial MX are 5-10x slower than latest gen Samsung SSDs.

I would say you can’t tell a difference but… you can. It’s just not as significant a difference as HDD.

I’d get the fastest SSD you can for your boot and use the MX for your second if that’s the route you want to go.

Also there’s the whole SATA vs m.2 thing.

I think you’re likely to tell a greater difference with photos than with games using an old HDD vs a new SSD tbh.

9

Do you mean the NVME PCI-E drives? Which are faster still, yes? In that case the Samsung 970 Evo 500gb is $229. Is that a better option?

Gah, I always do this - I start with an $80 option and then ask questions!

Edited to say, I probably need to check compatibility with my Motherboard for that option? I think I replaced it 2 or 3 years ago.

10

Yes, do double-check support. m.2 has been around awhile, but it wasn’t universal even a few years ago. There are technically a couple of different strains of it there (all named really confusing series of five digit numbers), but as far as I can tell, all boards seem to support all of those.

The m.2/NVME drives are definitely faster, but even a solid SATA-3 card is going to be a monumental improvement in speed over your current HDD.

This feels like a great place to get a solid midrange option and neither break the bank nor totally penny pinch.

11

I’m assuming we’re talking about SATA drives. A quote from The Wirecutter article lordkosc linked above sums up my experience:

12

Yeah the biggest difference will be the change from HDD to SSD, there is where you notice the speed / performance boost. @Indyls

13

I would buy one of the Samsung drives. I have an old one (830 I believe) still going strong after 6.5 years. At that time crucial had a reputation for issues. That may have changed, but as far as I know, Samsung is the lead dog for performance and reliability and I don’t think you can go wrong there.

14

At least 500GB, they’re so cheap right now. The prices of SSDs have done nothing but fall for months. Crucial, WD, Samsung. Samsung is the lead but no matter what you pick, you’re going to see an improvement.

I now you said 1TB is not feasible, but if it’s because they retail at 300, yeah they’re not going for that. You can get them for 200… not a tiny sum, but I just want you to know.

15

I’ve just replaced my HDD with SSD and have done some research on this, so here is my 2 cent.

First thing to consider is what kind of form factor you are looking for. SATA 2.5" SSD is the most common type, you can stick in a desktop and oldish laptop with zero problem. New systems now come with the M.2 form factor, which is just a stick, like ram. It is especially popular for ultrabook since you need a lot less space. M.2 form factor comes in two speed. First is SATA, which is slower, or through PCIe, which is faster. Through PCIe you can get an even faster speed with NVMe. So check which form factor and interface your mobo can support. Price wise M.2 SSD and 2.5" SSD cost the same, but you have to pay a premium for NVMe.

For a boot only SSD, you can get away with as little as 250 GB. But having a hybrid SSD+HDD config is for the age where SSD is unaffordable, so you use HDD for storage and SSD for boot. Now with SSD reasonably affordable you may consider just one big SSD with 1TB or 2TB, especially if you are coming from having 2 2TB HDD. Price of a 2TB SSD however is quite steep.

The compromise I find useful is to buy a 1TB for boot and games. If you run out of space (a big if) you just buy an el-cheapo 1TB or 2TB SSD in future for storage (and in the future the price may come down even more). The boot SSD you definitely want a quality SSD because reinstalling windows is PITA. With cloud storage there is just no reason to download lots of games anyway. Now remember new game is now usually ~60GB, so 1 TB easily fills up, going forward. Another compromise is to keep one of your old 2TB HDD for storage, and copy a few games you play at the moment into the boot 500GB SSD for faster speed.

As to which brand to choose, Samsung Evo 860 is by all consenus the most reliable and fastest for desktop and laptop use. Evo 970 is even faster, but uses the newer NVMe interface, and it isn’t cheap. Crucial MX500 is the cheapest, but by all consenus it is good enough for most intents and purposes, even for a gaming rig. 2TB Crucial MX500 SSD still isn’t cheap, especially if you compare it to a 2TB HDD, which is dirt cheap.

As to migration, moving from a smaller drive to a bigger drive is easier than from big to small. From small to big, you can just clone the drive first (Samsung and Crucial come with cloning software, not sure about other brands), then use windows disk manager to expand the space. From big to small you have to first uninstall stuff to fit the smaller drive, then clone. Moving between drive of the same size is the most painless, you just clone and go.

16

Part of the discussion, at least internally for me, is how much storage space you really need. We are in an era of high speed unlimited internet, and for better or worse I trust Steam to be there, so have few qualms about deleting games.

I had a large collection of pirated stuff from earlier in my life, which I purged a few years ago.

Pictures and videos, large collection from the mid to late 2000’s, the vast majority of which are poor pictures nearly identical to each other. Nowadays I ruthlessly delete in near real-time. In fact I’m on vacation now and have already sorted about 80 pics and vids from today into about 10 keepers, and have deleted the rest permanently.

Spotify, Netflix, my taxes and financials in the cloud, other files on Dropbox… Long story short a 1TB SSD and 1 TB HD is lots.

17

Did you say you’re in Canada? There’s this Micron 1100 2TB SSD which is slightly slower than the Crucial MX500, but is much cheaper (CAD 359) than any other 2TB SSD, and a little cheaper than buying 2 1TB SSD:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=179_1229_1088&item_id=120235

Tempted?

18

Thanks for the link @KoaFloppy - Canada Computers is where I got the other prices and is just around the corner from me. Ill take a look, but I’m leaning towards a 250 Samsung ssd for OS and the 1 tb Crucial SSD for everything else. Its only money right.
Thanks everyone for the replies - this was really helpful.

19

I agree essentially. I had a 600 GB itunes movie library that was just sitting in my drive doing nothing 99% of the time. With unlimited internet it is better off stored in the cloud. As to Steam, if it goes out of business tomorrow I doubt I can download all the games I own onto my drive anyway (the backlog is yuge). Cloud + unlimited internet really is a gamechanger for me when I look into my local storage options.

But I thought you are really brave to store your data like taxes on the cloud. It is not about storage but the hack potential. If it is on a thumb stick or local drive it goes everywhere I go, if I lost it it is my own fault. On the cloud there are just too many variables out of my control.

20

So many threads that this might have been answered elsewhere, but since this thread is about HDs specifically I figured I’d ask here.

I have a pre-built I bought last year but am thinking of adding another SSD to it. It has one already that I have my Windows running off of (and I think one or two GOG games). But its only a 120Gig so everything else is on a second disc based HD. And that is only 1T.

So since my OS is already on a separate SDD, would replacing my HDD with an SSD be as simple as swapping it out and reinstalling my games/files/etc? And what is the SSHD (hybrid) thingy?