How best to utilise an SSD in a gaming PC?

BenEadir

Hi all,

I'm waiting on components for a gaming PC to be delivered from HWVS. Included in the build is a 128GB SSD, a 2TB HDD, 8GB RAM and an i5-4590 CPU

Here's the full build



As I haven't done anything like this before I'd appreciate some info on how best to use the SSD? I assume I should put the OS (win 8.1) on there along with Chrome, MS Office and uTorrent as these are the three most used programs apart from games. Is that the right approach? Is it possible to have some programs installed on the SSD and other programs installed on the HDD? Should I install any games on the SSD?

joe_chicken

This is up to you.

I have the same setup.

Install everything on the SSD like you said.

Origin and Steam both have options to change the install location of games.

With Steam you can have multiple install locations.

If you play a game regularly I'd stick it on the SSD, you can always move it later.

(Did this with Dragon Age last week, was taking about 3 minutes to load up, moved it to the ssd, takes about 20 seconds now, although my second hard drive is on it's last legs so not a good comparison)

BenEadir

joe_chicken wrote: »

This is up to you.

I have the same setup.

Install everything on the SSD like you said.

Thanks Joe.

GarIT

To get the best performance you should dump the HDD and just use the SSD. You'll get nearly as good performance if you just use the HDD for pictures, videos, music and documents.

You wont get any speed boost except for startup times if your programs aren't installed on the SSD.

BenEadir

GarIT wrote: »

To get the best performance you should dump the HDD and just use the SSD. You'll get nearly as good performance if you just use the HDD for pictures, videos, music and documents.

You wont get any speed boost except for startup times if your programs aren't installed on the SSD.

I'm only getting a 128GB SSD, would that be enough to install the OS, MS Office, uTorrent and a few games like Far Cry 4 etc onto?

My intention is to limit the 2TB HDD to storing documents, photo's, family videos etc.

frozenfrozen

BenEadir wrote: »

I'm only getting a 128GB SSD, would that be enough to install the OS, MS Office, uTorrent and a few games like Far Cry 4 etc onto?

My intention is to limit the 2TB HDD to storing documents, photo's, family videos etc.

Yep that's how it should work. 128gb is loads of space for that. I've got windows, adobe suite, resolve, all my other programs that wouldn't be as big in size, and a few steam games with some space to spare.

Just don't start saving movies and pictures to the ssd and you should be fine

cruizer101

To be fair 128 can fill up quick enough, especially for someone like me who plays a bit of this game a bit of that, then goes back to another I haven't played in a few months. Now that said if you are the kind who installs a game completes it and gets rid then install them all on the ssd. But take for example Shadow of Modor the install for that was 35GB and with DLC would be more. Games are getting bigger and bigger, though that is the extreme end of it, and I think developers getting lazier, a few recent releases like that and you wouldn't be too long filling it up mind.

Now that said if you are kind of done with a game you can move it the the hdd so you still have it but its not filling up your ssd, then if you want to play can move back, this applies more depending on your internet connection and allowance.

GarIT

It's manageable, personally I'd take a bigger SSD and no HDD. Even a 256gb.

Mnaylor10

I have a near identical build (r9 280 + core i5 w/ that SSD and an extra HDD) that I just assembled a couple weeks ago.

I make the SSD my boot drive and installed all my software and games on it. I then created a copy of my user folder set up on the HDD and went into my user folder on the SSD and hit preferences and move location of all music, movies etc. to the folder on the HDD. Works pretty well for me! As someone else said you may want to have games install on the HDD as well. It fills up surprisingly quickly. I've got 70GB of the SDD used with just the OS, apps and a couple games on it.

Serephucus

I have a 250+1TB setup.

I have pretty much everything on the SSD, with only games on the hard drive.

Non-game applications are pretty small, in fairness. A rough list:

OS (Win7) - 25GB
Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Skype - ~ 1GB
Adobe suite - 5GB
3DS Max/Maya - 6GB
Sketchup - 1GB
Virtualbox (+VMs) - 40GB
MS Office - 0.5GB
Unity, Monodevelop - 5GB
Visual Studio - 2GB
Documents, and music - 25GB
Star Citizen - 25GB
And about 10GB of browser downloaded junk

With all that I have around 40GB free. Then my 1TB drive has a secondary Steam install location (I think I have KSP on my SSD), taking up most of the space, as well as Origin for Titanfall, and a few emulators. (Mostly Gameboy stuff)

BenEadir

Thanks guys,

Sounds like I should have pushed the boat out a bit further and gotten the 256GB SSD. Ah well

.G.

I find it hard to notice a difference If i'm honest. I have my OS on the SSD and some programs. The OS starts very quickly which is great and games load up a bit quicker but in game I hardly notice.I install the odd game on SSD but mostly use the HDD for games and everything else. The games I have on it aren't that much quicker, not much that I've noticed anyway. I wouldn't worry about it.

BenEadir

superg wrote: »

I find it hard to notice a difference If i'm honest. I have my OS on the SSD and some programs. The OS starts very quickly which is great and games load up a bit quicker but in game I hardly notice.I install the odd game on SSD but mostly use the HDD for games and everything else. The games I have on it aren't that much quicker, not much that I've noticed anyway. I wouldn't worry about it.

So is it true to say that the SSD will start a program up more quickly but once a program has started it's performance will be more or less the same regardless of whether it's on the SSD or the HDD?

.G.

They are faster but I bet you won't notice it that much. When I first got my SSD my OS load times were cut by over a half which is great. After that I can't say I notice.I have a 120GB with OS and anything that has to be loaded to C drive on it plus a few games, about 27GB spare. I play most of my games from HDD. I just moved one which was very slow starting to SSD and it started about 15 seconds quicker and ran a little quicker but not earth shattering stuff. A bigger SSD is something I'll do eventually but its not high on my wanted list to be honest.

BenEadir

superg wrote: »

They are faster but I bet you won't notice it that much. When I first got my SSD my OS load times were cut by over a half which is great. After that I can't say I notice.I have a 120GB with OS and anything that has to be loaded to C drive on it plus a few games, about 27GB spare. I play most of my games from HDD. I just moved one which was very slow starting to SSD and it started about 15 seconds quicker and ran a little quicker but not earth shattering stuff. A bigger SSD is something I'll do eventually but its not high on my wanted list to be honest.

That's great to know SuperG. I think sticking the OS, Chrome, MS Office and uTorrent on the SSD will have the biggest impact. If my son is getting on there to play a game for a couple of hours on a Saturday evening I don't think taking an extra 20 seconds for the game to start up from the HDD will make much difference to his overall enjoyment of the machine.

.G.

Yeah, certainly doesn't impact my enjoyment!