SSD on Gaming Machine w/ HDD

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ATITek

Limp Gawd
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Aug 6, 2004
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I am new to SSD, but know the primary benefits are speed.

Is it worth having a 256GB SSD drive running the OS and a 1TB HDD to store data?

If I am running just the OS on the SSD, but have the game installed on the HDD then do I gain any speed benefits?

I know I cannot survive for long with apps and games if I only have 256GB of total space.
 
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If you cannot afford a larger SSD you can consider moving the games you regularly play to the SSD. What I did is to use a 256 GB SSD for OS and applications and a 64 GB SRT cache SSD for a 3 TB HDD.
 
omniscence said:
If you cannot afford a larger SSD you can consider moving the games you regularly play to the SSD. What I did is to use a 256 GB SSD for OS and applications and a 64 GB SRT cache SSD for a 3 TB HDD.
Click to expand...


I can afford a 1TB HDD w/ 16GB ExpressCache. Would that be a better option?

I cannot spend more than what the 256GB SSD + the 1TB HDD cost together. Basically I won't benefit from the SSD unless I can install the games on it?
 
256GB should be PLENTY for Windows + Games. I have a 180GB for Windows + Games and I have over 80GB still free.

Place data and less used (or less demanding) games on the HDD. Games that benefit the most from an SSD are MMO's and games that take a while to load maps.
 
I have a 240GB SSD and a 1TB HDD. I have the OS, pagefile, all applications and whatever games I happen to be playing at the moment on the SSD. I don't usually have more than a dozen games installed at any one time so that is plenty of room. Media (such as music, movies, etc.) are stored on the HDD since media gets no benefit from SSD speeds (unless you are editing media, which I don't do). Backups of the SSD also go onto the 1TB drive; I don't have tons of media like some people do, so I can have multiple backups of the SSD on the HDD; one of the backups is the original fresh install of the OS and the apps I would always use and Windows set up the way I like it. The HDD gets backed up every now and then onto an external USB HDD that gets stored someplace else.
 
evilsofa said:
I have a 240GB SSD and a 1TB HDD. I have the OS, pagefile, all applications and whatever games I happen to be playing at the moment on the SSD. I don't usually have more than a dozen games installed at any one time so that is plenty of room. Media (such as music, movies, etc.) are stored on the HDD since media gets no benefit from SSD speeds (unless you are editing media, which I don't do). Backups of the SSD also go onto the 1TB drive; I don't have tons of media like some people do, so I can have multiple backups of the SSD on the HDD; one of the backups is the original fresh install of the OS and the apps I would always use and Windows set up the way I like it. The HDD gets backed up every now and then onto an external USB HDD that gets stored someplace else.
Click to expand...


Sounds like exactly what I am trying to accomplish. Are you running Windows 8?
 
ATITek said:
I am new to SSD, but know the primary benefits are speed.

Is it worth having a 256GB SSD drive running the OS and a 1TB HDD to store data?

If I am running just the OS on the SSD, but have the game installed on the HDD then do I gain any speed benefits?

I know I cannot survive for long with apps and games if I only have 256GB of total space.
Click to expand...

On mine i have my os on two SSDs in raid 0. I have all my games on a 1TB Black drive. There wasn't any change in load times I found. So I use SSD caching(Hyperduo) for my 1TB drive, for the games that are cached I noticed improved load times. I'm currently using 160GB as my cache drive.
 
ATITek said:
Sounds like exactly what I am trying to accomplish. Are you running Windows 8?
Click to expand...

No, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I formatted all drives with GPT instead of MBR. For backup, I use Terabyte Image For Windows, which does a good job of backing up and restoring SSD images with proper alignment and costs only $34 for 3 licenses.
 
I use a 256GB Samsung SSD for my OS, Programs, and Steam games that I am currently playing..Even with Office 2010 Professional installed on the SSD, I still have over 110GB free..Everything else is stored on my 1TB WD Black HD...

*Note, I do not have a pagefile since I have 16GB of fast ram..
 
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