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Storage Options - Need Help!

M

Melee

Gawd
Joined
Jun 10, 2013
Messages
807
I'm trying to plan out a new build and can't decide which way to go for storage. I mostly just use MS Office programs for school/work, play games, and download movies/tv shows but would certainly appreciate plenty of room. I also dabble with Photoshop, After Effects, etc. from time to time if that matters.

The option I was thinking was to snag an SSD for a boot drive for Windows and install my games/Office programs on it as those are the main things that are important in being as fast as possible. For everything else, I would just use a large HDD. However, large SSDs appear to have fallen in price significantly since the last time I purchased one (Samsung 840 EVO 120GB) which is making it a feasible option to purchase one.

The issue is that I'm not sure how much room I will actually need so I may be able to use a single 500GB/1TB SSD or two 256/500GBs without an HDD and be absolutely fine without breaking the bank. I'm just not sure how much space I would use as I download a lot of TV Shows and Movies so it would be great to be able to keep them instead of deleting & replacing them as I do now on my small 120GB SSD. I also have quite a few games installed, mostly Blizzard games which require 25-30GB per game.

For SSDs in general, I'm completely lost as it's been a long while since I've been in the loop. I purchased my Samsung 840 EVO when they first released and I have no knowledge of how the market has changed since then. I see there are now M2, PCI-E, etc. SSDs so I'm not sure which way to go as the Samsungs were widely considered top notch the last time I purchased one. From what I've read, the Samsung 850 PRO/EVO and Crucial MX200 seem to be excellent.

Whichever way I go, is it better to run a single SSD/HDD or utilize RAID setups such as two 256GB SSDs + two 1TB HDDs or something of that nature? If I do run RAID, is it complicated or cumbersome to add additional drives in the future? Finally, with the quality of drives made today, is a backup necessary? I've never used one or had a drive fail on me but the only things that would be detrimental to lose would be work or school related files.

What would you guys recommend?

Thanks for the help!
 
The performance benefits from RAID are meaningless for your described usage.

Keep it simple, go SSD/HDD. Samsung 850 Pro 512GB for $210 or 850 EVO 1TB for $347, depending on your budget. A 2TB HDD of your choice for $80-$120 or a 4TB for $150-$180, skip the 3TB HDDs because they had issues. Back up the SSD to the HDD - yes, you need to do that! Store large media you don't care much if you lose on the HDD.
 
Avoid Raid. Gotcha. I wasn't sure if it was worthwhile or not so thanks for clearing that up.

In regards to backup, I guess I'm just not sure how to set it up or exactly how much room I will use. I already have a huge music collection and if I had the space, I'm sure I would do the same with movies and tv shows. Those things wouldn't receive any real benefit from an SSD, though, correct? If that is the case, my SSD would only have Windows, games, programs, and whatever else would benefit from the speed. Everything else could go on the hard drive(s) unless I just use a large SSD. However, it's easy to fill up tons of space with games and downloads so I'd think it's best to just snag one huge HDD or a few large ones for those things. What do you think?

As for SSDs in general, what size do you guys recommend for my uses? Would a 256/512 do the trick or would 1TB be worthwhile? I'm thinking if I'm only putting OS, Games, and Programs on it, 1TB would probably be far overkill. I'm not sure what else would be logical to use it for.

Which specific SSD would you recommend? I was reading earlier about the Intel 750 and upcoming Samsung 950 Pro. There are M2s and PCI-Es now which weren't around last time I purchased one but I don't know if they will make a difference for my usage or if the SATA drives will be just as good or better for far less money. If going with SATA, would you recommend the Samsung 850 Pro, 850 Evo, or Crucial MX200? Those seem to be the 3 most suggested in everything I've read. For HDD(s), I will go with a WD Caviar Black but if I get an extra one for a backup drive, does it matter if it's Black or Blue/Green and can I set it to backup specific things from both the SSD and main HDD? I know the latter two are advertised as designed for storage/backup drives but I'm assuming that's just because they're slower and cheaper.

Thanks again for the help!
 
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