Mega Rig Advice

Lemme find where I typed it up recently for somebody else.

Edit: That was easy.

Yes, OS is a must on the SSD and pretty much the point. The HDD is literally the slowest piece in your computer, and it lags behind when accessing multiple small files all at once. An SSD not only trumps a HDD in raw throughput (generally in the 500MB/s sequential range) but in IOPS or in and out operations per second. An SSD doesn't have any moving parts, so seek times and access times are nonexistent. This being said, an SSD knows where each file is you want and access several tiny files simultaneously making loading small apps or doing day to day things on the OS incredibly fast compared to even a RAIDed set of Raptors. So the OS, browser, and other productivity apps you may use should go on here. Storage, large games, or large libraries like Steam should go on a HDD.
To explain why most games don't take advantage of an SSD is because they are made for an optical drive or 5400RPM HDD from a console. Typically peaking about 10MB/s with extremely **** IOPS. They have to take this into consideration when developing for loading screens and don't usually fix this when porting to a PC. BF4 and Skyrim on the other hand aren't the case as it can reduce BF4 time to map from a minute or two to 20 seconds. Being first on the map is always a plus. There are a couple other games but they evade me right now.

Basically, a 250GB is more than enough to have a decent amount of games but it's easy to make a separate Steam folder on your SSD for those games that actually take advantage of the speed.
 
I think i actually read that post while i was searching around before i joined this forum. I appreciate the advice so please don't take this as disregarding it. My question is though, if there is a technical reason why i a large SSD would be bad. If money were not an option, would there be another reason i would not want an SSD? I know i can manage using different drives, but i don't honestly want to. I don't download or store media on my computer, all i want to do is work and play games on it. That being said, if i was stupid enough to blow 500 bucks on a hard drive (many of us, perhaps yourself included, who have been building since the early days have spent that much before) is there a reason that it would be bad?
 
If you really want to, then I suggest getting an M.2 to make it worth your while, or an 850Pro which is going to be $$$. You're looking at GPU cost for a single drive when you could be spending half that to get the same thing. The technical reason being flash degrading as the 850pro has way better wear leveling than the rest. It's also brand new and extremely pricey compared to what's out now.

So 2 reasons right there. Insignificant increase in loading speeds on 90% of the material on the drive, and unless you fill the drive and use the files constantly you'll be using only a few cells instead of proper wear leveling on all cells on a smaller drive. On the other hand you can set overprovision really high so you won't notice any issues in 10 years at the minimum. Maybe 20. Your call. I mean, I want a 512GB M.2 SSD for my Valve folder and a 512GB M.2 for my Origin and Crucial 480s are in the 200 dollar range a piece. I still won't be making that drop for a long time so I simply have my Origin folder on a single 120GB SSD and most games on Steam don't take advantage of the speed.
 
I guess that's a lot to think about. I'm gonna sleep on it and see what I come up with. Thanks again for the help. Hopefully someday I'll be able to pay it forward.
 
Another good reason to have the games on a second drive, If you ever need a clean install of windows all you have to do with the steam games at least is let steam know where the folder is and you won't have to download and install them all over, Steam will just locate them and just hit play in Steam and good to go. I have 17 steam games installed and WOW I am glad I had them on a second drive, No need to download all that all over and install.

Dauntae
 
If you're using 200GB it's still 200GB. If you consistently use 200GB it's still 200GB out of 1TB. Some controllers are much worse than others at this, hence why I said if he went this route the absolute best option would be the Samsung 850pro. If the controller doesn't initialize TRIM properly it could keep going in a circle on a few cells rather than load the drive deleting behind it. Nobody really knows if the tech is working properly from simple use so we can only go by who has the best consistent performance and reliability in that area.
 
Another good reason to have the games on a second drive, If you ever need a clean install of windows all you have to do with the steam games at least is let steam know where the folder is and you won't have to download and install them all over, Steam will just locate them and just hit play in Steam and good to go. I have 17 steam games installed and WOW I am glad I had them on a second drive, No need to download all that all over and install.

Dauntae

That is a great point. After sleeping on it i had about decided that PP was right and i was once again just trying to waste money for no reason. Your point sealed the deal. I like to do fresh installs on a semi regular basis and having windows on its own smaller drive would probably make my life a lot easier. Or at least faster.
 
I was going to point that out, but after initial install and download you can always make an image of your drive so you never have to reinstall your programs again :lol:
The only downfall to this would be needing to download any games or updates you installed later. I have 400+GB in Steam alone, so even if I had a 100Mb connection I wouldn't want to redownload all that each time. It just makes more sense to store those collections on a separate drive until everybody is rocking Google Fiber. (I wish)
 
Better SSD manufactures (like Samsung...it's what we are discussing?) use an algorithm in the controller to make sure what you say does not happen...but you would know that if you read the link I posted.

You haven't shown any evidence that your opinion is factual. But if it is your opinion then you should also state that facts in order to back up your opinion
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom