4TB Samsung 2.5" 860 PRO, EVO, QVO as Dedicated Steam Drive

FutaGrlAlicePA · August 29, 2019

i have a massive Steam library, so massive i can only have a portion installed. i'm designing a small gaming lan pc and want to mount a single 4tb samsung 860 2.5" ssd. ui know PRO is the fastest and used in raid solutions and that QVO is lowest cost. question is with a single ssd which would make the best steam drive??? i really appreciate any advice on this.

Thanks in Advanced:

Alice

Origami Cactus · August 29, 2019

Well as a steam drive you are not writing too much data to it, just games, play them through, and then uninstall.

I personally went with Intel 660p for that use case, as it is cheaper than Samsung, NVME, so much faster for reads, and it is m.2. It is up to 2tb thought.

If you want 2.5inch form factor, the samsung pro doesn't make sense, as my 1tb EVO already fully saturates the sata bandwidth, can't be faster than that.

So either go with EVO, or with the QVO.

Problem with QLC ssds is the 80MB/s write speed for very large transfers (160 for the 4tb QVO), but it shouldn't be a issue in your use case. Read speed is still the same as EVO.

jones177 · August 29, 2019

I would go with the QVO.

I use a 2tb EVO($500) in one of my computers and that is the limit I am willing to pay for an SSD.

Right now 2tb SSDs cost less than the 1tb SSDs I bought in 2016 so to me they are the price/performance deal.

FutaGrlAlicePA · August 29, 2019

i apologize for not mentioning the rest my setup. i havent built since the P55 plus ftw in over a decade. im embarrassed to admit i did have a early 2011 i7 16" MacBook Pro til the logic board cracked and was no longer making replacement parts for Aug 2017 i belive. at the time i had a choice of a $550+ used logic board and a coupon i had for hp since my bday was aug 7th. in hindsight i wish i had bought the logic board over the $360 17" apu laptop. never expected much out of it, but been in the shop busted more than i had in hand for use. my extended warranty ends on august 2020 and thought planing a portable sleeper shoe box for lan parties would help me a lot.

drives im looking @ a single samsung 512gb 970 pro m.2 as my os/main programs drive. a second 1tb 970 pro m.2 as my scratch disk for my multi-media projects. then a 4tb 860 evo or qvo sounds best for my steam drive. and finally a 14tb - 16tb 7200 hdd for raw storage that ill unplug wen traveling for data safety. i plan to house it in a Silverstone Sugo SG13 Pink USA New Edition Re-release & the Silverstone G11310650-RT USB3.1 Upgrade Kit. seams silly its not included automatically but only $21 upgrade though. havent chosen a chipset or gpu yet because being built in 2 phases. the universal stuff like case power and storage are phase 1, then main components are phase 2.

i know sg13 pink is a odd choice but i like it because pink is one my fav colors, can hold impressive amount hardware (including 10.5" gpu), portable, and low cost with lots versatility. planing to name it the Pink Pulverizer. even considering custom pink/white cables by cablemod.

Thanks in Advanced:

Alice