Help: M2/SSD/HDD: Good combo? + WD Black or Blue?

[Arkanus]

Hello! I have a few hard drive combos in mind for the new workstation/gaming PC I'm building, but I'm having a hard time trying to decide between these:

 

Option A:

-M2 (250 GB) for OS.

-SSD (500 GB) for "main games" and data.

-WD Blue HDD (1TB) for data and stuff.

 

Option B:

-SSD (500 GB) for OS, "main games" and important data that requires fast loading.

-WD Black HDD (2TB) for both games and data.

 

Which one sounds better? Also... should I get one WD Black 2TB, or two WD Blue 1 TB instead? I'm concerned about reliability and power consumption, besides noise since I'm building a silent PC.

My new PC will be used for daily work with art software like Photoshop or Manga Studio, ocassional video editing/rendering and gaming.

[Jurrunio]

WD black sshd or hdd?

[Arkanus]

Just now, Jurrunio said:

WD black sshd or hdd?

HDD

[Tabs]

Before I make a suggestion, I would like to ask how much data you're expecting to store outside of your solid state storage.

 

My gut is telling me to recommend the 500 sata ssd and 2tb drive. Easier to manage, and the difference in system responsiveness between sata and m.2 disks is negligible outside of benchmarks and hardcore enterprise/productivity workloads. 

 

For what it's worth, I have a 512GB PM951 m.2 nvme drive, and it's not noticeably more responsive than the 250GB sata disk I replaced. However, having 500GB of space + hard disks was soooo much easier than having to micromanage 250, and I can't imagine how much hassle would be involved managing 3 tiers of storage.

[JoostinOnline]

I assume by "M2", you mean an m.2 SSD. That still doesn't say anything about the speed. M.2 is just a form factor. M.2 slots can be used for lots of stuff, including WiFi cards.

 

What's the particular m.2 SSD you are planning to use? That will tell us if it uses SATA or PCIe. 

[Arkanus]

5 minutes ago, Tabs said:

Before I make a suggestion, I would like to ask how much data you're expecting to store outside of your solid state storage.

 

My gut is telling me to recommend the 500 sata ssd and 2tb drive. Easier to manage, and the difference in system responsiveness between sata and m.2 disks is negligible outside of benchmarks and hardcore enterprise/productivity workloads. 

 

For what it's worth, I have a 512GB PM951 m.2 nvme drive, and it's not noticeably more responsive than the 250GB sata disk I replaced. However, having 500GB of space + hard disks was soooo much easier than having to micromanage 250, and I can't imagine how much hassle would be involved managing 3 tiers of storage.

I'm planning to store between 1 and 1.5 TB of data outside my SSD. Photoshop and Adobe Flash work data, games, videos, art packs... I fill up my hard drives very quickly.

 

12 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

I assume by "M2", you mean an m.2 SSD. That still doesn't say anything about the speed. M.2 is just a form factor. M.2 slots can be used for lots of stuff, including WiFi cards.

 

What's the particular m.2 SSD you are planning to use? That will tell us if it uses SATA or PCIe. 

This one: Samsung 960 EVO Series (250GB PCIe NMVe)

[JoostinOnline]

15 hours ago, Arkanus said:

I'm planning to store between 1 and 1.5 TB of data outside my SSD. Photoshop and Adobe Flash work data, games, videos, art packs... I fill up my hard drives very quickly.

 

This one: Samsung 960 EVO Series (250GB PCIe NMVe)

What motherboard do you have?  There are different keys of m.2 slots, and it may not be compatible.  I'm not necessarily recommending it, but it's best to know if it's even an option.

[Arkanus]

3 hours ago, JoostinOnline said:

What motherboard do you have?  There are different keys of m.2 slots, and it may not be compatible.  I'm not necessarily recommending it, but it's best to know if it's even an option.

ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero. I have seen people using the 960 EVO with that motherboard, although they have been dealing with a few -minor- booting issues.

[JoostinOnline]

4 hours ago, Arkanus said:

ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero. I have seen people using the 960 EVO with that motherboard, although they have been dealing with a few -minor- booting issues.

Yeah, that board supports PCIe m.2 drives.