Budget SSD or stay with my HDD?

[LovelyJohnson]

So I have a 2TB (7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s) HDD that I use for everything and I wanted to know if I will notice any performance improvements while VR gaming if I throw in a cheap SDD specifically for my VR games. If so, which SSD is the best for under $100? This one seems to check all the boxes: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820326190

[LukeSavenije]

not by much, but 860's and mx500's can be had on that budget these days. it's about the best you can get in sata

[r2724r16]

3 minutes ago, LovelyJohnson said:

I wanted to know if I will notice any performance improvements while VR gaming if I throw in a cheap SDD specifically for my VR games.

The only thing that'll get better is load times, you won't get more FPS.

4 minutes ago, LovelyJohnson said:

If so, which SSD is the best for under $100?

MX500 1TB is $118 on Newegg US: 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820156174&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=11877032&PID=1800524&SID=

[LovelyJohnson]

Those were the exact answers I was looking for fellas, thanks! I was hoping it would improve fps or lower latency or lag but since it's not, I don't need it.
Oh, something else I forgot to ask was I hear there are specific SDDs that assist the HDD and greatly improving read and write times. Is it specific SDDs or is it a program or a way you set up the SSD?

[myselfolli]

Just now, LovelyJohnson said:

Those were the exact answers I was looking for fellas, thanks! I was hoping it would improve fps or lower latency or lag but since it's not, I don't need it.
Oh, something else I forgot to ask was I hear there are specific SDDs that assist the HDD and greatly improving read and write times. Is it specific SDDs or is it a program or a way you set up the SSD?

Look into Intel Optane Memory. You need to have a system that supports it though

[LovelyJohnson]

Just now, myselfolli said:

Look into Intel Optane Memory. You need to have a system that supports it though

Badass, this is pretty much what I'm looking for. Unfortunately it says it's for 7th gen and up CPUs and I'm still rocking my i5-2500 and some budget motherboard that isn't "Optane ready".

Thanks again fellas, I wasn't expecting to get an answer so quickly, ya'll are damn quick!

[NunoLava1998]

16 minutes ago, LovelyJohnson said:

Badass, this is pretty much what I'm looking for. Unfortunately it says it's for 7th gen and up CPUs and I'm still rocking my i5-2500 and some budget motherboard that isn't "Optane ready".

Thanks again fellas, I wasn't expecting to get an answer so quickly, ya'll are damn quick!

I'd get an SSD however. It makes boot times quicker, programs become snappier, everything becomes fast in general

[Turretgaming]

for 100USD you can get a pretty good ssd now in 2018 so id say get an 850 evo or 850 pro in 120 or 256 or maybe even 512 if you can find it and pair it with the 2tb drive you already have. so put windows and some more important games on the ssd and then put every thing else on the hdd

[Lady Fitzgerald]

5 minutes ago, Turretgaming said:

for 100USD you can get a pretty good ssd now in 2018 so id say get an 850 evo or 850 pro in 120 or 256 or maybe even 512 if you can find it and pair it with the 2tb drive you already have. so put windows and some more important games on the ssd and then put every thing else on the hdd

Samsung has replaced the older 850s with the 860 line, which has a longer write life and actually costs less than the 850s and runs cooler. I wouldn't recommend anything smaller than 250-256GB; it's amazing how fast a 120-128GB SSD will fiill up.

 

While an SSD will not increase the speed your computer runs, it will dramatically speed up boot times for the OS and programs, including any games you put on it. It's not cost effective to use SSDs for data; an HDD is better suited for that . You won't really notice much difference in read and write speeds for data. unless you frequently move huge files around.

 

If you do decide to get one, keep in mind that an SSD needs 20-25% free space (unused formatted space) for proper operation and maximum write life. This is in addition to the factory overprovisioning. Despite what anyone here may tell you, do not change the factory overprovisioning (the factory will have it preset to the proper amount for that SSD). Overprovisioning is not the same as free space and both are needed for proper operation and life of the SSD.

 

Warning, once you use an SSD as a boot drive, you will never go back to HDDs for booting!

[AngryBeaver]

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Rwr6Ft
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Rwr6Ft/by_merchant/

Storage: *Samsung - 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($72.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU650 960 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Team - L5 LITE 3D 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($109.99 @ Newegg Business)
 

The 860 is probably the most reliable, followed by the Adata if you are ok with going over your budget by $10 for twice the storage, then the team one would come up last for the 110 price too.

[LovelyJohnson]

Soooooooooooooooooooo, I ended up taking your guy's advice and picked up a Samsung 860 EVO 250GB from Best Buy which was on sale for $50! I'm super excited to set it up! Turns out I have 2 SATA 3 ports on my motherboard so I decided to get one. I'm super excited but have a couple questions. I understand I need to use the Samsung Data Migration tool to clone my C drive to the SSD and luckily I have a 150gb partition on my HDD with just my OS and important programs which is EXACTLY what I want on the SSD so it works perfect! Only problem is even though I formatted it (GPT) and it shows in my file explorer, Samsung Magician says that there is "No Volume"... What could I be doing wrong? It won't even let me benchmark it because it says there is no volume.

[LovelyJohnson]

Alright so I was able to get it reading the volume and I ran a benchmark but I get:

Sequential:
Read: 2,467
Write: 2,749
Random:
Read: 65,673
Write: 27,343

Aren't those sequential times kinda slow?