250GB SSD/NVMe and two Hard Disks? Good Idea?

[Katarn]

Originally, I was not going to buy one, but the retailer thinks it would not be a good idea to leave my system (R5 3600 with a 5700 XT) without an SSD/NVMe.

 

The models he offered are the following two:

Samsung 860 EVO 250GB

Samsung 970 NVMe 250 GB

 

My first question is if they are good enough, i.e. worth it?

 

My second question is should I get an SSD or an NVMe?

 

My third, and most important question is if that might not be overkill:

I already have a 7200RPM 1TB HDD and another 5400RPM 2TB storage HDD... so won't an SSD be too much storage? If I have my OS and most important programs installed on my SSD, and I use the 2TB HDD as storage, then the 1TB HDD is a more-or-less pointless. But if I don't use the 1TB storage, then I'll be stuck between an SSD and a slow (5400RPM) unit for saving my work -- not to mention, gaming is best not done on a 5400 RPM HDD.

So what am I supposed to do now?

 

In case it is relevant, I will be using the computer for work in Blender 3D, Unreal Engine 4, screen capture, video editing, and gaming.

 

Thanks

[TheEpicDuck]

I can't imagine using a computer without an ssd for the os at least. Both willl give you a great boost in speeds but go for the 970 if you can.

[Dedayog]

9 minutes ago, Katarn said:

Originally, I was not going to buy one, but the retailer thinks it would not be a good idea to leave my system (R5 3600 with a 5700 XT) without an SSD/NVMe.

 

The models he offered are the following two:

Samsung 860 EVO 250GB

Samsung 970 NVMe 250 GB

 

My first question is if they are good enough, i.e. worth it?

 

My second question is should I opt for an SSD or an NVMe?

 

My third, and most important question is that might not be overkill.

I will already have a 7200RPM 1TB HDD and another 5400RPM 2TB storage HDD... so won't an SSD be too much storage?

Not having an SSD in 2019... go ahead and remove the gas pedal from your car too

 

It's not about storage.  You should research what an SSD really is.  Hint:  An NVMe "is" an SSD.

 

 

 

[Derrk]

yeah definitely get an ssd. having your operating system on an ssd is life changing.

You probably won't notice much difference between an nvme ssd and a sata ssd in daily use, so save some money and get a sata ssd

[Katarn]

6 minutes ago, TheEpicDuck said:

I can't imagine using a computer without an ssd for the os at least. Both willl give you a great boost in speeds but go for the 970 if you can.

But isn't an SSD just a (more or less) pointless commodity? A bit of extra speed and... well, nothing else?

Also what makes the 970 the better choice? It costs around $25 more.

 

5 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

It's not about storage.  You should research what an SSD really is.

I know it is not just about the storage, I was rather talking about the hardware pieces being overkill: SSD, HDD, and another HDD.

 

PS: I edited my original post so my questions make a bit more sense.

(it was initially very hectic because I had unintentionally posted it in an unfinished state so I was rushing to make it at least coherent).

[Gegger]

5 minutes ago, Katarn said:

But isn't an SSD just a (more or less) pointless commodity? A bit of extra speed and... well, nothing else?

It will be a HUGE difference in speed, especially with the 970

[Bacon soup]

SSD is cocaine for your PC. Samsung EVO - your dealer's got the good stuff.

[Katarn]

2 hours ago, Derrk said:

yeah definitely get an ssd. having your operating system on an ssd is life changing.

So... you think it would be a good idea to have an SSD for my OS, one HDD for most of my programs and things that I am working on, and another HDD for storage?

Isn't that a bit cluttered? I mean, that is more or less what thins thread is about.

What else besides the OS would I install on a 250GB SSD? Programs? Games?

Does speed impede on the stability?

2 hours ago, Derrk said:

You probably won't notice much difference between an nvme ssd and a sata ssd in daily use, so save some money and get a sata ssd

I see the specs are very much in favor of the NVMe. What makes you say I would not notice the difference? Should a difference in price of ~$25 affect my decision?

 

2 hours ago, Gegger said:

It will be a HUGE difference in speed, especially with the 970

But will it impede stability in workload and gaming?

For example, is it likely to crash my games and/or mess with the output format of my renders?

[Gegger]

1 minute ago, Katarn said:

But will it impede stability in workload and gaming?

For example, is it likely to crash my games and/or mess with the output format of my renders?

not always, unless you are pulling things off your drives a lot

 

it shouldn't

[Derrk]

2 hours ago, Katarn said:

I see the specs are very much in favor of the NVMe. What makes you say I would not notice the difference? Should a difference in price of ~$25 affect my decision?

nvme is much faster in terms of read/write, but in day-to-day use you won't see that much of a performance gain. if you transfer large files all day, nvme will be significantly quicker. But for things like booting in OS are loading files, you won't notice much of a difference

[Chiyawa]

8 hours ago, Katarn said:

Originally, I was not going to buy one, but the retailer thinks it would not be a good idea to leave my system (R5 3600 with a 5700 XT) without an SSD/NVMe.

 

The models he offered are the following two:

Samsung 860 EVO 250GB

Samsung 970 NVMe 250 GB

 

My first question is if they are good enough, i.e. worth it?

 

My second question is should I get an SSD or an NVMe?

 

My third, and most important question is if that might not be overkill:

I already have a 7200RPM 1TB HDD and another 5400RPM 2TB storage HDD... so won't an SSD be too much storage? If I have my OS and most important programs installed on my SSD, and I use the 2TB HDD as storage, then the 1TB HDD is a more-or-less pointless. But if I don't use the 1TB storage, then I'll be stuck between an SSD and a slow (5400RPM) unit for saving my work -- not to mention, gaming is best not done on a 5400 RPM HDD.

So what am I supposed to do now?

 

In case it is relevant, I will be using the computer for work in Blender 3D, Unreal Engine 4, screen capture, video editing, and gaming.

 

Thanks

1. To reply to your first question:

 

The worth of an SSD is the speed, not the capacity. Rather than aiming for high capacity SSD (which can be way expensive), aim for a lower one if you are just installing Windows or other OS. 128GB is sufficient, but 240GB and above is ideal.

 

2. For second question:

 

SSD is the storage technology. NVMe or SATA is the transfer protocol. NVMe protocol is definitely fast (transfer speed could reach 7500MBps for PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe SSD), and SATA3 could only reach up to 600MBps. However, unless you are transferring a big file (file with more than 4GB from NVMe to NVMe), you won't notice a lot of difference on normal application, such as booting the OS, running many application.

 

P.S: The speed mention are theoretical speed, actual speed may be lower

 

3. As for the third question, that depends on your usage, but why not use all your drives? I don't think it's an overkill.

 

I have a system with these storage:

- 480GB SATA3 SSD (for OS)

- 750GB SATA3 2.5 inch 7200rpm HDD (Serve as buffer zone for my working projects, some videos)

- 2TB SATA3 3.5 inch 7200rpm HDD (Game files, finished projects, even more videos). Since 3.5 inch HDD are generally faster, I used it for game libraries.

- LTO5 Tape drive serve as archival backups.

 

For your case, I can think of this:

- SSD for your OS

- 1TB 7200rpm for your game library

- 2TB 5400rpm for other stuff such as video editing and backup.

(Note, many motherboards can handle up to 6 drives, so you can just use them)

 

Anyway, you can use external docking for 1 of your HDD to make it as external portable storage if you think you don't really need that much storage in your system.