Looking to get an SSD what should I get

[CovfefeMug]

Do SSD read and write speeds matter for gaming and video editing?

[Grabhanem]

Not really - by the time you're at SSD-level performance, your loading times will be almost entirely CPU bound.

 

I'd look for something that has a DRAM cache, though, as that does make a major difference to system responsiveness especially when the drive is near full.

[SupaKomputa]

Gaming no, rendering video yes.

 

[CovfefeMug]

1 minute ago, SupaKomputa said:

Gaming no, rendering video yes.

 

any recommended ssd?

[SupaKomputa]

Samsung 970 evo, WD 750

[CovfefeMug]

Just now, SupaKomputa said:

Samsung 970 evo, WD 750

How much storage should i have

[Chris Pratt]

Gaming not really, video editing yes. For gaming alone, you can't really tells difference between SATA speeds (600Mbps) and NVMe (1500-3500MBps, depending on the drive, PCIe 3.0). However, for anything that requires a lot of read, like scrubbing through 4K raw, you'll feel difference, and may even want a PCIe 4.0 drive, if your system supports it. NVMe is really not any more expensive than SATA at this point, so just get NVMe.

 

Aside from that, you want a TLC drive, not QLC, and either one with DRAM or which makes use of Host Memory Buffer (HMB), an NVMe feature that allows the drive to use system RAM in place of a dedicated DRAM cache. All of that is pretty much a given though on quality drives. It's only an issue when you starting scraping the bottom of the clearance bin, trying to find cheap drives. There's no free lunch. Those drives are cheaper for a reason.

[SupaKomputa]

11 minutes ago, CovfefeMug said:

How much storage should i have

I always recommend 500gb ssd with 4TB HDD.

Windows & programs on the ssd, games on the HDD.

You can still install 1 active game on the ssd, and move it later when you're bored.

With this method you don't need big ssd, even 256gb will do, lowering the cost.

[CovfefeMug]

3 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

I always recommend 500gb ssd with 4TB HDD.

Windows & programs on the ssd, games on the HDD.

You can still install 1 active game on the ssd, and move it later when you're bored.

With this method you don't need big ssd, even 256gb will do, lowering the cost.

recommended HDD?

[Chris Pratt]

5 minutes ago, CovfefeMug said:

How much storage should i have

How much do you need? For solid state, 1TB is becoming the go to size. Prices have dropped enough where it's easily attainable and it strikes a nice balance between cost and capacity in most scenarios.

 

You should also be aware that capacity has an effect on solid state, unlike HDD. HDD is slow, in general, but the last byte is just as fast as the first. SSDs store bits layers. The most common configuration is TLC, or triple layer cell, which means up to three bits are stored on top of each other. The rated speed of a TLC drive is for basically 1/3 the capacity, writing one bit per cell. Each successive bit is harder to read and write, meaning the speed starts to drop off the more you fill the drive. If you're over 2/3 capacity, your speed effectively has dropped to 1/3 the rated speed. The DRAM cache helps to mitigate this as the drive will write to that first, which is much faster, and then it will move the data there to the actual drive in the background. However, if you saturate the cache, you're back to the lower speeds again, so it's not perfect.

 

Long and short, the bigger the drive, the less chance you'll fill it completely, and the better your speed will be. That said, if the drive is like 3500MBps, even the eventual 1150MBps is still pretty darn fast all things considered. It's just something to be aware of. A lot of people complain because their drives are suddenly much slower than they were when they first got them. This is why.

[SupaKomputa]

2 minutes ago, CovfefeMug said:

recommended HDD?

Toshiba X300

[CovfefeMug]

Just now, SupaKomputa said:

Toshiba X300

How much storage?

[SupaKomputa]

4TB is the sweetspot of price to capacity now. You can go larger if you have the budget.

 

3 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

the bigger the drive, the less chance you'll fill it completely

Still have 200gb on my ssd, with 1 active game.

[Chris Pratt]

5 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

4TB is the sweetspot of price to capacity now. You can go larger if you have the budget.

 

Still have 200gb on my ssd, with 1 active game.

Not everyone moves their games back and forth, wants to, or even realizes that that's a thing that would have merit. Frankly, I have actually been playing this game on my Series X, because I don't want to shell out for that $220 storage expansion card. I've got an external 5GB game drive and I move games back and forth between the fast storage. It sucks. It gets the job done, but it sucks.

 

Moral of the story, buy the biggest SSD capacity you can afford or stomach the cost of. 250-500GB is fine for a boot drive, but it's not where you want to be storing games and other data, and while you can play the shuffle game, just don't if you can avoid it.

 

[CovfefeMug]

any ssd recommended for video editing?

[SupaKomputa]

1 minute ago, CovfefeMug said:

any ssd recommended for video editing?

Have i said it already. There's no such thing as SSD A better at gaming, SSD B better at editing.

35 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Samsung 970 evo, WD 750

 

[Chris Pratt]

What @SupaKomputasaid: Samsung 970 or WD SN750. Both are quality PCIe 3.0 drives that push bits as fast as PCIe 3.0 will let them. If you have support for PCIe 4.0, and really want the most responsive video editing experience possible, get the PCIe 4.0 versions of the same: 980 Pro or SN850. Those will be a lot more expensive, though.

 

[CovfefeMug]

How much cache and rpm would be good for a HDD?

[CovfefeMug]

20 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Toshiba X300

How much cache and rpm would be good for a HDD?

[SupaKomputa]

128mb cache and 5900rpm is enough.

Why i chose toshiba? because their hdd has less failure rate than other brand.

[Chris Pratt]

7 minutes ago, CovfefeMug said:

How much cache and rpm would be good for a HDD

Consumer HDD doesn't really go above 7200RPM, but 5400RPM drives often are more reliable and less prone to failure. You really don't want to be using HDD for anything but cold storage anyways, so ironically slower is kind of better here. Though, if all you have on it is games that can be downloaded from Steam again if the drive fails, and you're just really trying to go for capacity above all else, go for 7200RPM.

 

Hybrid drives that claim to have a cache or SSD are a marketing gimmick. They're not actually faster except in very limited and exacting scenarios that almost never line up with real world usage.