Need a new ssd, how should i install OS, Games, Data (multiple drives, same drive, doesnt matter) etc

[j1mgg]

Hi,

 

I am looking to get a new drive to get rid of a mechanical disk, but also to move about how I store stuff.

 

Main games I play are COD/Warzone, Forza 5, minecraft.

I will probably start using this desktop for my learning with means using multiple vms (currently use XPS 13)

After that, just dabbling video editing, and other pie in the sky stuff.

 

Is it best to store OS on one drive, games on another, then vms and data on another?

 

Curently I have

 

Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 (just now main drive with OS, and some games)

KINGSTON (960GB) SA400 S37 960 G (Games and Games captures)

Hitachi 2TB Mechanical drive HDS5C3020ALA632 (files, random stuff, vm's, training videos)

 

Ryzen 9 5900x

MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk

 

Probably looking at a new 1tb drive, but from the videos I have seen (LTT and HW unboxed), it looks like gen 4 isnt worth it, possibly not even m2 over 2.5" ssd, but then dram less and such.

 

Thanks for your help,

 

Jim
 

 

[RAS_3885]

8 minutes ago, j1mgg said:

Hi,

 

I am looking to get a new drive to get rid of a mechanical disk, but also to move about how I store stuff.

 

Main games I play are COD/Warzone, Forza 5, minecraft.

I will probably start using this desktop for my learning with means using multiple vms (currently use XPS 13)

After that, just dabbling video editing, and other pie in the sky stuff.

 

Is it best to store OS on one drive, games on another, then vms and data on another?

 

Curently I have

 

Sabrent 1TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 (just now main drive with OS, and some games)

KINGSTON (960GB) SA400 S37 960 G (Games and Games captures)

Hitachi 2TB Mechanical drive HDS5C3020ALA632 (files, random stuff, vm's, training videos)

 

Ryzen 9 5900x

MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk

 

Probably looking at a new 1tb drive, but from the videos I have seen (LTT and HW unboxed), it looks like gen 4 isnt worth it, possibly not even m2 over 2.5" ssd, but then dram less and such.

 

Thanks for your help,

 

Jim
 

 

Ultimately it's up to you on how you want to manage the data. OS and most used applications on the SSD make the most sense from a speed perspective, but whether it's the same or different drives doesn't really matter. if you are capacity limited then moving large games to another drive makes sense. That's what I've done since my OS drive is only 250 GB.

 

Just make sure to have a backup of any important data on a separate drive(s) if needed. That's the only real reason I can see to split things up.

[Chris Pratt]

The primary reason people have traditionally used separate OS and game/data drives is that SSDs used to be much more expensive per GB than they are now. You'd get like a 128-256GB SSD for OS and programs, and then an HDD for data so you could have a couple of terabytes or something for that.

 

That's not the case any more. HDDs are still cheaper per GB and also support drive capacities in excessive of 8TB, but getting something like a 500GB SSD and 2TB HDD costs almost as much as a single 2TB SSD in some cases. In short, it's not as important from a cost perspective any more to divvy the data. It certainly doesn't make any sense if both drives are SSDs, anyways.

 

There is some benefit in having the OS separate, simply so you can wipe/reinstall without affecting your data. However, you can achieve that much with a partition, so you don't need a separate physical drive.