Only SSD's or SSD + HDD's?

[RaVenBelgium]

I'm planning on buying my pc in a couple of months and I was thinking: what if you not only use 1 SSD for your OS, but like 3 SSD's: OS, games & data? Would that be worth the other 2 SSD's? What are the advantages and the disadvantages? Any help is appreciated!

[Scia]

SSD for OS is fine.

SSD for games is fine.

SSD for data is absolutely useless, unless you are doing videoediting and you have your raw files on it. For regular data storage get some Baracuda / Green drive.

[RaVenBelgium]

Ok, thanks a lot!

If you have SSD for games, what will change in performance? Do the maps load faster or...?

[Guest]

An SSD for an OS is a really smart idea. An OS dedicated to game storage, not so much. You need to remember that while yes, your games will physically load faster, you won't experience better frame rates in gaming.

 

This however can change and clashes with my next point - recording. If you're gaming and recording, having an SSD or fast writing storage assembly (RAID 0 or 10 of HDD's), you will notice less of a decrease in frame rate because the data easily be written as it's recorded whereas with a standard mechanical drive, you will notice a decrease in frame rate due to the slower write speeds.

 

Something else to remember is that on certain Intel motherboard chipsets, Intel SRT or Smart Response Technology is available  What it is in a nutshell is SSD caching whereby the files that are loaded most frequently are cached onto an SSD for faster loading times. This works great to speed up mechanical drives to form a sort of 'hybrid' setup. This is available on both the Z68 and Z77 chipsets however sadly not on the X79 chipset. It is my understanding that it will be available on the Z88 chipset for Haswell. 

[SirReallySam]

What WindSpeed said... haha :)

[SwedishHaxMafia]

If I had the insane amount of money required to go all SSD then I would do to the very high performance but realistically you want to have a main SSD for the OS and the most important programs and maybe a few games and then a fast HDD like a WD Black series for all of your games and media. Although games will load faster with an SSD you don't get any added performance and a fats HDD is more than good enough for pretty much all games anyway.

[Lukiose]

Use an SSD for your OS and a HDD for data storage!

If you have the money to spare you can grab a slightly larger SSD than average (256GB) and 2 HDDs in RAID 0 with your games on the SSD, for superior game recording as write speeds are a huge factor in smooth framerates.

[RaVenBelgium]

So basically, an SSD for OS is enough?

[Guest]

So basically, an SSD for OS is enough?

Yup :)

[Scia]

So basically, an SSD for OS is enough?

 

Yep.

I do have my games on a SSD, there actually is a difference in loading times, but not in FPS or anything. And the downside of really fast loading times in online games is that even if you loaded up your Dota 2 / LoL/ or whatever within a sec or two, you still have to wait for the others to load ^^

[RaVenBelgium]

Yep.

I do have my games on a SSD, there actually is a difference in loading times, but not in FPS or anything. And the downside of really fast loading times in online games is that even if you loaded up your Dota 2 / LoL/ or whatever within a sec or two, you still have to wait for the others to load ^^

True that  :D thanks!

[Scia]

What you can do is put two SSDs in Raid 0 which will benefit your speeds by quite a bit. But if it's necessary is another question ^^

[That Norwegian Guy]

So basically, an SSD for OS is enough?

 

There are some games that are just super heavy on loading times. Identify those if you have them, and put them on the SSD with the OS. For me that means Age of Conan, Skyrim + mods, Fallout 3/ Vegas and Natural Selection 2. Other games are fine on the hard drive.

[RaVenBelgium]

What you can do is put two SSDs in Raid 0 which will benefit your speeds by quite a bit. But if it's necessary is another question ^^

I don't it's worth it  :P

[RaVenBelgium]

There are some games that are just super heavy on loading times. Identify those if you have them, and put them on the SSD with the OS. For me that means Age of Conan, Skyrim + mods, Fallout 3/ Vegas and Natural Selection 2. Other games are fine on the hard drive.

Thanks, I think -if I have the money- I'll go with 2 SSD's: OS & games  ;)

[RenderYouHD]

What I did is buy a 64GB SSD that holds my OS and my very demanding programs like PS, AI, AE, and PR. It leaves 10gbs left. Then I have a 1TB HDD for storage and all my games and I don't see difference in loading time.