Upgrading storage - is it even necessary and how do I proceed?

[KyrieEleison]

Hi everyone!

Built my rig a few months ago with that awesome 2h guide on the LTT YT Channel! If the team ever comes across this post, I thank you kindly for the assistance.

 

Just have some concerns now.

 

I've (apparently) made a mistake by installing a 2tb M2 SATA into my Aorus B550I Pro AX motherboard's front slot which has a heatsink on it. Reason being, every time I try to download a game, my disk usage shoots up to 100% and I can't do anything else on my computer as it's rather unresponsive/frozen. Upon doing some research online, apparently the only way to get around this problem is to have a 2nd drive for my game library. Is this true? Or is there another way?
 

If so, I'd like to get a better, faster drive (NVME PCIe Gen 4) in this front slot and put the "old" SATA drive in the slot at the back of the motherboard. How should I go about doing so? Should I install windows in this new drive? Can I reuse the heatsink's paste for this new drive? Or is it a better idea to just get a "slower" NVME Gen 3 or SATA drive in the back slot and call it a day?

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[leclod]

22 minutes ago, KyrieEleison said:

I've (apparently) made a mistake by installing a 2tb M2 SATA into my Aorus B550I Pro AX motherboard's front slot which has a heatsink on it. Reason being, every time I try to download a game, my disk usage shoots up to 100% and I can't do anything else on my computer as it's rather unresponsive/frozen. Upon doing some research online, apparently the only way to get around this problem is to have a 2nd drive for my game library. Is this true? Or is there another way?

 

If so, I'd like to get a better, faster drive (NVME PCIe Gen 4) in this front slot and put the "old" SATA drive in the slot at the back of the motherboard. How should I go about doing so? Should I install windows in this new drive? Can I reuse the heatsink's paste for this new drive? Or is it a better idea to just get a "slower" NVME Gen 3 or SATA drive in the back slot and call it a day?

I'd say your freeze problem has nothing to do with ssd placement. I've never had my system freeze and I'm currently downloading Cyberpunk on an M.2 drive.

I'd propose to reinstall Windows but probably somebody will know a better solution.

 

And for the new ssd, both solutions are good. I wouldn't reuse thermalpaste, you probably don't even need any.

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by leclod

[C2dan88]

23 minutes ago, KyrieEleison said:

Reason being, every time I try to download a game, my disk usage shoots up to 100% and I can't do anything else on my computer as it's rather unresponsive/frozen

Disk usage should not be 100% for downloading/installing games on any drive be it spinning metal or solid state.

What ssd have you got? In device manager is it recognising all hardware (no yellow explanation marks).

[19_blackie_73]

What temps does HWinfo or Crystal Disk Info report? But any ssd should be plenty fast to run windows and install games without locking up

[KyrieEleison]

5 hours ago, C2dan88 said:

Disk usage should not be 100% for downloading/installing games on any drive be it spinning metal or solid state.

What ssd have you got? In device manager is it recognising all hardware (no yellow explanation marks).

It's a local brand called Midasforce, it's their 2TB SSD. It uses the SATA interface with a 2280 form factor. It does recognize all hardware without any of the yellow exclamation marks. Thanks for the info! Good to know that it shouldn't be at 100%.

[KyrieEleison]

4 hours ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

What temps does HWinfo or Crystal Disk Info report? But any ssd should be plenty fast to run windows and install games without locking up

Temps are usually around 40C. Thanks for the info! Seems to be a consensus that the disk usage shouldn't be at 100%.

[Whatisthis]

Can you run crystaldiskmark or passmark on it?