Thinking about HDD to NVME upgrade

[Rui Neves]

Hello,

I am considering upgrading my storage setup by replacing my HDDs with an NVMe PCIe 3.0 drive ( Crucial P3 2TB M.2 or the Silicon Power 2TB UD90 ) , especially since the prices have become more affordable. Currently, I have three HDDs, one with 2TB, another with 500GB, and the last one with 1TB. However, I find that the ones with less space are rarely used. Additionally, I have a 500GB SATA SSD dedicated to the OS and software.

My plan is to remove the three HDDs and replace them with a single 2TB NVMe drive to store the OS , files and games. I'll keep the 500GB SATA SSD for backups and infrequently accessed data.

The main usage of my PC includes browsing the internet, watching streams and videos, and occasional gaming.

 

I'd appreciate your thoughts on this storage upgrade. Do you think it's a good idea, or would you suggest an alternative approach?

 

PS: I know the Silicon Power 2TB UD90 NVME is pcie 4.0 and I will use only pcie 3.0 anyway.

 

My Pc specs :

Case NOX Coolbay SX Blue

AOC monitor with 21" and freesync , 75hz

Gigabyte b450 gaming X

AMD Ryzen 5 3600

Kingston HyperX FURY DDR4 (with RGB) at 3200mhz with XMP profile 1 enabled

MSI RX 6600XT 8gb

Bitfenix formula gold 550w

3 hdd´s from WD ,(1 wd green (500gb) , 1wd black (2tb) ,1 wd blue (1tb))

1 sata ssd (Kioxia 480gb)

[Raiyu]

how much is the silicon power 2tb? I would have recommend crucial but I had the p3 1tb and it failed on me 3 months in if the silicon power is close to the same price id say give it a try

[Rui Neves]

3 minutes ago, Raiyu said:

how much is the silicon power 2tb? I would have recommend crucial but I had the p3 1tb and it failed on me 3 months in if the silicon power is close to the same price id say give it a try

Now the silicon power is cheaper than the crucial p3 , few days ago the prices were about the same , The silicone power is at 85€ and the crucial at 98€ on amazon.es . 

[Raiyu]

yeah from my experience with class of products from crucial id recommend going with silicon power

[Rui Neves]

6 minutes ago, Raiyu said:

yeah from my experience with class of products from crucial id recommend going with silicon power

Thank you! What do you think about my storage upgrade plan ? 

[PineyCreek]

30 minutes ago, Rui Neves said:

Thank you! What do you think about my storage upgrade plan ? 

Why not keep the 2TB drive for your backups, etc. rather than the 500GB?

[Rui Neves]

4 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

Why not keep the 2TB drive for your backups, etc. rather than the 500GB?

It could be an idea too, but it might be slower than using a SATA SSD to access those backups or less important files.

[PineyCreek]

13 minutes ago, Rui Neves said:

It could be an idea too, but it might be slower than using a SATA SSD to access those backups or less important files.

So are your older drives PATA/IDE? Slower RPM? I'm not otherwise understanding why you would keep a lower capacity drive for backups when you have something that's 2TB. Pretty sure the WD Blacks are 7200RPMs while the Greens are 5k ish, so unless you want it to be slower and minimally quieter...

EDIT: I can't read today.  Finally registered you mentioned the 500GB was SSD.  However, I still stand by keeping the 2TB mechanical drive around.  Maybe the others as well if you have space/power connectors.

[Rui Neves]

6 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

So are your older drives PATA/IDE? Slower RPM? I'm not otherwise understanding why you would keep a lower capacity drive for backups when you have something that's 2TB.

No, they are SATA, the 2TB HDD has 7200 RPM. You have a point, but in that case, I do not know what to do with the 500GB SSD afterward  

If I install the NVMe drive, I will lose 2 SATA slots, and currently, 5 slots are in use (3 HDDs plus the SSD and one DVD drive). At least 1 HDD has to go. But, as I said, most of the HDDs are only there, not doing anything

[PineyCreek]

1 minute ago, Rui Neves said:

No, they are SATA, the 2TB HDD has 7200 RPM. You have a point, but in that case, I do not know what to do with the 500GB SSD afterward  

If you have to pick between the drives and only choose one, then I'd take the 2TB for capacity, unless you plan to regularly load music/videos off that drive and can't stand to wait a few seconds for the usual power-savings to spin the drive back up once again.  If you can keep two, I'd keep the 2TB for capacity and the 500GB SSD for items you want to load a tiny bit faster but not important enough to put on your main fastest drive that you're using for OS, etc.

[Rui Neves]

2 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

If you have to pick between the drives and only choose one, then I'd take the 2TB for capacity, unless you plan to regularly load music/videos off that drive and can't stand to wait a few seconds for the usual power-savings to spin the drive back up once again.  If you can keep two, I'd keep the 2TB for capacity and the 500GB SSD for items you want to load a tiny bit faster but not important enough to put on your main fastest drive that you're using for OS, etc.

Well, I can keep almost all the SATA drives. I can just remove the 500GB HDD. The thing is, I find myself only using the SSD and the 2TB drive at the moment, the rest are only taking up space in the case.

[PineyCreek]

7 minutes ago, Rui Neves said:

Well, I can keep almost all the SATA drives. I can just remove the 500GB HDD. The thing is, I find myself only using the SSD and the 2TB drive at the moment, the rest are only taking up space in the case.

All a matter of personal preference then.  There's nothing stopping you from keeping old drives as backups (in storage, outside the computer) in case something fails as well, aside from extra clutter.

[Rui Neves]

6 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

All a matter of personal preference then.  There's nothing stopping you from keeping old drives as backups (in storage, outside the computer) in case something fails as well, aside from extra clutter.

I will consider your opinion... maybe I'll keep the 2TB HDD and the 500GB SATA SSD and store the other 2 HDDs along with other old components I have at home .

I could even get rid of the DVD drive, but I still like having it on the PC just in case