SSDs completely replacing HDDs?

[Don_Francisco]

Hello LTT forum, here's the deal.

 

I'm thinking of ditching HDDs, planning on going for two 500GB SSDs in RAID 0, or possibly just one 1TB SSD.

 

It's a strictly gaming computer, I don't hoard media, movies or pictures (I only have like 6 gigs of music), & if I need to store anything long term/make backups I have an external 2TB drive.

 

An added benefit of an ssd only build would be getting rid of the HDD noise, and I could install the SSDs behind the mobo tray for a sleeker build thus removing the HDD cages and having better airflow to the main components.

 

Is this a sensible thing to do or am I setting myself up for failure?

 

If I do go for SSD only, what config should I do? two 500GB in RAID 0 or a single 1TB SSD?

[Silverer]

Its sensible, if you have the money to waste...

[Agazed]

If you have the money, yeah go for it.

 

If you are storing important documents go for a 1TB SSD, if you are just an enthusiast, go for Raid 0. 2 drives are more likely to fail. 

[DJ46]

I don't use a HDD in my rig. I wasn't happy with the noise it made even inside a HDD silencer.

Since I have a few external drives where I can keep my movies and I only have one big game, a 256GB SSD is enough for me.

Because I don't want normal files wearing down the flash, I also use a 16GB USB drive (for word files, pictures and some music).

 

This is just the way I do it because I want a quiet rig.

[typographie]

It's just an issue of cost per gigabyte, as far as I'm concerned. If you're comfortable with the price of this configuration, have at it.

[Don_Francisco]

 2 drives are more likely to fail. 

 

I get the logistics behind relying on two drives rather than one, but people say this all time to the point that it has made me wonder if raid 0 actually increases the chance of failure in a drive.

[Agazed]

I get the logistics behind relying on two drives rather than one, but people say this all time to the point that it has made me wonder if raid 0 actually increases the chance of failure in a drive.

 

Running them in raid 0 doesnt make the drives last shorter. The chance of one drive failing could be as an example, 1%. 1+1=2, so the chance of your storage failing becomes 2%.

[daniellearmouth]

There is realistically no point to doing this at this time.

 

Having downloaded some games on a HDD and an SSD, it only makes a slight difference for some games in terms of load times.

It's also unnecessarily expensive by comparison.

 

Just get a boot SSD and put a few games on it that can take advantage of faster load times properly, and get a 1TB or 2TB WD Black or something.

[Deltek]

Ditch the HDD(s) and go SSD(s) only

 

Noise, performance, weight and as you said air flow = win

 

price = loss  (double rainbow loss if NVME)

 

As for them wearing out, well you should read the latest MTBF figures and then see if this is even worth mentioning...  Hell Samsung even offer 10 year warranties on SSD's (you will replace everything else long before that)

 

But, if you're concerned, which IMHO you shouldn't be, then incorporate a ram disk too ...especially if on DDR4

[Don_Francisco]

There is realistically no point to doing this at this time.

 

Having downloaded some games on a HDD and an SSD, it only makes a slight difference for some games in terms of load times.

It's also unnecessarily expensive by comparison.

 

Just get a boot SSD and put a few games on it that can take advantage of faster load times properly, and get a 1TB or 2TB WD Black or something.

 

Realistically for me there is.

 

As I said I'm not a hoarder, I don't have a lot of media so I don't need a bazillion TBs of storage, and while it's true that games don't beneft a lot from the SSD, there are other factors why I want to replace;

 

-Airflow: Since SSDs can be mounted virtually anywhere I can remove all the HDD cages thus having a clear airfow path to the main components and removes a lot of clutter.

 

-Noise: Right now, the ONLY component I can hear is my HDD, not the cpu cooler, not the graphics card, just the spinning noise of the HDD.

 

Is it more expensive then HDDs? Sure, but as it stands, the pros kinda outweigh the cons.

 

Anybody here have any experience with 1TB SSDs drives?

[daniellearmouth]

Realistically for me there is.

 

As I said I'm not a hoarder, I don't have a lot of media so I don't need a bazillion TBs of storage, and while it's true that games don't beneft a lot from the SSD, there are other factors why I want to replace;

 

-Airflow: Since SSDs can be mounted virtually anywhere I can remove all the HDD cages thus having a clear airfow path to the main components and removes a lot of clutter.

 

-Noise: Right now, the ONLY component I can hear is my HDD, not the cpu cooler, not the graphics card, just the spinning noise of the HDD.

 

Is it more expensive then HDDs? Sure, but as it stands, the pros kinda outweigh the cons.

 

Anybody here have any experience with 1TB drives?

 

I've got a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, of which there's a 1TB model available.

 

They're pretty much the bang-for-the-buck SSDs rignt now (specifically the 500GB model), what with their crazy good performance for the price. Two of those in RAID 0 would be pretty good for you in that case.

[brob]

I am all for pure ssd systems when budget allows.

 

A single ssd in a gaming system will perform no worse and often slightly better than two smaller ssd in RAID 0. There are a number of 1TB ssd models available. If you want more storage, Samsung has just introduced a 2TB model.