What to Put Where? SSD vs. HDD

[redsquirrel0249]

Classic setup: 500 GB SSD w/ 3 TB of HDD space.

 

I'm wondering what I should put on each drive. I understand SSDs load faster and that can improve boot times, load times, and stuttering at load intervals in large games, but what about files that are being used simultaneously on the HDD? Hard disks don't have good random read and write times, so any simultaneous reading seems like it would slow them down, right? For example, apps like Discord, Spotify, etc. that generally run along side games? But then apps like MSI Afterburner or Steam basically open and run from RAM, so a HDD should be fine. Just trying to make the most of my space!

[Tsar_Maple]

I let my SSD hold my boot and applications that I'm constantly using (Discord, Chrome, OBS, etc).

 

I put all my Steam games on my extra SSD/HDD. HDDs are a great place to store your games, there's not much reading/writing going on. Hell, I played BF4 off a USB 3.0 Gen 1 for a year and it did great haha

 

If you're doing stuff like blender and whatnot, I'd load that onto an SSD though

[redsquirrel0249]

1 minute ago, Tsar_Maple said:

that I'm constantly using

I do this for the most part. I don't include Discord, but I include Chrome, but I'm wondering if applications (like discord) not only gain the benefit of being loaded faster on an SSD, but also cease to hinder a HDD if you're trying to read a game off of it and use discord. That's just one example, but that's what I'm asking.

[Airdragonz]

1 minute ago, redsquirrel0249 said:

I do this for the most part. I don't include Discord, but I include Chrome, but I'm wondering if applications (like discord) not only gain the benefit of being loaded faster on an SSD, but also cease to hinder a HDD if you're trying to read a game off of it and use discord. That's just one example, but that's what I'm asking.

The hdd will definitely be slower the more apps you are trying to simultaneously read/write with it. Now as to whether running Discord and a game together off a hard drive makes a noticeable performance difference really depends on the game itself and how it caches the game files 

[Tsar_Maple]

1 minute ago, redsquirrel0249 said:

I do this for the most part. I don't include Discord, but I include Chrome, but I'm wondering if applications (like discord) not only gain the benefit of being loaded faster on an SSD, but also cease to hinder a HDD if you're trying to read a game off of it and use discord. That's just one example, but that's what I'm asking.

If it's something that's reading and writing a lot, I'd say place it on the SSD. But games don't really read or write a lot and something like Discord is light enough to not really hinder your performance. Now if you had something like Chrome w/ Twitch or YT playing or OBS running on the same HDD as your games, that's when you might notice some slower speeds.

 

For Discord specifically though, it's a pretty small application, so being on the SSD ain't a bad idea  

[PrinnyExplodes]

You are right. But what I do is throw most of my steam library on the 4TB hard drive and I have a 500GB SSD for games I use more often.

 

Quote

Hard disks don't have good random read and write times, so any simultaneous reading seems like it would slow them down, right?

If you are worried about a lot of cached resources, use a ramcache software for 0.5-4 GB of your ram (if you have a lot of ram to spare).

 

The way ramcache works is it basically lets you utilize your excess ram as cache for any or all of your drives  . The one advantage is that it reduces your writing activity to your SSD and mechanical drives by 40-60% and helps speed up the program startup process. The downside is RAM is volatile so the cache has to be stored on another storage medium on startup and shut down --> Greatly increasing the time it takes for startup and shut down (may or maynot be as noticeable).

 

There is also SSDcache which does essentially the same thing with speeds that are slower, but not humanly noticeable. The downside is your ssd is going to have more activity, but the data is more stable.

 

[redsquirrel0249]

5 minutes ago, PrinnyExplodes said:

if you have a lot of ram to spare

Got 16 GB, so I could try it.