Fastest Boot Drive

[OmerWow]

Hi,

 

So I'm buying a new PC and I wanted to get two drives with it, both SSDs.

 

For the main storage drive I think I'm going to get the 970 Pro M.2 1TB from Samsung.

I know it's not the absolute best "bang for your buck" but 1TB is enough and it seems extremely fast.

 

For the boot drive however I want to get a second drive, probably about 120GB in size.

The thing is, AFAIK, 4K random reads are by far more important for Boot Times, and I'm really struggling to find a drive with higher 4k read speeds than the 970 Pro.

 

So... first of all, sorry for my English.

Now, am I wrong (either about buying the 970 Pro as main storage, or about thinking 4k speeds matter so much)?

Should I even get a second drive for pretty much only Windows?

If I should get a second drive, which should it be? I want it to be focused pretty much only on boot times.

 

I want to note that I don't mind paying a premium even if it's not the best bang for your buck, but still there's definitely a budget limit (not set in stone, for offer me what you think is good) so I doubt getting an Optane drive or something will fall in it.

 

Thanks for help!  

 

EDIT: I DON'T WANT AN HARD DRIVE. 1TB IS ENOUGH AND I DON'T MIND PAYING A PREMIUM FOR EXTREMELY FAST SPEEDS.

Edited October 13, 2018 by OmerWow
Don't want an HDD

[FrozenKittyGamer]

if i were you i would just get a 256gb ssd and a 1tb hard drive. the only reason you would need more is for games and then just get 1tb and use it for all.

[FrozenKittyGamer]

you do't need 2 ssds

[FrozenKittyGamer]

well... at least i don't.

 

[I_Cayman_Harass]

In my opinion, I would (and do) use the 970 for the boot drive as it is about the fastest drive available and Windows itself will only take up about 10gb of space.

 

When I built my PC I made the exact same mistake that you hopefully don't make and used a 120gb M.2 SSD for the boot drive. Some programs when you install them, won't even ask which drive you'd like to install the program on (very annoying) and default to the C: drive which is your boot drive. Other things also will default to C: unless you tell them otherwise. Before you know it, your 120gb drive is constantly at 99% full and you're always having to delete and move things around which becomes frustrating very quickly.

 

So I'd say yes, absolutely boot from the 970, especially being that you're going with the 1TB version which will give you plenty of room for your OS, frequently used programs, peace of mind, etc. And I take it that since you're editing 4K video, you're going to need lots of room to store those while you're not editing or once you're done. Any HDD or SSD will be fine for that. I store most of my video on my NAS but you can buy a 4TB WD Blue for around $100, as storing that much video on SSD's can get expensive. Have fun :)

[OmerWow]

19 minutes ago, I_Cayman_Harass said:

In my opinion, I would (and do) use the 970 for the boot drive as it is about the fastest drive available and Windows itself will only take up about 10gb of space.

 

When I built my PC I made the exact same mistake that you hopefully don't make and used a 120gb M.2 SSD for the boot drive. Some programs when you install them, won't even ask which drive you'd like to install the program on (very annoying) and default to the drive which is your boot drive. Other things also will default to unless you tell them otherwise. Before you know it, your 120gb drive is constantly at 99% full and you're always having to delete and move things around which becomes frustrating very quickly.

 

So I'd say yes, absolutely boot from the 970, especially being that you're going with the 1TB version which will give you plenty of room for your OS, frequently used programs, peace of mind, etc. And I take it that since you're editing 4K video, you're going to need lots of room to store those while you're not editing or once you're done. Any HDD or SSD will be fine for that. I store most of my video on my NAS but you can buy a 4TB WD Blue for around $100, as storing that much video on SSD's can get expensive. Have fun

Yeah the longer I search online the more I think about just booting from the 970 Pro.

 

Regarding the programs taking up space in C drive, I both agree and disagree,

While this is true, My current setup is a 120GB SATA III SSD (C Drive) and a 2TB HDD (D Drive) and with some modification to windows and some programs and installers you can easily change 99% of the things to D and keep the boot drive 80% empty. I have those drives for about 4 years now and my SSD is 40% empty and that's because I CHOSE to install stuff on it because the other drive is a way slower HDD.

 

Regarding the 4K editing... who told you that...?

I'm not editing video.

Sorry if it's my fault but when I said 4k read speeds I meant the SSD specifications, the random 4k read speeds, usually measured in IOPS. 

Here's the 970 Pro specs for exampe: 

[I_Cayman_Harass]

34 minutes ago, OmerWow said:

Regarding the 4K editing... who told you that...?

I'm not editing video.

Sorry if it's my fault but when I said 4k read speeds I meant the SSD specifications, the random 4k read speeds, usually measured in IOPS. 

Ah woops,yes when I saw you say "4K" I immediately assumed you were editing video lol. 

And as far as things accumulating in the C: drive, yeaaahh I was able to migrate most everything to D: and E: but somehow I was always at least 75% full. Which bugged me.

I recently switched to the 970 500gb though and absolutely love it. I turned my old 120gb M.2 SSD into a speedy little portable USB drive. 

Enjoy your new PC!

[boey]

1 hour ago, I_Cayman_Harass said:

Some programs when you install them, won't even ask which drive you'd like to install the program on (very annoying) and default to the drive which is your boot drive

You can set default drive for installation by going to settings>system>storage>change where new content is saved and changing everything to whichever drive is the HDD

[boey]

2 hours ago, OmerWow said:

Hi,

 

So I'm buying a new PC and I wanted to get two drives with it, both SSDs.

 

For the main storage drive I think I'm going to get the 970 Pro M.2 1TB from Samsung.

I know it's not the absolute best "bang for your buck" but 1TB is enough and it seems extremely fast.

 

For the boot drive however I want to get a second drive, probably about 120GB in size.

The thing is, AFAIK, 4K random reads are by far more important for Boot Times, and I'm really struggling to find a drive with higher 4k read speeds than the 970 Pro.

 

So... first of all, sorry for my English.

Now, am I wrong (either about buying the 970 Pro as main storage, or about thinking 4k speeds matter so much)?

Should I even get a second drive for pretty much only Windows?

If I should get a second drive, which should it be? I want it to be focused pretty much only on boot times.

 

I want to note that I don't mind paying a premium even if it's not the best bang for your buck, but still there's definitely a budget limit (not set in stone, for offer me what you think is good) so I doubt getting an Optane drive or something will fall in it.

 

Thanks for help!  

 

EDIT: I DON'T WANT AN HARD DRIVE. 1TB IS ENOUGH AND I DON'T MIND PAYING A PREMIUM FOR EXTREMELY FAST SPEEDS.

970 pro is the fastest drive on the market right now

[OmerWow]

3 minutes ago, _d0nut said:

970 pro is the fastest drive on the market right now

Yeah I keep searching online and it really seems like that's the case (unless you consider the 905 optane).

 

Do you think I should just install Windows on it and that's it?

Should I create a partition for windows? Does it help in any way?