What's the best storage setup for this use case?

[sirfredrick]

I have a z370 motherboard that has Optane support with a 500 GB SSD for my boot drive. First, is it better to buy for a secondary storage drive a hybrid SSHD or a normal HDD with a later purchase of Optane?

Here are my options for storage setups:

One option for storage setup is a HDD/hybrid SSHD with two partitions, one for Linux and another for Game and file storage. Is it possible to accelerate both partitions with Optane?

The second option is moving all my files to the HDD with Optane/hybrid SSHD and having the SSD Dual Boot Windows 10 and Linux.

 

What would be the best option for my use case?

 

Thanks ahead of time!

[desertcomputer]

I would buy 2 ssd and one for each boot if you want multi boot and your hard drive will be you mass storage.

[sirfredrick]

1 minute ago, EMC said:

I would buy 2 ssd and one for each boot if you want multi boot

Is that because it's easier to setup and use daily?

[desertcomputer]

2 minutes ago, sirfredrick said:

Is that because it's easier to setup and use daily?

Yes, if any OS have issues you can just reinstall it on that drive without much hassle with partition.

[sirfredrick]

Thanks, should I go for a cheap low-capacity SSD then like a 128 GB one. Or would Linux need more than that?

[sirfredrick]

12 minutes ago, EMC said:

Yes, if any OS have issues you can just reinstall it on that drive without much hassle with partition.

Thanks, should I go for a cheap low-capacity SSD then like a 128 GB one for the Linux boot drive. Or would Linux need more than that?

[Vasllo]

Go with another SSD instead of Optane and use PrimoCache to cache your HD, basically a manual SSHD with much bigger cache and control.

[sirfredrick]

5 minutes ago, Vasllo said:

Go with another SSD instead of Optane and use PrimoCache to cache your HD, basically a manual SSHD with much bigger cache and control.

With that setup where would I put Linux? Also what is a practical amount in GBs for an SSD cache on a 1 TB HDD?

[Vasllo]

1 minute ago, sirfredrick said:

With that setup where would I put Linux? Also what is a practical amount in GBs for an SSD cache on a 1 TB HDD?

You could just split the HD. And 120GB would probably do, but I've heard that you need, ideally, 1/8 of the HD space + some space for other stuff that I can't remember rn. If it's just for games, I would say 120GB is fine, I'll be getting myself a 240GB for my 2TB HD to use with Windows tiered storage.

[sirfredrick]

8 minutes ago, Vasllo said:

You could just split the HD. And 120GB would probably do, but I've heard that you need, ideally, 1/8 of the HD space + some space for other stuff that I can't remember rn. If it's just for games, I would say 120GB is fine, I'll be getting myself a 240GB for my 2TB HD to use with Windows tiered storage.

Is it easy to split the HD? Do you have to fiddle around with Primocache more because of this?

[Vasllo]

40 minutes ago, sirfredrick said:

Is it easy to split the HD? Do you have to fiddle around with Primocache more because of this?

It's easy to split, and probably involves more work with PrimoCache, but I can't say since I haven't used it.