Worth investing in another SSD just for games?

XavierCastiel · 16 Jan 2017 at 13:58

Hi, pretty simple question really @ the above.

I have a 250GB SSD bought years ago with Windows 10 installed and my main mulitplayer games such as Battlefield 1, CS:GO, Overwatch, Rocket League, World of Warcraft and applications such as GeForce Experience, Sony Vegas and one or two other small applications installed onto the drive. 94GB ish left on the SSD.

I then have another SSD this one being 500GB which is used solely for storing recorded gameplays. I bought the 500GB SSD shortly after upgrading and installing Windows 10 on the 250GB SSD.

Then I have two oldish 1 TB HDD's that store everything else, other applications, downloads, Steam/Origin games etc. The issues are my storages can get quite low as it takes me forever to get through games. Another issue is that some games call for a SSD to fix stutters, slowdowns and other stuff.

So what I'm thinking is to buy another SSD, preferably a 1TB one and use the 250GB SSD for Windows only and maybe one or two of the main applications that automatically install on the C drive, continue using my 500GB SSD for recordings, use my 1 TB HDD's for storage, applications and what not. Then have a 1TB SSD for multiplayer games, problematic games examples being Batman: Arkham Knight, Quantum Break and split the rest between HDD and SSD which save space.

When I first invested in SSD's I wanted one drive to do this, the next to have this etc. Hasnt quite worked out like that. Right now I have 94GB free on the 250GB, 112GB free on the main 1TB HDD, 279GB free on the other SSD and 679GB free on the second HDD. So I do have space, but I like to use each storage differently :/. I don't want games installed allover the place. I have deleted things as well to save space, I never like going below 100-150GB of free space left.

spoffle · 16 Jan 2017 at 14:07

I only have mechanical disks in my storage server. Everything else is 100% SSD. For me having games on an SSD is great. They load a lot faster and games they stream assets tend to perform better.

Undesirable · 16 Jan 2017 at 14:39

One way to free up space on SSDs is to move video assets across to mechanical storage and symlink to it's original location.

Bobmunkhouse · 16 Jan 2017 at 14:55

Yeah its great....but you should have done it at the beginning of last year when they were cheep...its sad times now...

Asura88 · 16 Jan 2017 at 15:11

I've found with a modern internet connection, you can almost store games in essentially cloud format i.e only download and install them as you want to play them (certainly from steam). WoW for example took all of 20 mins to download in it's entirety. Since im going to be paying for the internet regardless, it saves me buying super sized SSD's.

I'd move all the video to the mechanical drives and simply use the 500 for games that you actually play.

Put that 300 quid you'd spend on an SSD towards a new GPU or screen/peripherals so you actually feel some performance.

XavierCastiel · 16 Jan 2017 at 15:53

spoffle said:
I only have mechanical disks in my storage server. Everything else is 100% SSD. For me having games on an SSD is great. They load a lot faster and games they stream assets tend to perform better.

Yup, its just one of the many reasons why I could do with one

. Mainly so I could store the vast majority of games and multiplayer titles on the same drive.

Bobmunkhouse said:
Yeah its great....but you should have done it at the beginning of last year when they were cheep...its sad times now...

How much did they cost last year? Just had a run through of old overclockers emails and saw that I bought the Samsung 500GB 850 EVO SSD from Overclockers for £104.99 in March 2016. At the time I wasnt interested in the 1 TB SSD's. Been installing and playing more games since though

.

Asura88 said:
I've found with a modern internet connection, you can almost store games in essentially cloud format i.e only download and install them as you want to play them (certainly from steam). WoW for example took all of 20 mins to download in it's entirety. Since im going to be paying for the internet regardless, it saves me buying super sized SSD's.

I'd move all the video to the mechanical drives and simply use the 500 for games that you actually play.

Put that 300 quid you'd spend on an SSD towards a new GPU or screen/peripherals so you actually feel some performance.

Well, the reason I bought the 500GB SSD in the first place was to prevent choppy recordings. I read a while back that recording gameplay to a HDD could cause stutter, so I bought another SSD simply to record to, I would then move that to the spare HDD, then render the file back to the SSD, doing the last bit just gave me peace of mind lol.

As for the last bit I have already set my heart on a 1080TI when it eventually comes out <3. I posted another thread here last month or maybe the month before asking about upgrades, I'm now just playing the waiting game until that hits the shops. Already have a 144HZ 1440P G-SYNC monitor so I'm all good on the screen/peripheral and hardware front.

benjii · 16 Jan 2017 at 21:07

XavierCastiel said:
Well, the reason I bought the 500GB SSD in the first place was to prevent choppy recordings. I read a while back that recording gameplay to a HDD could cause stutter, so I bought another SSD simply to record to, I would then move that to the spare HDD, then render the file back to the SSD, doing the last bit just gave me peace of mind lol.

One of the main rules with SSD's is never use them for storage as the cost per GB is considerably higher than HDD. As for recording, there's no stutter from just recording onto a HDD. The stutter people can sometimes get is a result of recording to the same HDD that their game is on. As long as your games are on a different drive, you'll never have an issue.

I have all my games on an SSD and record to an old, slow, 500GB WD Green HDD. The only way that could bottleneck me is if I were recording at 500Mbps+. Aside from the fact that's impossible on a PC, YouTube only recommends 68Mbps for 4k 60fps video. My point is, do yourself a favour and repurpose that SSD for games.

Duke · 16 Jan 2017 at 21:44

spoffle said:
I only have mechanical disks in my storage server. Everything else is 100% SSD. For me having games on an SSD is great. They load a lot faster and games they stream assets tend to perform better.

Same here.