Is it still worth having a separate game drive with how fast nvme is?

[LeoK]

Lots of good suggestions. There is no really wrong answer. What’s best for you is going to be circumstantial.

My older rig doesn’t have an M.2 option. It’s setup as:

OS: dedicated ~256GB SSD
Games: dedicated ~512 GB mSata drive
User Profiles, etc: ~3TB Mirrored HDD

if I upgraded, in my budget, I’d aim for 1-2TB M.2 and large SSDs for local storage of profiles. A bit like:
OS: Approx ~250GB partitioned M.2
Games : whatever’s left on m.2 and new partition
Profile Data: Mirrored SSD, largest I could afford

 

[Bobmunkhouse]

What was the conclusion on this? My new MB has 3 nvme slots so I could get a 512gb for apps, docs and os and then a 2gb for games or I could just get a 2gb slap it all on that and save slots for extra storage later.....hmmmm

 

[Trig]

I used to run 2 NVME drives, mainly because by the time you have downloaded your game library its easier to have them all on a separate drive you can reinstall the OS and not have to re-download everything.

 

[Dg834man]

What was the conclusion on this? My new MB has 3 nvme slots so I could get a 512gb for apps, docs and os and then a 2gb for games or I could just get a 2gb slap it all on that and save slots for extra storage later.....hmmmm

Personally would still put the os on a partition, makes no sense wasting a m.2 slot with a 512gb drive stick another 2tb drive in there make a 500gb partition for the os.

 

[Bobmunkhouse]

Personally would still put the os on a partition, makes no sense wasting a m.2 slot with a 512gb drive stick another 2tb drive in there make a 500gb partition for the os.

Hmmmm ok I guess that gets rid of the os reinstall issues... but what about access times ect any affect these days having OS on same drive as the tons of downloading and active game clients we have these days?

 

[linktoinsanity]

I still mostly store my games on the second drive with onnly one or two on the main drive. Not really a reasonn to do this anymore unless (like me) you are stuck in your ways or like to wipe the OS drive quite often, again not such a need for this as there used to be.

 

[Countcussy]

500gb OS M.2 and originally 2 sata SSD`s for Storage/Games
I later picked up a 1TB M.2 just for Steam when I saw one on offer.
Motherboard has 3 ports, so I thought, why not?

Again, this is probably an historical approach, rather than common or sensible.

 

[jabski]

Say a 500GB Windows nvme and another 2TB nvme for game installs being my idea.

This is the way i set up my pc but one bigger drive partioned would work just as well

 

[Dg834man]

but what about access times ect any affect these days having OS on same drive as the tons of downloading and active game clients we have these days?

I had one nvme partitioned in to os/games then bought a second nvme when i ran out of space, moved all my games to the second drive cant say i notice any difference but i would be move worried about the latency if you were downloading and gaming at the same time.

 

[Bobmunkhouse]

Ok thanks for info guys

 

[sg0]

500gb-1tb drive for OS and stuff and 2tb-4tb games/music etc. Less wear and tear on the expensive 2tb-4tb drive. Writes and re-writes shorten the life and size of drives. I used some ssd's in a nas and they didn't last more than a couple of months. They got used for usenet but I'm sure they would have lasted a lot longer for just reading.

 

[ED209]

Like others, I have 1 NVME drive (1TB) partitioned in to 150GB C:\ and the rest as a games library.

Reason for this is that if I need to re install the OS I can and then just re create the shortcuts needed rather than going through installing everything and re downloading games

 

[ATIorNvidia]

Best to keep most things on a separate drive so you have less to do when formatting etc.

 

[JNZ]

Yes, keep them seperate, because Windows still accesses the swap file (or whatever they call it these days - my Win 10 install has two - pagefile and swapfile - for some bizarre reason).

The disk I/O subsystem, no matter how fast it is, can still cause the system to freeze during access, and because Windows still likes to simultaneously access stuff on its own drive during other disk activity. No matter how fast those disks are, it will still be faster to have them seperated.

A little-known fact: any virtual memory access hits disk I/O regardless of whether the data was paged out or not. It's a rubbish system that is long overdue replacement.

 

[gbradders123]

2 nvme 2gb, os on one, games on the other until full and now games on the os one,

 

[nlel1975]

I have os and games on my main 4TB NVMe which is about 1TB full. I have an image of it on my second NVMe drive which is 893GB in size and the drive size is 1.92TB. I had to restore it the other day, NVMe to NVMe and it took about an hour. Not to bad, I’ve no need for separate os and games drives.

 

[The_Arbiter]

It certainly is circumstantial as mentioned.

I still like a top end small NVME for OS and then whatever drives after. Large NVMEs are still expensive if you take into consideration install size inflation of new games. Physical space is a non issue as most use Matx or bigger, so sata SSDs are really a non issue imo, and speed difference is still negligible given direct access is still not standard.

If you're on fibre internet then redownloading games to save disk space and therefore money is another argument.

Also depends on if you own X/Y/Z drive and are upgrading spec or storage space or adding to it.

 

[adrichardson81]

I've not noticed any performance impact having games and OS on different partitions on the same m.2. It gives you a bit of a safety net if you have to restore the OS partition.

I'm paranoid enough that I'd never put anything I can't live without on the same drive as the OS.

 

[treker_ed]

I have multiple drives. 2 x 2tb SSD for games, 1 x 500gb NVME for windows only. Saves me having to reinstall any games/store fronts like Steam when I inevitably have to redo my windows install when any of the updates go pear-shaped!
In addition to internal storage - ALL my pictures, media etc are stored on a 4TB HDD NAS drive which is regularly backed up to a series of HDD which are plugged into a USB3 drive caddy. These are then stored offline and secure in-case anything happens to my NAS drives.

 

[TrojanWhore]

I don't really see the need for separate physical drives given how fast nvme is there days, however I would always recommend having the OS on a separate partition in case you need to re-install.
That said, internet is so fast nowadays that re-downloading games isn't the end of the world. Just make sure you have a backup of any important files (docs/savegames/whatever else you can't afford to lose).
I currently have my old windows partition and games partition on one nvme and a 1TB SATA drive with a full backup of that (just in case I forgot any important files)... planning to go through them at some point and back up important stuff to my NAS and also probably cloud of some sort - Ideal backup strategy for anything you can't replace is 1 on a separate physical drive + 1 resiliant offsite (in case your house burns down )