Steam on SSD

shuzzbutt · 20 Jun 2011 at 20:59

I am really tempted to buy an ssd for a boot drive. However, I don't like the idea of installing any programmes onto a secondary drive including steam. Now I realize this would mean having a max of 1 or 2 games installed at once but thats what I do anyway- currently fallout new vegas and osmosis are taking 7gb.

So was just wondering how much total ssd diskspace is used on say a 64gb drive with windows 7, a few programmes and steam with a max of 2 games installed??

Methanoid · 20 Jun 2011 at 21:35

Thanks very much

VaderDSL · 20 Jun 2011 at 21:40

Well you'll get less than the 64Gb to start with? Not sure how much less but say 55Gb?

Then maybe 15Gb for a Windows install with all the hotfixes/SP1?

So down to 40Gb.

You should be ok in all with a couple of steam games etc. I used to have an 80Gb SSD with Steam with 2-4 games installed and Windows 7 64bit and usually had about 25-30Ggb left over.

This is all guesswork though sorry, YRMV (your results may vary)

shuzzbutt · 20 Jun 2011 at 22:44

VaderDSL said:
Well you'll get less than the 64Gb to start with? Not sure how much less but say 55Gb?

Then maybe 15Gb for a Windows install with all the hotfixes/SP1?

So down to 40Gb.

You should be ok in all with a couple of steam games etc. I used to have an 80Gb SSD with Steam with 2-4 games installed and Windows 7 64bit and usually had about 25-30Ggb left over.

This is all guesswork though sorry, YRMV (your results may vary)

thanks, that sounds re-assuring. I know you should always try & buy the biggest ssd you can afford but I really don't use/install many programmes so its good to know a 64gb would be sufficient.

KMpuggy · 20 Jun 2011 at 23:10

Ive got 22gb left on mine, thats with all the drivers and a few small programs, and ive stuck portal 2 on there also, which takes up around 12gb. When thats completed i will delete it.

Wednesday im going to buy one of them 500gb Seagate momentus hybrid drive thingys. All my games will get stuck on that, and my current 500gb one will get used for films and other programs.

Judgeneo · 20 Jun 2011 at 23:16

I've got 30Gb on my boot drive left out of the original 56, just core programs, windows and drivers and some documents etc..

I've got steam and other games on a separate hard disk, never had problems with it. It also has the advantage of that when I re-installed windows, my games continued to work with minimal tweaking (forgot to back up my saves though, Doh!)

Mr Krugga · 20 Jun 2011 at 23:22

Your Windows 7 install will probably be around 15GB, most of the software will amount to a few GB, games on Steam can be anything from 1GB-20GB and more and less depending on the game.

There's plenty of things you can do to save some storage, let me know if you need any tips so I can link you to specific resources.

GameSave Manager has in-built Steam Spreader that let's you move individual games between drives.

setter · 20 Jun 2011 at 23:29

I was gonna post a similair thread, ill be purchasing an ssd this week, (120gb ocz vertex 2e bigfoot). There are only a few games i play regularly, bfbc2 and moh 2010, both non steam. Would i be best to keep theese on the ssd, and have the lesser used steam games on a second drive, (samsung F3 1TB). Most of my documents, media etc will be kept on this and an external hdd.

Mr Krugga · 20 Jun 2011 at 23:33

setter said:
I was gonna post a similair thread, ill be purchasing an ssd this week, (120gb ocz vertex 2e bigfoot). There are only a few games i play regularly, bfbc2 and moh 2010, both non steam. Would i be best to keep theese on the ssd, and have the lesser used steam games on a second drive, (samsung F3 1TB). Most of my documents, media etc will be kept on this and an external hdd.

Got a very similar setup (Crucial C300 128GB and Spinpoint F3 1TB) and I can tell you that only a few games benefit from being on an SSD.

You're mostly experience quicker loading times, some of this may be in game if you enjoy playing games like Morrowind/Oblivion.

I know that GTA IV benefits from being on an SSD, BFBC2 works slightly better on it as well (faster loading times which we do enjoy

) and probably a few other games as well (like Shogun 2 and similar).

You need to figure out in what games the HDD becomes a bottleneck.

Plus use GameSave Manager to store your Steam games on other drives

setter · 20 Jun 2011 at 23:38

Thanks for the advice.

My load times in bfbc2 are pretty slow, due to the very old drive im currently using. System boot time is woeful as well tbh. Put off the idea of getting an ssd for so long, got a few hundred quid surplus so thought id treat myself.

KMpuggy · 20 Jun 2011 at 23:59

Go for it, after everything i read about them i knew it would make a big difference. Before when my pc got to desktop, id have to wait a min or 2 for it to sort itself out. With this now, as soon as i get to desktop, no waiting, im ready to go. You will notice a vast improvement.

Ive always had my operating system on a separate drive, before my ssd it was on an 80gb seagate thing. Reason been if anything goes wrong with windows, then a format is just a simple quick option instead of just sodding about with it trying to get it to work again. And plus, id do a frehsh install say once a year.

shuzzbutt · 21 Jun 2011 at 00:18

KMpuggy said:
Ive always had my operating system on a separate drive, before my ssd it was on an 80gb seagate thing. Reason been if anything goes wrong with windows, then a format is just a simple quick option instead of just sodding about with it trying to get it to work again. And plus, id do a frehsh install say once a year.

This is the reason I want to get a SSD- I've not run a pc with a seperate OS drive before & love the idea of being able to re-install windows if needed without having to worry about separating/backing up data etc

lrlcr · 21 Jun 2011 at 12:31

I've got win7 and steam (only MW2, black ops and duke nukem) on my 120gb ssd, and i've got about 50gb spare. I have a copy of steam on my extra program drive where most of my games are and so only keep games I use regularly and want to load fast on the ssd.

With symlinks I can use the ssd steam directory to run steam but store games that can be on a slower drive there and still access them from my library. It is very nice to be able to re-install windows quickly with minimal hassle.

Methanoid · 21 Jun 2011 at 12:52

Methanoid said:
Thanks very much

I actually hit reply to a different thread in HD forum and got this result! :confused:

But its a useful thread for me too!

Mr Krugga said:
GameSave Manager has in-built Steam Spreader that let's you move individual games between drives.

Great util. Checked out the site and it also had me off researching NTFS Symlinks too. Thanks!

mikeo · 21 Jun 2011 at 17:11

SSD for boot drive and games on a decent mechanical HD (EG. WD black, or SpinPoint F3). I just can't really see the point in installing games on an SSD. Most you wont see the slightest difference in. Maybe games like Call of Pripyat will see faster loading times between levels (IE. reduce the hitching you see as you move about a free world game like this). Otherwise pointless in my point of view.

I also have all my folders like documents/pictures/music/downloads etc. pointing to a mech. HD (they don't need the extra speed anyway). As commented by someone else above, it means that if you do have to re-install Windows for some reason, all your data is on a different drive. Saves a fair bit of time re-building your system.

maybe if prices fall and capacities increase (a fair bit!) then I might re-consider my position. Price / GB for SSD's is still WAYYYYYYYYYYY to high to make them a sensible replacement for large capacity mech. HDs.

Only my personal opinion of course. Each to their own.

MeMeMeMe · 23 Jun 2011 at 09:25

shuzzbutt said:
So was just wondering how much total ssd diskspace is used on say a 64gb drive with windows 7, a few programmes and steam with a max of 2 games installed??

I had a 60GB SSD, and initially thought it was enough. windows only takes 15GB, etc, and after my initial load of programs, switching user documents, etc., over to another drive I had over 30GB of space left. BUT...
Over time, the windows directory grows substantially (it's currently 25.5GB), and then program files and AppData folders also grow quite a lot.
In the end, I decided my 60GB SSD wasn't big enough and I upgraded to a 120GB.

If you're careful, and avoid putting disk-space-eating programs on your SSD, the 60GB will be enough. I wouldn't install Steam, or modern games, on it though.