Fast HDD for Steam etc..

easyrider

easyrider

easyrider

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After upgrading my GFX to a 6870 I've gone mad buying stuff off steam.


I need a HDD for my i7 rig to store games.

Now I have a 64GB Crucial SSD as boot for win7 and I have run out of space.

I can't really afford another 128GB SSD for games just now what's fast and cheap for saving my steam games on?

I tried to install steam to a network share on my Home server over GIGABIT lan but steam don't like it.

Cheers
 
Easy, try using making an ISCSI target on your home server, should be able to install Steam on your NAS that way, and if your gigabit network is fairly decent it won't be much slower than a WD Black.
 
I use WD black cav i could be wrong but i think there pretty much the fastest 7200rpm Drives i use a 1Tb and a SSD for os best hhd i ever owned if im honest there was only a small performance differance between the hdd and ssd it was that good.
 
Hi. I have both a WD black 640GB and a Velociraptor 150GB and there's not an awful lot between them speed wise. So that just goes to show how far mainstream mechanical drives have come in the last couple of years.
 
Zarf said:
Easy, try using making an ISCSI target on your home server, should be able to install Steam on your NAS that way, and if your gigabit network is fairly decent it won't be much slower than a WD Black.
Click to expand...

Now this sounds interesting...Thanks! Ideal for my needs if it works? I have 8TB on the server and I'm reluctant to buy more disks for my i7 if I can help it.

I even Video edit in HD from the server without issue its so fast

Goes off to google:)
 
ISCSI target is not supported in WHS and looks like a royal PITA to setup...Thanks though.:)

However mklink looks sexy and I will having a go of moving Lost Coast over to \\Server\Software\Games\Steam shortly

So I guess I type:

mklink /J C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\easy_riders\half-life 2 lostcoast \\server\Software\Games\Steam


If anyone has done this please let me know.

Cheers
 
I have manegd to install steam on my WHS adn am currently downloading games to the 1.2TB of free space.

Man its taken me a few hours but I think I have cracked it. :p
 
Running Steam from a LAN gives you several advantages:

1. Won't eat up you local disk space
2. You can run the same installation from multiple machines without having to install on each computer
3. You can reformat a machine, and easily get steam back without doing a full installation.

First thing you do is Plug in an external HDD or use a second system disk if you have one.

Create a folder called Steam on the drive ( take note of the drive letter) For example mine was F:

Next Map Folder from your WHS for example mine is: \\server\software\games\steam and assign it a drive letter e.g. Z:

You should now have 3 drives in your system

At this point DO NOT install any games, ONLY install Steam. And install it on the external drive in the steam folder

Again we install Steam (but no games) onto local drive F: After the install completes, shut down steam,

Now remap local drive F: to Z: , and LAN drive Z: to F:

Now copy (or move) the entire contents of the Steam installation from external drive Z: onto LAN drive F: , be sure to preserve the folders so the configuration does not change. It has to be the same folder structure

Once the copy (or move) is complete you can fire up Steam directly from the LAN drive, and from there you can safely install the games and run them.

I have tried this and it works...As a test I downloaded Lost Coast and played it fine however make sure your LAN Steam share has Read only Properties unchecked before you click on the steam.exe file to open steam and play games

Note: I have a Gigabit connection and would only suggest doing this if you have nice speeds to and from your server



Cheers


easyrider

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18201965
 
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