Gaming on a mechanical drive, which one to get if any?

Blackhorse

Blackhorse

Blackhorse

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15 May 2006
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495
Ok with many games now taking 50GB plus on installs, I'm finding that trying to run on SSD isn't always practical unless I uninstall every few games
Reading up on getting a decent 7200rpm

Am I going to notice a substantial difference in performance for gaming? Or have they come on in the last few years
Was toying between the WD Black either 2TB or 4TB (leaning for the 4TB as has higher cache of 128MB) if this makes any difference

Finally, would really appreciate links to recommendations! =)

Thanks in advance
 
Blackhorse said:
Ok with many games now taking 50GB plus on installs, I'm finding that trying to run on SSD isn't always practical unless I uninstall every few games
Reading up on getting a decent 7200rpm

Am I going to notice a substantial difference in performance for gaming? Or have they come on in the last few years
Was toying between the WD Black either 2TB or 4TB (leaning for the 4TB as has higher cache of 128MB) if this makes any difference

Finally, would really appreciate links to recommendations! =)

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

intel optane drives makes a big difference to HDD but have to have a board and CPU that support it :(
an option could be to RAID 0 two 2TB instead of getting a single 4TB- should pump up the speed a little

if not
My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £148.69
(includes shipping: £8.70)



​
 
orbitalwalsh said:
intel optane drives makes a big difference to HDD but have to have a board and CPU that support it :(
an option could be to RAID 0 two 2TB instead of getting a single 4TB- should pump up the speed a little

if not
My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £148.69
(includes shipping: £8.70)



​
Click to expand...
Either that or wait for Black Friday deals, there is always some SSD's on sale.
 
Gotta Love it. OP asks about gaming on a mechanical drive, and suggestion is to splurge six hundred quid on a super-size SSD (which doesnt even make sense compared to the cost/GB of smaller SSDs).

Assuming the OP is not defecating gold bricks, pick a reasonable size HD, and look at tools like SteamMover to shift things onto your SSD when start playing a new game. Steam might even have a way to move the Install directory itself now.
 
Blackhorse said:
Ok with many games now taking 50GB plus on installs, I'm finding that trying to run on SSD isn't always practical unless I uninstall every few games
Reading up on getting a decent 7200rpm

Am I going to notice a substantial difference in performance for gaming? Or have they come on in the last few years
Was toying between the WD Black either 2TB or 4TB (leaning for the 4TB as has higher cache of 128MB) if this makes any difference

Finally, would really appreciate links to recommendations! =)

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

The Seagate Barracuda Pro 4TB Hard drive is very similar in spec to the WD Black for less money. It is out of stock at the moment though. You get 128MB Cache and a 5 year warranty same as the WD.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £168.65
(includes shipping: £8.70)


​
 
Some games are noticibly slower than others, I tend to put games I don't mind loading a little slower on my 2TB HDD and sve my SSD for the things I want a little quicker.

Could go for an SSHD?
 
skyripper said:
Gotta Love it. OP asks about gaming on a mechanical drive, and suggestion is to splurge six hundred quid on a super-size SSD (which doesnt even make sense compared to the cost/GB of smaller SSDs).

Assuming the OP is not defecating gold bricks, pick a reasonable size HD, and look at tools like SteamMover to shift things onto your SSD when start playing a new game. Steam might even have a way to move the Install directory itself now.
Click to expand...

Haha yea, short on the gold brick front personally
I like the idea of the steam mover =)
Does it take long to move say 40GB between the drives? An hour?
 
Blackhorse said:
Haha yea, short on the gold brick front personally
Click to expand...
Aren't we all!
Blackhorse said:
I like the idea of the steam mover =)
Does it take long to move say 40GB between the drives? An hour?
Click to expand...

Given an average write speed on a HDD of 120MB/s your bottle neck will be the write speed of the HDD, can't see it taking more than half an hour though. Having recently built a machine with a single 256GB M2 drive, and finding Doom took up 70GB of it, I feel your pain.

Going the other way, from an HDD to an SSD, your bottleneck will be the read speed of the HDD, which will be higher, so the time will come down to probably 15-20 mins.

These speeds and timings were plucked from the air, so no warranty given.
 
I play some games on a mechanical HDD (seagate barracuda 2tb) and i don't see a noticeable difference personally but am sure it loads a bit faster.
 
Once the games up and running you're unlikely to notice much difference. That being said, I tend to put new games onto my SSD's and use my mechanical drive for games where speed isn't a concern, e.g. Command & Conquer.
 
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