HDD and SSD?

Samhfx · 23 Mar 2016 at 11:26

Long story short, I'm building my first PC. I want everything to run as smoothly as possible.

My first question is do I need both? For example, someone told me to store my OS on the HDD and store everything else on the SSD, is this a good idea? I was originally going to buy a SSD and just chuck everything onto it.

My second question is what SSD and HDD (if I need one) should I buy?

These are my current specs:

6th Generation Intel® Core? i7 6700K 4.0GHz Socket LGA1151 (Skylake) Processor - Retail

MSI Z170A GAMING M5 Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) ATX Motherboard
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler

Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit

GTX 980 Ti

Corsair 650w PSU.

snips86x · 23 Mar 2016 at 11:31

I would buy the SSD for your OS/Games and then use the HDD for storing files, films, downloads, pics and music. Alternatively, buy a large SSD for the PC and have a NAS for everything else.

Armageus · 23 Mar 2016 at 11:32

Samhfx said:
My first question is do I need both? For example, someone told me to store my OS on the HDD and store everything else on the SSD, is this a good idea? I was originally going to buy a SSD and just chuck everything onto it.

You don't necessarily need both, but it depends how much space you think you need. Typically SSDs were fairly expensive and so most people bought a small capacity SSD for Windows and a few frequently used games/apps to be installed on, and then installed the rest of their games and music/video collections onto a higher capacity/much cheaper hard drive.

These days however, SSD pricing has come down a lot, so you don't necessarily need to compromise - a 480GB/500GB SSD would give you a decent amount of space.

With regards to brand Samsung and Crucial tend to be most widely recommended (although if buying Crucial look at the MX range rather than the lower spec BX range) e.g.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Samsung 500GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E500B/EU)= £129.95
1 x Crucial MX200 500GB 2.5" SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT500MX200SSD1)= £139.99

Total: £269.94
(includes shipping: £0.00)

Samhfx · 23 Mar 2016 at 11:36

Just to let you know, this is what I'm currently working with.

I've used this for many years and I don't think I've actually ever filled it up entirely. But I'll be downloading a ton of games on my new PC so yeah...

edGfaCTor · 23 Mar 2016 at 14:35

I always go for both no way is even 500gb ssd enough for os and games something like GTA5 takes up 120gb+ and for the price of one 500gb ssd you could have 5tb drive or multi smaller say 2tb for backup

Disco_P · 23 Mar 2016 at 23:21

I'd grab a 500GB SSD if budget allows (a 480GB Sandisk SSD Plus is often around £85 and just as fast as any SSD irl) and use that 1TB you have now for media and less played/smaller games.

A 240GB + HDD is also workable if you tend to only play a few games at a time.

edGfaCTor said:
I always go for both no way is even 500gb ssd enough for os and games something like GTA5 takes up 120gb+ and for the price of one 500gb ssd you could have 5tb drive or multi smaller say 2tb for backup

GTA V is 60GB. For a £1000+ build, not having an SSD is a warcrime. Sure you could have multiple terabytes of storage but you'd be sick in the head.

theMilitant · 24 Mar 2016 at 00:35

^^Yeah, I'd recommend you just buy a large SSD to install your OS and programs on (as well as your most played games) and recycle your existing hard drive as a secondary storage drive one you've backed it up.