Just SSD or SSD + HDD?

sfmk2.

sfmk2.

sfmk2.

Associate
Joined
7 Dec 2019
Posts
13
Hi,

I'm building a PC and I'm wondering...

Is it better to store EVERYTHING on one big SDD or should I put just my OS/programs on an SSD then use a HDD for mass storage?

Please also tell me WHY you'd choose one way or the other.

Thanks!
 
That really comes down to budget and requirements. If you can afford a ~2TB SSD and that's big enough for your requirements then go for it. If you have ~1TB of programs/games and ~6TB of films/pictures/etc then split between SSD and HDD. A regular hard drive is still perfectly adequate for mass storage or even some games you don't play often.

I have a 500GB & 1TB SSD in my PC, I found myself adding a 2TB HDD for some games due to running out of space.
 
thanks Andy. I wasn't sure if SSD was as long-lasting as HDD's are.

I have a 1TB HDD at the moment and it's about half full.

I was considering a 1TB SSD but on looking closer I think if I get a 512GB SSD and a 2TB HDD I'll still save £10 and will have 2.5x the storage.
 
hardly worth worring about unless you are on a tight budget 1tb SSD are sub £100... unless you need a lot more... 2 years ago the price for 1 TB was so much that it made sense to have a fast SSD + 1 or 2tb slow drives... now small SSD+ 1TB HDD = about the same price as a 1tb ssd
 
I've got 1tb SSD for OS/programs/games

Then a 2nd PC for network storage with 1.5Tb HDD and 1.0Tb HDD. This has a Celeron N3150 6w TDP CPU so ultra low power. It goes to sleep when I dont need it.

I did not want a mechanical drive in my gaming PC.
 
sfmk2. said:
Please also tell me WHY you'd choose one way or the other.
Click to expand...
Here's real world loading times for games:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nvme+ssd+hdd
Also any mid gameplay asset loadings happen with lot less hiccups with SSD, if you play games which "stream" content during gameplay.

As for price problem you can lower that by not falling on Samsung's brand pricing, which are ridiculous for NVMes.

sfmk2. said:
thanks Andy. I wasn't sure if SSD was as long-lasting as HDD's are.
Click to expand...
Always keep backups of actually important data.
There are only two kinds of drives:
- Those which have already failed.
- Those which are going to fail.
 
I would honestly stay away form harddrives in a new build. Invest in NVME/SSD and manage your space a bit better. My hard drives, albiet nice for storing shed loads of stuff I don't need, are noisy and responsible for any non-agile PC activity I have and they ultimately seem to fail much quicker than any SSD.

My next build will most definitely not feature a hard drive and I'd love to take them out of my current machine in all reality.
 
I have 3 SSD's, and two NVME drives internally, using one SSD for boot & OS, one for infrequent games and one spare, using the smaller NVME drive as a paging drive (not sure if it's even needed, but was spare so meh) and the other NVME for bigger more frequently played games. I've moved all non-essential data to a 1TB mechanical drive in a caddy attached to a router via USB3 as well as backing up photos to the cloud just to be safe. As £££ allows, I'll be phasing out the 5 drives for 2, larger units but as it's all working ok for now I'm leaving it as is :)
 
I still use a 2TB HDD for game, video, picture and OS backups. It's wrapped in bubble wrap and wedged underneath my front radiator so is completely silent.

It all depends on budget imo, if you can afford a full ssd option then go for it but don't sacrifice other hardware so you can put terabytes of media on solid state.
 
Don't know if it's just me but I have oodles of games installed on my main gaming pc. Yeah I have a nvme evo m. 2 boot and 3x 480 normal ssd's but I also have a 5tb spinning mechanical rust drive holding my games. As for music, critical data, photos and videos they all reside on my home server stuffed with 6 x 8tb spinning mechanical rust . When 8tb ssd's are £120 then I'll go all ssd but not until then.
 
Mass storage acting like a backup you could get a 3TB HDD 7200 rpm 3.5" for around 60-70 pounds.

For photos storage, HDD, for Windows, apps and games SSD.
 
This all depends on budget but personally on a build in 2020 I'd just get SSD's, I've got a 480gb SSD for Windows + programs and a 2tb SSD for games, if you're looking for a good SSD i'd recommend Samsung.
 
Where drive speed is the priority in my gaming PC, I use SSD's only for both Windows and games

Where storage space is the priority in my HTPC, I use a 250GB SSD for Windows and a 6TB WD Red for Recorded TV/Video
 
Use an SSD for boot & apps, then use HDD of your choice for mass storage. If you have a fast HDD such as a WD Black you can even put games on the HDD.

After this invest in memory (RAM), as Windows will cache regular accessed files, and files cached in memory are faster then any SSD yet to be made. You really want a min of 16GB however 32GB is becoming more common.
 
Joelw291 said:
if you're looking for a good SSD i'd recommend Samsung.
Click to expand...
With the prices Samsung usually charges there's little sense in them unless having used rolled up banknotes to light up Christmas candles.

There's very little real world normal home use performance differences between various drives, except some miserably bad exceptions.
And if usage is heavy with lots of writes, despite of all the hype Samsung doesn't even give any price level corresponding warranty.
Most Phison E12 based drives have warranty which covers more writes than even super expensive 970 Pros, while having price lot lower than 970 Evo.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/teamgroup-mp34-1tb-nvme-pcie-m.2-solid-state-drive-hd-00b-tg.html

And in SATA drives Samsung basically charges TLC drive prices for QLC drives.
While at the price of Samsung TLC SATA drive you can basically get NVMe drives.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom