NVME versus platter

hornetstinger · 23 Oct 2024 at 09:16

What games would you say aren't worth installing on a SSD/NVME? For example DCS flight sim must be installed on a SSD due to horrendously slow load times like 15 minutes on a regular drive.

I'm thinking due to cost per GB/TB, and also having one bigger drive is just easier to manage/navigate than several smaller nvme (and using the limited number of nvme slots)#

Or is it now due to all games pretty much being 100GB+ nvme is required for every game? Not only for loading times (which I don't mind if just a few more seconds) but for the constant reading of large amount of data/textures that regular platter drives simply can't keep up?

moppy89 · 23 Oct 2024 at 09:48

Is anyone really using spinning disks for apps/games still?

I've got one for media dump but nvme is cheap enough that I wouldn't even consider a HDD

Bubo · 23 Oct 2024 at 09:52

I personally wouldn't put any game on a HDD nowadays. All my mobo SATA ports would have SATA SSD's in them now, minimum 2TB each, in addition to NVME on the mobo. Very little real world speed difference between a sata ssd and an nvme. I'm not sure if the list of modern games which wouldn't be massively hampered by the speed of a HDD is very long to be honest. By and large if a game install wants say 100gb, its going to be thrashing the disc. My strategy would be to put one or more sata ssd drive aside for those games which you know you are permanently going to want to keep, mmos etc, and then have another for your floating games which get uninstalled when finished.

Btw, I just bought a new mobo which only has 4 motherboard sata ports, which is a change from my previous one which had 8, but you can get nvme to multiple sata port adaptors to give you extra sata ports for more sata ssds. I got one with adds 5 sata ports to a single nvme slot, but you can get up to 6 ports on the one card. Plus you can get proper pcie addin cards for more ports if you want the maximum speed for games, though spare pcie slots are probably even rarer nowadays. I will keep one hdd attached for storage, but by and large it is ssd/nvme for everything else. A ball ache to have so many drives yes, but hdd is not viable for game installs now I reckon.

Smeghead · 23 Oct 2024 at 13:37

I cannot think of a single reason to ever install something that needs loading (OS, programs, games) on a hard drive vs an SSD/nvme.

Tetras · 23 Oct 2024 at 13:52

hornetstinger said:
What games would you say aren't worth installing on a SSD/NVME?

Small indie games are okay, platformers and the like. Old games that have very small files (e.g. a GB or two).

hornetstinger said:
Or is it now due to all games pretty much being 100GB+ nvme is required for every game? Not only for loading times (which I don't mind if just a few more seconds) but for the constant reading of large amount of data/textures that regular platter drives simply can't keep up?

You might find this interesting:

I'd say the number of games that are unplayable or near unplayable on HDDs due to streaming assets is going to get bigger.

Bubo · 23 Oct 2024 at 17:33

I remember there is also a built in Windows feature called Windows Storage Spaces whereby it will treat a bunch of physically separate drives as a single volume. So you could have 4 ssd drives plugged in and windows would see them all as one drive letter with with the full combined capacity as one volume, so you don't have to mess about with multiple drive letters which was one of your criteria. Windows will install things across the drives seamlessly.

SpellowHouse · 11 Nov 2024 at 08:38

If you use Steam then it's really easy to move games. You could keep games on a slow drive to avoid having to download them all the time, but when you start a spell of playing the game, move it to a small NVMe.

I do this, sorta, in that I have a scrappy SSD that I used for long-term storage, then a really fast NVMe for play.

ginjaninja · 13 Nov 2024 at 15:09

I would buy more NVME before using spinning rust for live games..well thats not quite true..during the humps i have used spinning rust and it makes me feel dirty. Made a big mistake going for 2TB PCIEx5 rather than waiting for 4TB PCIx4 at same price to come into stock last cycle.

Bubo · 14 Nov 2024 at 08:29

To be honest its getting to the point where using a fast enough USB docking station where you can swap out SATA SSD's, each with one game install on, is going to be the way to deal with these ever growing games. It will basically be like going back to an Atari 2600 with SSD instead of cartridges. Like, oh I want to play Call of Duty 9, let me reach for my 250G Call of Duty 9 SSD and plug that in.