Storage layout problems!!

Craterloads · 4 Feb 2013 at 18:41

Ok first off only got

2 x SATA 6GBs Ports
1 x SATA II Port
1 x Unused M-Sata Port

Currently have got 2 x 256GB Samsung 830 SSDs, 1 for OS and 1 for Steam and a big 3TB for storage (which is full BTW)

Problem is 256GB is too small for steam and 256GB is too big for OS and is 30% full after all programs installed.

Options

Either sell both drives, buy a small 64GB SSD for OS and buy a big say 512GB Crucial M4 for steam.

Or Sell both and get a small 64GB SSD for OS and a good 2TB drive for steam?

I'm probably just being fussy and the games will be fine on a standard drive instead of OS?

Or i could raid drives for one big steam drive and get a small M-Sata SSD for OS, but will only be running at SATA II, will this have much real world impact on load times within OS going from 6GB/s to 3GB/s?

decto · 4 Feb 2013 at 19:38

I assume the board will boot from a raid array,

Raid the drives and have the OS and steam together. You can sit steam in it's own folder at the root rather than nested and enjoy space and speed.

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Craterloads · 4 Feb 2013 at 19:52

Won't that be a bit risky and will I lose trim?

wazza300 · 4 Feb 2013 at 20:19

Why not pick up another 3tb hdd for steam/games? And see how it performs,should be fine aslong as the OS is on an ssd

Then you can keep for spare or sell one Samsung 830?

Craterloads · 4 Feb 2013 at 20:33

Possibly, considering I've all ready bought another 3tb drive which I was going to mount externally, then I could keep one 256gb sad and use steam mover for games I am currently playing.

decto · 4 Feb 2013 at 20:35

Craterloads said:
Won't that be a bit risky and will I lose trim?

Depends if you have a backup solution. I use WHS so restores take a few button presses and a couple of hours wait which makes it low risk.

You may loose trim but modern drives are quite good at looking after themselves unless they are in a heavy duty workstation / server

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MonsterMoshi · 4 Feb 2013 at 22:44

Craterloads said:
Possibly, considering I've all ready bought another 3tb drive which I was going to mount externally, then I could keep one 256gb sad and use steam mover for games I am currently playing.

Never heard of Steam mover before! I think you have just saved me a lot of money on a new SSD!

I have a fair few games but I tend to find myself going through a phase of one game and then wont play that for months so this will now be really useful

Clav · 7 Feb 2013 at 10:17

Steam now natively supports installing games in different drives. unfortunately I couldn't find a way to move already install games, but if you delete one and then reinstall you should get the option to put it on whichever drive you choose.

David_VI · 7 Feb 2013 at 13:08

Why is the OS drive too big for the OS? Do you not want to put anything else on it except for the OS?

Curious because i'm hoping to move to an SSD from having a 1TB drive full of stuff..

Craterloads · 7 Feb 2013 at 16:47

David_VI said:
Why is the OS drive too big for the OS? Do you not want to put anything else on it except for the OS?

Curious because i'm hoping to move to an SSD from having a 1TB drive full of stuff..

Well I only had os/office/ and a few other program's which only take around 40gb. Had steam installed on other drive, like to keep it all separate. So main drive had 200gb free. Didn't want to fill it up with music/videos/junk as would be a waste. Plus if one drive died would only lose either to os or games not both. Which actually played out well as my is drive died but my 240gb worth of games survived.

Armageus · 7 Feb 2013 at 16:52

Craterloads said:
1 x Unused M-Sata Port

Or i could raid drives for one big steam drive and get a small M-Sata SSD for OS

Bear in mind that this route may not even be viable as the M-Sata port is quite often shared with one of the physical SATA ports (or at least on the few Z77 motherboards I looked at with this feature)

David_VI · 7 Feb 2013 at 17:01

Craterloads said:
Well I only had os/office/ and a few other program's which only take around 40gb. Had steam installed on other drive, like to keep it all separate. So main drive had 200gb free. Didn't want to fill it up with music/videos/junk as would be a waste. Plus if one drive died would only lose either to os or games not both. Which actually played out well as my is drive died but my 240gb worth of games survived.

Ah that makes more sense! I'm considering an SSD myself now so this has been on my brain and hurting it.. I've made a thread about it (http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=23715141) so if anyone would like to jump in and counsel me i'd be mega happy!