Since SSD prices are still high and I have loads of games to download I'm looking at getting a good HDD for gaming. The Toshiba 2TB P300 has the smallest access time at 4.7s, will that be good enough to play games on? I remember a Batman game only ran properly when on an SSD so worried some of my games will struggle.
Toshiba 2TB P300 HDD and gaming
- Thread starter elrasho
- Start date
I don't know if it will be good enough for all games. But for those that are problematic, how about creating a fast-er partition for them beforehand? Anyone know if the following is still mildly useful with modern HDD's? http://lifehacker.com/how-to-short-stroke-your-hard-drive-for-optimal-speed-1598306074
It warns that having stuff on the larger partition will negate the benefit, but I imagine if it's just games on that HDD, it won't have to go looking in the larger partition at all when you are playing a game on the smaller partition. Assuming you have an SSD for OS already.
And if not, grab a second 2TB HDD at some point and Raid 0 them? Will still be a lot cheaper than a 1TB SSD.
It warns that having stuff on the larger partition will negate the benefit, but I imagine if it's just games on that HDD, it won't have to go looking in the larger partition at all when you are playing a game on the smaller partition. Assuming you have an SSD for OS already.
And if not, grab a second 2TB HDD at some point and Raid 0 them? Will still be a lot cheaper than a 1TB SSD.
Was reading up a bit more on short-stroking HDDs - https://www.pcmech.com/article/performance-tuning-black-art-short-stroke-hard-drive/
Ran a HDTune benchmark on a 1TB Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 out of curiosity, to see what percentage of that drive would make sense to partition first:
Looks like 30% would be the sweet spot for this drive. That's when read speeds begin to decline. Could make it even smaller than 30% with a 2TB drive, to get even better access times (yellow dots), as those appear to lengthen right from the start (7.5ms average or so @ 0% size, into the 20ms+ @ 100% size).
So maybe raiding two drives and then short-stroking them to create a fast partition for games that need the best read speed/access times, would be optimal (other than splurging on SSD).
Ran a HDTune benchmark on a 1TB Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 out of curiosity, to see what percentage of that drive would make sense to partition first:
Looks like 30% would be the sweet spot for this drive. That's when read speeds begin to decline. Could make it even smaller than 30% with a 2TB drive, to get even better access times (yellow dots), as those appear to lengthen right from the start (7.5ms average or so @ 0% size, into the 20ms+ @ 100% size).
So maybe raiding two drives and then short-stroking them to create a fast partition for games that need the best read speed/access times, would be optimal (other than splurging on SSD).
What about one of these: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/seag...b-s-64mb-cache-oem-st2000dx002-hd-36n-se.html
Noticed a lot of reviews saying they've had no issued with games stuttering using these drives
Noticed a lot of reviews saying they've had no issued with games stuttering using these drives
All SSDs do for games is load quicker and the games that benefit from this mostly are ones that have huge maps to load or lots of details.
If you have a lot of games just get a 2TB SSD and stuff the games library on there.
if you truly want the best HDD go for the Raptors at 1500rpm, I don't know if you can still get these new tho or what the speeds are like on them
If you have a lot of games just get a 2TB SSD and stuff the games library on there.
if you truly want the best HDD go for the Raptors at 1500rpm, I don't know if you can still get these new tho or what the speeds are like on them
Caporegime
Get a 2tb sad
Rich man walking
Rich man walking