Best use of SSD

[devnulllore]

Hi,

I've looked around on Google and have not found much on this exclusive question. If I get 2 hard drives for my new small gaming system I am building, one 128G SSD and one 2TB 7200 Sata III, would my games play a bit better if I used the Hard drive for my system and the SSD for my games or visa-versa?

Thanks so much!

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

SSD - system (OS)

HDD - save games to, run off of.

[articuno1au]

I'd install my OS on the SSD (to make Windows run faster (which will help with games)) and game on the HDD.

When you have games you'd like to play, I'd use the mklink command to move them onto your SSD >.< That way you get all the benefits of large HDD storage with the speed benefits of the SSD.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753194(v=ws.10).aspx <- For the tech explanation

http://www.heartlessgamer.com/2011/11/tip-how-to-move-steam-games-to-another.html <- For a real use guide to it. It'll work for everything, not just steam games >.<

[ashpowell]

Usually the best way is having the SSD for your system, then the Standard HD for your media..

In my opinion games running from the hardrive are already fast enough, without the need to run them from SSD - plus one that small wouldn't fit many games on along with the operating system which is what will benefit the most from an SSD

[articuno1au]

There's a ton of benefit to running a game from an SSD so long as the game is coded well. If the object loading code is crap, the faster media won't help.

DOTA2 in particular loads extremely nicely off of an SSD >.<

[ViperAFK]

SSD's can make games load significantly faster, but the downside is on the other hand games take a lot of space and SSD's cost a lot per GB. Right now I have my OS and all my apps on an SSD and still keep my games on a HDD because I have many of them.

[articuno1au]

Thus.. You know.. Mklink >.>

Mklink is your friend..

[devnulllore]

Thus.. You know.. Mklink >.>

Mklink is your friend..

Ok, I'll remember that, mklink, mklink, mklink, ok! ...... uhhmmm what was that again?

(dev ties a string around his finger)

Ok, does anyone remember what the heck this string is supposed to make me remember?

<g>

Will do, SSD=OS, HDD=Games, Data and uhhhh... uhmmmm.. oh yeah mklink!

[Phouchg]

Eer, how does mklink give speed benefits, though? Am I holding it wrong? :s

[articuno1au]

Mklink is a symbolic link (kind of like a HTTP Permanent Redirect if you will).

I install Steam on my HDD disk along with my terabyte of games.

I then copy a game onto the SSD, and mklink the folder thusly (HDD and SSD in place of drive letters, and your paths will vary obviously):

mklink HDD:\Steam\Steamapps\Common\Game SSD:\SteamCache\Game /J

Then when I launch the game from steam, it looks on the HDD and gets redirected to the SSD (like an HTML redirect) and loads from there :)

When you want to move the game back, delete the mklink (it appears as a link in the original folder) and copy the game back to the HDD.

At the moment I've linked SimCity from my Origin folder on the HDD onto my SSD and play it by launching it from Origin.

[Phouchg]

Ah, the obvious thing (and the only sane explanation) I've obviously missed. You do copy the game to an SSD by hand :)

[articuno1au]

You do indeed >.<

Sorry, easy once you know how it works :p

It's brilliant, I use it all the time now >.<

[spaceelf]

You do indeed >.<

Sorry, easy once you know how it works :p

It's brilliant, I use it all the time now >.<

I used to, but now I have enough SSDs to not bother. And Steam and all the others support installing on other drives for a while now, so I haven't used mklink in a really long time.

[articuno1au]

I don't have to either, I just have my HDD set up so I don't have to reinstall steam/origin between formats.

240GB SSD <3

[Phouchg]

While GUI tools, are (arguably) ungodly and blasphemous ways for real admins and pros, I've now found a shell extension that might be of some use regarding junctions:

http://schinagl.priv...nkshellext.html

It does the whole set of "droids you're not looking for" type of links, but there's also an easy to understand help on what each of the things means and does.

[Noir Angel]

Most cost effective use is as a system drive. Games will load a bit faster if you have an SSD but these days most games don't load on the fly anyway so the performance benefit in games won't be that substantial if you have enough ram. I can tell you from my own experience however that having an SSD as a system drive boosts system responsiveness quite substantially.

[xendrome]

There's a ton of benefit to running a game from an SSD so long as the game is coded well. If the object loading code is crap, the faster media won't help.

Going from any mechanical HDD to a decent SSD is going to always yield performance benefits, regardless of how the "object loading code" is "coded" :huh:

[articuno1au]

There are a ton of games that have loading objects tied to timers and all kinds of retarded **** >.<

There's a couple that have the object loading on the render loop :o