AltecXP Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 (edited) I'm trying to figure out what makes more sense in my situation. I have the notebook in my signature( Alienware 17 R3) with 128GB SSD boot drive and 1TB HDD for storage. I am only using about 40-50GB of my boot SSD and I have about 500-600 used on my 1TB HDD (I'm not on it right now to get exact numbers). I'd like to add a bit more space, nothing crazy. I'm trying to decide if I should get a 512GB SSD to go into my 2nd M.2 slot and move my games to that (about 150-200GB of games) and free up space on my 1TB HDD for only storage, or should I just get a 2TB HDD to replace my 1TB? Which seems more logical? I know that the HDD will be cheaper, but would there be much benefit to moving the games to an SSD instead of HDD other than load times? They do not feel all that slow to load right now to me currently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAZMINATOR Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 You can use SSD for OS for quick boot ups. HDD for backup/movies/games/etc. You can get at least 2TB ... or you can get a 4TB which is enough for your games. You can try to put games on SSD .. it's up to you. But If I were you, I'd put in secondary HDD in case the OS drive goes bad... I could replace it without worrying about losing the data. SSD drives may not be the best for games or backup... But if you think it's best, then go ahead and do that... I like SSD drives for OS only... and HDD for data/backup... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xendrome Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Well do you want more space, or more speed? That's a pretty easy question to answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coth Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Hell a lot of benefits. Lots of modern games are 40GB+. It takes ages to load them from HDD. I remember ARK was loading some over 10 minutes from HDD and just around 20 seconds from SSD when I moved it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AltecXP Posted February 1, 2016 Author Share Posted February 1, 2016 9 minutes ago, xendrome said: Well do you want more space, or more speed? That's a pretty easy question to answer. What I'm asking is, which will give me more benefits? Both options result in more storage space. The difference is in how it's allocated, the pro/cons of both options, and if the cost of an SSD to put the games on is really worth the price difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra.Xtreme Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 My suggestion would be to get a 512GB M.2. I paid roughly $150 for the Samsung 850 Evo, so they're pretty inexpensive. Move your games on there, and you'll benefit from the speed. Since you haven't tapped all the space on your 1TB, I think a SSD would be the best investment. Open Minded 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technique Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Out of interest what do you guys have your (for example) iTunes library saved to? I will assume everything is on a HDD & not the SSD? Would you put ALL programs on the SSD or do you put any on the HDD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Fahim S. MVC Posted February 1, 2016 MVC Share Posted February 1, 2016 8 minutes ago, Technique said: Out of interest what do you guys have your (for example) iTunes library saved to? I will assume everything is on a HDD & not the SSD? Would you put ALL programs on the SSD or do you put any on the HDD? I have everything on SSD. I don't have mechanical drives in any of my desktops or laptops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xrobwx71 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 I upgraded from HDD to SSD during my "deployment" in Battlefield 4 and my experience with "load times" in BF4 via HDD/SSD are as follows. Battlefield 4 load time (map change) on a 3 TB Western Digital HDD sometimes 1-1.5 minutes. Battlefield 4 load time (map change) on a Crucial Mx 100 SSD 512 GB is 12-20 seconds. (for me) OS and games go on my SSD. Everything else (downloads folder for instance) goes on 1 of 2 HDD. I have a 4 year old hence a loooot of pictures and vids. 2cd HDD is pure backup. I also have a 4TB Lacie NAS in RAID 1 as well for the pictures and vids backup and offsite work point of sale server backup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JHBrown Subscriber¹ Posted February 1, 2016 Subscriber¹ Share Posted February 1, 2016 25 minutes ago, Fahim S. said: I have everything on SSD. I don't have mechanical drives in any of my desktops or laptops. Same here. SSD only desktop. I recently moved to a 512GB Samsung 950 Pro running Windows 7, moved my 512GB 850 Pro to virtual machine duty, and I have a 1TB EVO for storage. I'm not a data hoarder, so 1TB as storage suits me fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
binaryzero Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 This is the worst question to ask on this forum, LOLOL. How long is a piece of rope? If you need TBs of space, mechanical ,if you only need a handful, SSD would be fine, or even a normal mechanical. The SSHDs aren't too bad either, use a couple of them in my box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odom Member Posted February 2, 2016 Member Share Posted February 2, 2016 I have 2 SSDs (500GB), and 2x 4TB HDD. (details are in my signature) On the first SSD I have my OS and all the apps. On the second SSD I have all the games. On one HDD I redirected "My Documents" to and I keep all the big stuff (iso files, pictures, music collection, temporary downloads, etc...). If my SSD with OS dies, I can re-install it and not lose any personal stuff. On the last HDD I use for backups. Desktop and Favorites from the OS SSD get copied to the last 4TB drive, as well as all My Documents from the first 4TB drive. I used to have one SSD, but for the past two years games start to get bigger and bigger and with the average game requiring 30-40GB space fills up quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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