SSD drive use - games or OS ?

Forums › Desktop computing › SSD drive use - games or OS ?

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13691 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#150251 16-Jul-2014 13:49

Looking at getting a 120Gb SSD (would look larger but budget dictates at this point), but wondering how I should use it..... I'm bit of a gamer and those games live on a 250GB partition (E: - approx 120GB used).
All my drives are currently 7200RPM mechanical (Seagate/WD)

Common sense would say to use the SSD for the games drive, as thats where most of the thrashing/loading will occur..... yet another bit of me is saying to use it for the boot drive and swap file......

So, poll time...

What do I use the SSD for :

A) Games drive
B) OS drive

TIA :)

PS: My PC stays turned on most of the time, and when I do need to reboot, its reasonably quick to load back into Windows.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

LinkTree - kiwiblast.co.nz - Lego and more

Support Kiwi music! The People Black Smoke Trigger Like A Storm Devilskin

NZ GEEKS Discord______________________________

1 | 2

4957 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1089960 16-Jul-2014 13:56

Personally, I spent a bit more got a 250GB and use it for OS and games. All photos are currently on there too, but am in the process of moving all media onto the server/nas.
So it will be dedicated to just the OS and games and essential apps.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

Andib

1354 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1089964 16-Jul-2014 13:58

If you're budgeting on SSDs sold in NZ, I would look at amazon and go for a 256 so you can run both your games and OS on it for around the price of a 128GB from NZ

Glassboy

850 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1089971 16-Jul-2014 14:07

xpd: Looking at getting a 120Gb SSD (would look larger but budget dictates at this point), but wondering how I should use it..... I'm bit of a gamer and those games live on a 250GB partition (E: - approx 120GB used).
All my drives are currently 7200RPM mechanical (Seagate/WD)

Common sense would say to use the SSD for the games drive, as thats where most of the thrashing/loading will occur..... yet another bit of me is saying to use it for the boot drive and swap file......

So, poll time...

What do I use the SSD for :

A) Games drive
B) OS drive

TIA :)

PS: My PC stays turned on most of the time, and when I do need to reboot, its reasonably quick to load back into Windows.

If you're using Windows I'd put the OS (inc paging file) on the SSD and the games on the mechanical drive. The reading of the game resources is generally sequential so the performance gain is less than the gain you'll get from the OS being on the SSD. I did this for my son on an old laptop. It ran Minecraft as fast as my Dell XPS15.

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13691 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1089990 16-Jul-2014 14:31

Andib: If you're budgeting on SSDs sold in NZ, I would look at amazon and go for a 256 so you can run both your games and OS on it for around the price of a 128GB from NZ

Good point... looks like I can get a 240 for around $130NZD and if its not free shipping, only a few $$ more.... so will look at that :)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

LinkTree - kiwiblast.co.nz - Lego and more

Support Kiwi music! The People Black Smoke Trigger Like A Storm Devilskin

NZ GEEKS Discord______________________________

GregV

928 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1089991 16-Jul-2014 14:32

I have a 250GB SSD, and a large HDD
OS + 'performance games' live on the SSD (separate partitions), with everything else (including standard games) living on the HDD

Batman

Mad Scientist
29687 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1090050 16-Jul-2014 15:36

depends on what you do more. it is as effective for OS as it is for games. games load times will bottom out with SSD. everything else load will also bottom out with OS on SSD.

so if you game 100% then game on SSD
if you game <50% i'd go OS

shermanp

355 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1090078 16-Jul-2014 16:08

OS (especially Windows) all the way IMHO.

It's amazing how much quicker Windows updates occur on a SSD compared to a mechanical drive--especially on a fresh install!

timmmay

20423 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1090144 16-Jul-2014 16:51

GregV: I have a 250GB SSD, and a large HDD
OS + 'performance games' live on the SSD (separate partitions), with everything else (including standard games) living on the HDD

This

hio77

'That VDSL Cat'
12999 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lizard Networks

Subscriber

#1090154 16-Jul-2014 17:05

I.store most games on my hdds. Keeping my more frequently used ones on the SSD where possible.

With the price of ssds now, you may aswell spring a little more, get a decent sized one and preferably not the cheaper ranges.

Things like nvidias updater will.slowly eat away your disk space.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

eXDee

4032 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1090155 16-Jul-2014 17:05

The OS for sure. You might cut down load times in games a bit but it will be nothing compared to how much your OS will benefit from the faster IO.
If you want to put games on it, bring them over to it from the mechanical drive via a NTFS junction point.

TwoSeven

1604 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1090203 16-Jul-2014 19:25

You will get the biggest performance gain from putting the OS on an SSD, however, getting an SSD big enough to have both the applications and the OS installed can be useful - but I would put [game] data on a separate disk (it can be a slower one).

Software Engineer
(the practice of real science, engineering and management)

Gender Neutral
(a person who believes in equality and who does not believe in/use stereotypes. Examples such as gender, binary, nonbinary, male/female etc.)

...they/their/them...