SSD drive use - games or OS ?

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

xpd

Chief Trash Bandit
8910 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1318

Mod Emeritus

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Topic # 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.

XPD / Gavin / DemiseNZ

For Free Games, Geekiness and Reviews, visit :

Home Of The Overrated Raccoons

Battlenet : XPD#11535 Origin/Steam/Epic/Uplay : xpdnz

1 | 2

4270 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 74

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 1089960 16-Jul-2014 13:56

2 people support this post

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.

Andib

908 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 595

Trusted

Reply # 1089964 16-Jul-2014 13:58

2 people support this post

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

834 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 260

Trusted

Reply # 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

Chief Trash Bandit
8910 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1318

Mod Emeritus

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 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 :)

XPD / Gavin / DemiseNZ

For Free Games, Geekiness and Reviews, visit :

Home Of The Overrated Raccoons

Battlenet : XPD#11535 Origin/Steam/Epic/Uplay : xpdnz

GregV

758 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 224

Reply # 1089991 16-Jul-2014 14:32

2 people support this post

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
18918 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2458

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 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

338 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 25

Trusted

Reply # 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

14109 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2527

Trusted

Subscriber

Reply # 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

AWS Certified Solution Architect Professional, Sysop Administrator Associate, and Developer Associate
TOGAF certified enterprise architect
Professional photographer

hio77

'That VDSL Cat'
8446 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1816

Trusted

Spark

Subscriber

Reply # 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

4025 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1076

Trusted

Reply # 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

1221 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 123

Reply # 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