Tech Help HDD or SSD

[Macgyver]

I have 226 games on Steam, would like to get more on my computer but I only have a 1TB HDD that can only support about 35 games. A lot of my games that I have installed are fairly high in HDD space.

I looked into higher HDD space but I don't know what I should get if I want to have the majority of my games installed. I'm thinking I have about 3TB of HDD space for the games that I want to have installed but I am not 100% sure on how much hard drive space it will be in total.

Also having the games on HDD or SSD. I have had the 1TB for the last 3-4 years that have had my games on it, I have had to uninstall and reinstall games all the time because I don't have the space.

Should I get a 3-5 TB HDD for all my games or get 2-3 SSD that are 1TB each, all depends. I need to upgrade my computer (complete overhaul most likely, other than my video card, that is relevantly new) eventually, sooner rather than later. Just want to see who else has a HDD or SSD setup is game wise.

Thanks
Macgyver

 

[Aetos17]

If you have the money I would get all SSDs. That being said the more economic solution would be to get a combination of the two. So put your most frequently used games or games you want to load faster on the SSD and then the less used games on the HDDs.

 

[Macgyver]

Huh, interesting, I will think about that while I save up.

Thanks for the suggestion Aetos17.

 

[Snipeye]

For what it's worth, an SSD+HDD combination is the most cost-effective method. Have the OS and most common used programs on the SSD; use HDD for mass storage, such as music, videos, games, etc. I have a 120GB SSD matched with two HDDS (750GB, 640GB) on one computer. Been eyeing 1 or 2 TB upgrades for a new build with a 500GB SSD or two...

 

[1010101Binary]

I've got a Samsung SSD for my OS and most used applications (and games) such as BF4. I also have a 3 TB harddrive for all my videos, pictures, etc... This is the most effective approach to take.

 

[Mister36]

Same as others, I have 500 Gb SSD for OS and TF2, 1 TB drive for other stuff. The Samsung drive I have is really good.

 

[LeviTheDegu]

If you have the money for three 1 TB SSDs, I'd go with a 1 TB SSD and a 3-4 TB HDD

 

[Macgyver]

If you have the money for three 1 TB SSDs, I'd go with a 1 TB SSD and a 3-4 TB HDD

I have a 120GB SSD that only has my OS on it and a few other things, and then the 1TB that has 600GB of steam games installed. I will most likely go that route so that I can have my main games that I play on the 1TB SSD and then the rest on a 3-4 maybe 5 TB HHD.

I will soon enough count the HDD space for all of my games, I feel that it exceeds 3 TB, it might not but who knows. I have a lot of high space games and a good amount of them I don't have installed because of my 1TB that I only have installed.

 

[Snipeye]

You have time to play all those games?

 

[JayFromEpic]

As long as its in the budget, I would go with SSD all the way.

 

[Macgyver]

You have time to play all those games?

I end up playing them every so often, the reason its 600GB is cause a lot them are high GB installations.

I'll just go SSD all the way when I have the money.

 

[Steelbilly]

Same as others, I have 500 Gb SSD for OS and TF2, 1 TB drive for other stuff. The Samsung drive I have is really good.

^ This ^

I just cloned my OS drive onto a 500G SSD a couple of weekends ago in my gaming laptop and I cannot believe the difference.

Old Drive / Before Upgrade 500G HDD with everything on it:
Even with nearly OCD levels of keeping it defragged it was taking a few minutes at start up before I could even launch a web browser - let alone something like Photoshop and open an image. I was also having problems in TF2 with intermittent freezing which is what ultimately led me to getting a SSD (many others have this issue and a faster drive seems to be the cure).

New 500G SSD for OS and Using the old 500G HDD for storage:
All I had to do was pop in the new SSD to the spare slot on my laptop, clone the existing HDD onto the new SSD, and make the new SSD the primary boot drive. So I am running the exact same install of Windows with all my programs as I was before - no new OS install, finding drivers, etc. It was crazy easy and didn't take long.

On the new drive I can power up the laptop and have Chrome on the forums and Photoshop open with a recent file in ~ 20 seconds. It completely cured my TF2 issues, too. Wish I had done this a while back but it is cool that the prices have dropped so much on the SSD now though.

Edit: For me I'll ever buy another HDD, but I cannot see replacing the existing ones I have in other machines while they are still in good health. So the OS on SSD and storage on my old HDD was a good option. We have a similar setup on our desktop machine.

 

[MrDJSilva]

4TB SSHD (Games, Music, Videos Ect)
1TB SSD (OS and Applications)

^ This is what id do personally

 

[Mister36]

In regards to what Steelbilly said, yea the startup times are fantastic.

I have my OS on my SSD, Windows 10. Someone actually timed me when I asked, and I can be in teamspeak, restart my PC, and get back into TS within 45 seconds.

 

[Macgyver]

In regards to what Steelbilly said, yea the startup times are fantastic.

I have my OS on my SSD, Windows 10. Someone actually timed me when I asked, and I can be in teamspeak, restart my PC, and get back into TS within 45 seconds.

My current PC that I have a 120GB SSD with my OS it was able to boot in 11 seconds the first time it was booted up. Staples Easy Tech helped me with getting my PC to work because when I got the parts and put it together it did not boot up right. When everything was good it booted up really fast. Now though it is about 15-20 seconds.

 

[Macgyver]

In regards to what Steelbilly said, yea the startup times are fantastic.

I have my OS on my SSD, Windows 10. Someone actually timed me when I asked, and I can be in teamspeak, restart my PC, and get back into TS within 45 seconds.

My current PC that I have a 120GB SSD with my OS it was able to boot in 11 seconds the first time it was booted up. Staples Easy Tech helped me with getting my PC to work because when I got the parts and put it together it did not boot up right. When everything was good it booted up really fast. Now though it is about 15-20 seconds.

It seems like the majority said SSD all the way so when the time comes I will most likely get a 1TB SSD (my OS) with a 2 TB SSD (more played games) and then a 3TB HHD (less played games and other stuff). I don't really know what the setup is going to be, doing an overhaul in the next 6 months to a year will happen hopefully. I can't "count my eggs before they hatch" or I will be out of luck and not be able to upgrade anything.

 

[RockinRnR]

Hybrid is the best of both worlds...I put one in my son's rig, which is my old rig, that he uses to completely wreck on!! It is an old i7-920 overclocked with a GTX-660 card and now the aforementioned SSD+HDD Hybrid drive, its just like his old set up, just loads much faster and now has storage to boot! There are option for 1-2-and 4 TB drives for way less that SSD's
See it here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178381