2 x SSDs. What to put where?

[ksred]

Hello everyone,

I was just seeking a bit of advice from you today. I am about to build my new PC and I will be using my current 120GB 840 EVO, and I also purchased a new 250GB 840 EVO.

I was originally thinking about putting just my OS on the 120GB, and then my programs & any games on the 250GB. I then thought this may be a waste of a 120GB SSD considering the space I'd have remaining, however I am cautious not to use too much because I want my boot time to be as fast as possible.

I was thinking of loading Steam/Origin/Spotify etc on my 250GB one, but my question is this: If Steam was set to load on system start-up, but its on my drive that is second load priority, would it have any real effect on start-up speeds?

Also, if I move my TEMP folder to my HDD, would that have a similar effect with programs like Spotify that also run on start-up? Is it even necessary to move the TEMP folders nowadays? I hear people saying it's not important considering your SSD will most likely die of something else before the day it does too many writes?

Basically, I just need your opinions on what you would do with these 2 SSDs and a HDD in terms of what programs to keep where, whether to move TEMP files etc. Sorry this has been a long post, thank you!

Kyle

 

[-Lone-]

I'd put the OS with programs that's in megabytes on the 120GB SSD, and put games that you play a lot or is your favorite onto the 250GB SSD, and put the games you don't play a lot and also music/movies onto the HDD.

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

Use your old SSD for backing up your documents, photos, music, and videos.

 

[ksred]

I'd put the OS with programs that's in megabytes on the 120GB SSD, and put games that you play a lot or is your favorite onto the 250GB SSD, and put the games you don't play a lot and also music/movies onto the HDD.

this seems like what im leaning towards mostly. would you put steam on the 250gb one, along with the games? or keep steam on the boot drive?

 

[-Lone-]

I'd put the OS with programs that's in megabytes on the 120GB SSD, and put games that you play a lot or is your favorite onto the 250GB SSD, and put the games you don't play a lot and also music/movies onto the HDD.

this seems like what im leaning towards mostly. would you put steam on the 250gb one, along with the games? or keep steam on the boot drive?

What I do is put all of my programs, including programs like Steam and Origin onto the boot drive, then I create a folder named something like "Steam Games or "Origin Games" onto my other drive and put my games there instead, so it'll take a bit less stress or storage off of my boot drive.

 

[ksred]

I'd put the OS with programs that's in megabytes on the 120GB SSD, and put games that you play a lot or is your favorite onto the 250GB SSD, and put the games you don't play a lot and also music/movies onto the HDD.

this seems like what im leaning towards mostly. would you put steam on the 250gb one, along with the games? or keep steam on the boot drive?

What I do is put all of my programs, including programs like Steam and Origin onto the boot drive, then I create a folder named something like "Steam Games or "Origin Games" onto my other drive and put my games there instead, so it'll take a bit less stress or storage off of my boot drive.

Makes perfect sense, thanks!
Should I store my pictures, videos, downloads etc on my HDD? Or could that effect boot time? (idk if Windows tries to find their locations during boot)

 

[-Lone-]

I'd put the OS with programs that's in megabytes on the 120GB SSD, and put games that you play a lot or is your favorite onto the 250GB SSD, and put the games you don't play a lot and also music/movies onto the HDD.

this seems like what im leaning towards mostly. would you put steam on the 250gb one, along with the games? or keep steam on the boot drive?

What I do is put all of my programs, including programs like Steam and Origin onto the boot drive, then I create a folder named something like "Steam Games or "Origin Games" onto my other drive and put my games there instead, so it'll take a bit less stress or storage off of my boot drive.

Makes perfect sense, thanks!
Should I store my pictures, videos, downloads etc on my HDD? Or could that effect boot time? (idk if Windows tries to find their locations during boot)

Yeah, since I doubt you'll need fast load for those, plus the SDDs are not big enough for big videos. And you'll boot from your SSD, not HDD, so no, it won't affect your boot time.

 

[chenw]

Oh, and move all your internet browsers and download programs' download folder onto the HDD, those don't need to be on the SSD's.

Moving documents folders to the HDD is also what I did. my OS ssd barely takes 40GB now, depending on how many programs you install, you could potentially squeeze another game onto the OS ssd

 

[ksred]

Oh, and move all your internet browsers and download programs' download folder onto the HDD, those don't need to be on the SSD's.

Moving documents folders to the HDD is also what I did. my OS ssd barely takes 40GB now, depending on how many programs you install, you could potentially squeeze another game onto the OS ssd

Got ya! Now my final thing to get my head around...
Should I actually move my TEMP file location to my HHD? Is it worth it?
Or should I just keep it and relocate my Spotify/Chrome cache?

 

[chenw]

If by temp, you mean the temporary folder download programs use before writing the finished file, I would.

As for internet cache, I haven't figured out how to move that folder, so I just resort to use cleaning software to clean it once every so often.