Question 500GB SSD or 2 250GB SSDs

[Behrox]

Hi guys, I'm finally getting an SSD installed on my desktop, but am torn between either choosing a 500GB drive or a couple of 250GB ones.

Now I know that 500GB is the obvious choice in most cases, but I'm thinking along the lines of actually separating my OS and programming/productivity applications like IntelliJ, PyCharm, a couple of IBM's proprietary development softwares, Docker etc with my OS in one SSD and my frequently played games in the other.

I also have a 1TB HDD with in my system that servers as my main drive for now.

Do you think there would be a benefit in choosing 2 SSDs or just keeping a bigger 500GB one going to be a better choice?

 

[Lutfij]

What are the make and models of both SSD's? Do you have the necessary ports on your system to accommodate both? I'd get a single large drive when shopping for an SSD since you're almost always going to have to reinstall the apps after a clean install of OS.

 

[Behrox]

What are the make and models of both SSD's? Do you have the necessary ports on your system to accommodate both? I'd get a single large drive when shopping for an SSD since you're almost always going to have to reinstall the apps after a clean install of OS.

Thanks for the quick reply. They are gonna be Samsung EVO 860s in either case and I have 4 SATA ports only 1 of which is being used.

 

[cryoburner]

I don't know how pricing is where you are, but typically 500GB drives should offer better cost per GB than 250GB ones.

And there are other good drives worth considering, like the Crucial MX500, which tends to cost less than the 860 Evos while offering similar performance.

Or, if you have an M.2 slot, there's the 1TB Intel 660p QLC NVME drive, which at least in the US currently costs about the same as two 250GB 860 Evos. Performance-wise, the 1TB 660p will in most common situations outperform SATA-based drives, but being QLC-based, write performance can significantly drop when very large writes are performed within a short period that fill the drive's SLC cache. The size of the SLC cache varies depending on how full the drive is, ranging from around 100GB or more with the drive less than half-full, down to around 12GB with the drive mostly filled. See the chart on the first page of this review for example...

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13078/the-intel-ssd-660p-ssd-review-qlc-nand-arrives

 

[feelinfroggy777]

Go for the larger single SSD. Larger SSD's are cheaper, perform better, and last longer than their smaller counter parts. You can get (2) 250gb SSD and run them in a RAID 0, but you wont notice much of an impact unless you are doing large file transfers across drives.

 

[USAFRet]

Single 500GB drive.

Keep your applications on the same drive as the OS.
Brings no benefit to have them on a second drive.

And don't do a RAID 0 with 2x 250GB drives.
Serves no purpose.

 

[Behrox]

Single 500GB drive.

Keep your applications on the same drive as the OS.
Brings no benefit to have them on a second drive.

And don't do a RAID 0 with 2x 250GB drives.
Serves no purpose.

I have no intention of going Raid 0.

I'm in Pakistan and here 2 250GBs and a single 500GB cost the same give or take a few bucks.

Also the Crucial is not available here by any retailer so yeah there's that.

Also also @cryoburner, I have a 3rd gen ivy bridge motherboard so no m.2 NVMe for me.

Thanks for your feedback guys. I appreciate it

 

[Satan-IR]

I'd personally get a single 500GB SSD over two 250GBs too. Larger drives usually perform a little better (though I'd say difference is marginal on SATA III for day to day use).