Any Benefit to Running Dedicated HD for Just the OS?

[hockster]

I'm rebuilding my gaming PC and currently have two HD's, a WD 150GB velociraptor 10,000rpm drive that I dedicated for just the OS, and a WD Black 1TB 7200rpm drive for general storage/games. Is there any benefit to continuing to run the Velociraptor as the dedicated drive for the OS? I was thinking of just consolidating everything onto the 1TB drive.

 

[DarkSable]

There is - the exact same reason people buy SSDs to install windows to, while keeping data and games on other drives.

It makes the computer boot faster, it makes windows feel snappier, it likely makes accessing small files like homework significantly quicker...

 

[Blueberries]

There's no sense in consolidating your drives, if anything you should buy a 128GB 850 Pro and use the migration software to transfer your OS drive to the SSD. They're incredibly affordable right now and seeing as you're rebuilding a PC...

Keep in mind a larger SSD for EVERYTHING is the best option. Heavy video games can be 20GB or more with several gigabytes of cached files that you'll want to be read from something with fast read IOPS.

If you're using less than 512GB now total save yourself the trouble and BUY A 512GB SSD. It'll take you years to fill it anyways and by then you can afford more.

 

[DarkSable]

^ Yes and no.

I could fill a 512 GB ssd within an afternoon, easily.

Plus, most games gain absolutely no benefit from being on an SSD - the ones that do are games like MMOs, or Skyrim, where you have a LOT of loading screens that actually hinder you. (As opposed to something like CoD or Battlefield, where loading faster just means waiting for everyone else to load so the match can start.)

 

[Blueberries]

I don't enjoy waiting screens when I play video games, and I (like most) almost never use my computer for that purpose. Regardless: you don't fill a drive with 512GB in an afternoon, and if you do, it's a moot point because the OP doesn't.


If the OP has been using less than 1TB for years it's safe to say they can probably get away with 512GB, and it's not like they have to throw out their HDD, they can always keep it around for backup.

 

[hockster]

Appreciate all the feedback. I'm mainly asking because it seems like my OS and perhaps a few other small utilities programs/drivers (not games that I'm aware of) have consumed nearly half of my 150GB in about a year or so. My 1TB drive which has multiple FPS games mainly (CoD's and Battlefield series) has consumed around 40% of the space. I'm a little concerned with this new build (i7-4790K, ASUS Max. VII Hero, G.Skill CAS 8) in that my OS in time is going to start consuming a lot of the space on the primary 150GB drive. Seems odd that OS's and drivers are starting to consume so much space. I've in the past about going with an SSD, however my friend who has a higher end rig than my past build actually has a bit slower load times on servers. Perhaps it's just his configuration. On servers, I tend to be one of the first on. Past build was an i7-920, ASUS P6T Deluxe V2, CAS 8 memory with those HD's.

From the feedback here, it seems like there is benefit to allocating the OS to it's own drive, however consolidating everything onto a 512GB SSD might be the best solution. I could save some space by eliminating some games I no longer play. Looking at reviews on Newegg, it seems like Samsung is one of the good ones to go with? Any other suggestions? Thanks again for taking the time to provide the feedback.

 

[ArtPog]

hockster:
Let me first address your initial query about whether it would be desirable to use your 150 GB VelociRaptor as a boot drive and your WD 1 TB HDD as a secondary drive for storage purposes.

Based on my experience with a similar hardware configuration - the WD 300 GB VelociRaptor and a Seagate 1 TB HDD I found no appreciable difference in boot time using either Win 7 or Win 8.1 OS) when either HDD served as the boot drive. Now I must admit that the same amount of total data on those disks was about 150 GB as I recall. (I no longer am working with that configuration). So it seemed sensible for me to use the Seagate 1 TB as a single drive in the PC combining the OS and all other program data and use the VelociRaptor for other purposes. I could discern no significant difference in accessing & working with programs/data between the two types of configurations. Now I must confess that I'm not a gamer so I don't know if that would have made any significant differences.

Anyway all the above is moot now that you've apparently reached the ideal solution of purchasing a 512 GB SSD and depending upon the volume of your data utilize the 1 TB HDD for storage. With your high-end components it's practically criminal not to do so. You'll never regret it. Like all of us who have worked with SSDs your only regret will be that you couldn't do it sooner.

By all means Samsung is the one to go with. I've worked with nearly a dozen different HDDs over the past few years and the Samsung 850 Pro is the one I would choose when push comes to shove.

 

[hockster]

Thanks for the great feedback ArtPog. That type of info was actually what I was looking for. Regarding not being able to test it with online gaming, I doubt there would be any significant different in map load times. We'd probably be splitting hairs in measure the difference.