[SOLVED] NVMe or sata ssd for os

[thatoneotherguy]

Hi I’m looking at getting another ssd for my computer. I currently have a seagate barracuda 2tb hdd and a 240gb toshiba tr200. I use the ssd for my os and the hdd for everything else, but want another ssd for the games I play frequently. I’m looking at a NVMe, the Samsung 970 evo plus 250gb, but don’t know if to use this for my os and move my games to the tr200 or the other way around. Would appreciate some help. Thanks.

 

[RealBeast]

Games would not really benefit from NVMe speed. I would use NVMe for OS and Adobe/etc. scratch disks where IOPS and small random makes more of a difference. Games can be on a SATA SSD or HDD, as only level loading is really relevant.

Programs, including STEAM, are also on my OS NVMe.

 

[thatoneotherguy]

Games would not really benefit from NVMe speed. I would use NVMe for OS and Adobe/etc. scratch disks where IOPS and small random makes more of a difference. Games can be on a SATA SSD or HDD, as only level loading is really relevant.

Programs, including STEAM, are also on my OS NVMe.

Thanks for the help

 

[Irational]

Hi I’m looking at getting another ssd for my computer. I currently have a seagate barracuda 2tb hdd and a 240gb toshiba tr200. I use the ssd for my os and the hdd for everything else, but want another ssd for the games I play frequently. I’m looking at a NVMe, the Samsung 970 evo plus 250gb, but don’t know if to use this for my os and move my games to the tr200 or the other way around. Would appreciate some help. Thanks.

I would recommend the NVMe for the OS drive. The NVMe has a much higher throughput than Sata3 (uses 4 of the 16 channels on the PCIe 3.0 bus). I use the Samsung 970 EVO Plus in both the onboard NVMe port on my Laptop and in a PCIe Slot on my workstation.
After POST my OS load times are under 5 seconds. I have pretty much stopped using regular SSD's for anything other than backups, data storage, and certain games.

As RealBeast says though - most games wouldn't benefit from using an NVMe.
When I can't use an NVMe I usually go with a Samsung EVO 7x or above with RAPID mode activated. RAPID mode gives similar performance to NVMe. But it can only be activated on one drive in a system.

The PC's bios has to be set to UEFI to make the M.2 NVMe a boot drive.
This would not require a complete reload of Windows 10 (1709 or above). There are commands to convert your existing OS drive from MBR to GPT, and then to UEFI.
Then the original OS drive (SSD) can be cloned to the NVMe. No data loss.

 

[alceryes]

...Games can be on a SATA SSD or HDD, as only level loading is really relevant...

This is no longer true. More and more games are loading game data not only during the loading screen, but while you are actively playing. Running games on a slow HDD is one of the main causes of 'hitching' in modern games.
I only recommend HDDs for data storage (where accessing the data fast isn't a necessity) or for specific roles, like CRV.

 

[thatoneotherguy]

I would recommend the NVMe for the OS drive. The NVMe has a much higher throughput than Sata3 (uses 4 of the 16 channels on the PCIe 3.0 bus). I use the Samsung 970 EVO Plus in both the onboard NVMe port on my Laptop and in a PCIe Slot on my workstation.
After POST my OS load times are under 5 seconds. I have pretty much stopped using regular SSD's for anything other than backups, data storage, and certain games.

As RealBeast says though - most games wouldn't benefit from using an NVMe.
When I can't use an NVMe I usually go with a Samsung EVO 7x or above with RAPID mode activated. RAPID mode gives similar performance to NVMe. But it can only be activated on one drive in a system.

The PC's bios has to be set to UEFI to make the M.2 NVMe a boot drive.
This would not require a complete reload of Windows 10 (1709 or above). There are commands to convert your existing OS drive from MBR to GPT, and then to UEFI.
Then the original OS drive (SSD) can be cloned to the NVMe. No data loss.

Didn’t know I had to change thing in my bios for a NVMe. Thanks for letting me know.