[SOLVED] Nvme SSD as third drive

[xerxesaria]

Hi.
I have the following:

• Asus Rog Strix Z490-E Gaming Motherboard.
• 250GB Nvme SSD (BOOT DRIVE)
• 1TB Nvme SSD (OTHER DRIVE / GAMES)

My build is made for gaming and it is just about finished. However, I have doubts about the 250gb SSD with respect to storage space. I want to upgrade it to 500gb just to be on the safe side. I am going to save all my games on the 1TB. But I have noticed that many games tend to save files in the boot drive and sometimes the size of those folders will grow in time (take Total War for example where a folder is created under Users/Appdata/Roaming).

First question: Should I go for 500GB or is 250GB enough for boot drive?

Second question: If I were to purchase the 500GB, what can I do with the 250GB? Is there anyway I can connect it to my motherboard and use it as a "third" drive? For example, connect it to one of the free pcie lanes?

Thank you very much.

 

[USAFRet]

If most of your stuff is on the other drives, the 250 should be enough. Game saves aren't that large.

 

[SteveRX4]

I use a 250gb nvme drive for my OS (c: drive) without any problems.
But I do change my download location to my 1tb nvme drive (d
I use Windows 10 Home 64 - the basic one.

 

[xerxesaria]

If most of your stuff is on the other drives, the 250 should be enough. Game saves aren't that large.

Yes. Almost about everything will go on the 1TB. What I said though, worries me. It is the fact that some, if not, most games create a folder on the boot drive.

 

[xerxesaria]

I use a 250gb nvme drive for my OS (c: drive) without any problems.
But I do change my download location to my 1tb nvme drive (d
I use Windows 10 Home 64 - the basic one.

I am going to save almost everything on the 1TB, but like I mentioned, some games like to make a folder on the boot drive and I am afraid that might grow over time.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes. Almost about everything will go on the 1TB. What I said though, worries me. It is the fact that some, if not, most games create a folder on the boot drive.

Yes, they do.
And it is generally not a real issue.

How much space is consumed on it now?
Just keep an eye on it. If it starts to creep over 175GB, the think about moving to a larger drive.

But no need to panic yet.


Other things:
turn hibernation OFF
System Restore points
Check the size of your pagefile

 

[SkyNetRising]

Second question: If I were to purchase the 500GB, what can I do with the 250GB? Is there anyway I can connect it to my motherboard and use it as a "third" drive? For example, connect it to one of the free pcie lanes?

Use of 3rd nvme drive will require pcie to m.2 adapter.
You can install it in lower PCIE x16 (x4 mode) slot on your board.

Like this one:

 

[xerxesaria]

Use of 3rd nvme drive will require pcie to m.2 adapter.
You can install it in lower PCIE x16 (x4 mode) slot on your board.

Like this one:

Thank you. That clarifies my second question!

 

[xerxesaria]

Yes, they do.
And it is generally not a real issue.

How much space is consumed on it now?
Just keep an eye on it. If it starts to creep over 175GB, the think about moving to a larger drive.

But no need to panic yet.


Other things:
turn hibernation OFF
System Restore points
Check the size of your pagefile

Could you please tell me why and how hibernation must be turned off?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Could you please tell me why and how hibernation must be turned off?

From elevated command prompt:
powercfg -h off

Hibernation file consumes space equal to amount of ram on your ssd.
There's not much use of hibernation feature, if you have ssd. System boots fast enough even without using hibernation.

 

[USAFRet]

Could you please tell me why and how hibernation must be turned off?

Do you use the hibernate function? I don't.
If you don't use it, it is merely taking up drive space.

From an elevated command prompt:
powercfg.exe /hibernate off

How to enable or disable hibernate in Windows 10

Need to clear up several gigs of disk space? Disable hibernate.

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