[SOLVED] One 4tb NVMe drive or two 2tb

[Aldario]

It's right there in the title, I'm no sure what is best.
I was going to buy a Seagate FireCuda 530 SSD 4TB but then I had the doubt that maybe is better to buy 2x Seagate FireCuda 530 SSD 2TB use one for system and the other for games. The total price would be about the same. I know the ideal would be 2x 4tb and be done with it but my budget is limited.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

2x Seagate FireCuda 530 SSD 2TB use one for system and the other for games.

do you really need 2TB of storage just for OS & applications?
i'd be aiming more for ~512GB for the system drive.

i've got 3+TB full of my 4TB games drive
but only 240GB of my 480GB Windows & applications drive with 30+ applications installed, some fairly large.

 

[USAFRet]

It's right there in the title, I'm no sure what is best.
I was going to buy a Seagate FireCuda 530 SSD 4TB but then I had the doubt that maybe is better to buy 2x Seagate FireCuda 530 SSD 2TB use one for system and the other for games. The total price would be about the same. I know the ideal would be 2x 4tb and be done with it but my budget is limited.

Opinions differ.

Some people like a single large drive for everything.
Others, a smaller drive for the OS and applications, and a second drive for all that other stuff.

Given non-crappy drives, performance is the same.

 

[King_V]

I find a single large drive to be a little more convenient.

 

[Aldario]

do you really need 2TB of storage just for OS & applications?
i'd be aiming more for ~512GB for the system drive.

i've got 3+TB full of my 4TB games drive
but only 240GB of my 480GB Windows & applications drive with 30+ applications installed, some fairly large.

Oh, hmm, you know how it is, you install windows then Steam, then this and that, and suddenly: low space, you have to clean!. But you are right smaller would totally do.
My question is more about performance than storage size.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

you install windows then Steam, then this and that...

I find a single large drive to be a little more convenient.

but with games for example, having many large ones installed on the same drive as your OS makes it VERY inconvenient when installing that OS anew or when backing up & restoring those huge amounts of data.

having games stored on a separate drive makes it very simple to let your distributors, like Steam / Epic / etc, just scan your current games directories and only update the registry info and small files that may have changed rather than redownload what could be multiple TBs of data each time.

 

[Nighthawk117]

It's right there in the title, I'm no sure what is best.
I was going to buy a Seagate FireCuda 530 SSD 4TB but then I had the doubt that maybe is better to buy 2x Seagate FireCuda 530 SSD 2TB use one for system and the other for games. The total price would be about the same. I know the ideal would be 2x 4tb and be done with it but my budget is limited.

The number of PCI-E lanes limits how many drives you can have so a single larger drive allows you to add more space later, however backing up a 4TB drive is more of a pain.

 

[USAFRet]

My question is more about performance than storage size.

Given all solid state drive, there is NO performance difference.

 

[Aldario]

Opinions differ.

Some people like a single large drive for everything.
Others, a smaller drive for the OS and applications, and a second drive for all that other stuff.

Given non-crappy drives, performance is the same.

Let's say I have some big storage drives, if I copy or decompress something big from storage drives to the non OS drive wouldn't that allow me to keep working with the OS drive, instead of slowing the whole system down?.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

if I copy or decompress something big from storage drives to the non OS drive wouldn't that allow me to keep working with the OS drive, instead of slowing the whole system down?

you can see my storage configuration in my signature.
this type of configuration addresses these types of issues.

and keeping your system drive limited to only OS & necessary applications would save you some money on that drive due to smaller size needed.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Let's say I have some big storage drives, if I copy or decompress something big from storage drives to the non OS drive wouldn't that allow me to keep working with the OS drive, instead of slowing the whole system down?.

Yes it would, just as you could backup a storage drive without tanking system performance. However this does presume your decompression task doesn't gobble up the CPU you have.

 

[USAFRet]

Let's say I have some big storage drives, if I copy or decompress something big from storage drives to the non OS drive wouldn't that allow me to keep working with the OS drive, instead of slowing the whole system down?.

My current system has 6x SSD, of various types.
Each with their own use.

OS and applications on one, other drives used for other things.
CAD on one, games on another, photo work on yet another.

A game, or file, or whatever that lives on one do not slow things down.
At all.

 

[Aldario]

you can see my storage configuration in my signature.
this type of configuration addresses these types of issues.

and keeping your system drive limited to only OS & necessary applications would save you some money on that drive due to smaller size needed.

That is a very interesting configuration, a drive for temp. Welp now I have even more to consider. Thanks.

 

[Aldario]

Yes it would, just as you could backup a storage drive without tanking system performance. However this does presume your decompression task doesn't gobble up the CPU you have.

I'm upgrading from a 4930K and it almost chokes with big things but still lets me have a bit of room to maneuver. I think you are right thanks.

 

[Aldario]

My current system has 6x SSD, of various types.
Each with their own use.

OS and applications on one, other drives used for other things.
CAD on one, games on another, photo work on yet another.

A game, or file, or whatever that lives on one do not slow things down.
At all.

Well, you are far more organized than I'll ever be, the other day I found a program I installed in 2013 and totally forgot to uninstall. The idea seems to be divide to win. Thanks for your time.

 

[Nighthawk117]

I'm upgrading from a 4930K and it almost chokes with big things but still lets me have a bit of room to maneuver. I think you are right thanks.

Oh ok that's not a bad chip even now. I guess if your upgrading from HEDT then you'll be going for something beefy so yes separate drives will allow you to run various operations on other drives without affecting the OS.

I use a lot of space, I have 6 drives (16TB) and cannot add any more so I would just consider how much space you are likely to need in the future when picking your drive sizes.

 

[King_V]

but with games for example, having many large ones installed on the same drive as your OS makes it VERY inconvenient when installing that OS anew or when backing up & restoring those huge amounts of data.

having games stored on a separate drive makes it very simple to let your distributors, like Steam / Epic / etc, just scan your current games directories and only update the registry info and small files that may have changed rather than redownload what could be multiple TBs of data each time.

That's a very fair point.

 

[USAFRet]

I just recently changed systems.
i7-4790k/Win 10 to a whole different Ryzen 5 5600X/Win 11.

The OS drive of course did not simply transfer over.

But all the other drives with all the other data....simply plug in after the Win 11 system was up and running.
No data loss or reconfig.

Of course, I did a LOT of cleaning out of old crap. But the basic concept worked.
The 1TB Intel 660p which was the drive for photo work remained exactly as it was, still the photo drive with several years work on it.

NOTE: This concept also applies in the simple case of an OS reinstall, not just a full system rebuild.

 

[Aldario]

Oh ok that's not a bad chip even now. I guess if your upgrading from HEDT then you'll be going for something beefy so yes separate drives will allow you to run various operations on other drives without affecting the OS.

I use a lot of space, I have 6 drives (16TB) and cannot add any more so I would just consider how much space you are likely to need in the future when picking your drive sizes.

I'm going for a 12900K and give this system to someone that really needs a computer, that is my main reason to upgrade. I moved to a place with very low internet speed so I'm starting to store more. I have two 4TB HDD for now.