Question One SSD, Two NVMEs and One Big HDD... How to best setup storage for new gaming rig?

[doesnotcompute]

Here's what I'm working with:

• New 7800X3D and 4080 Super on MSI B650 Tomahawk WIFI (6 Sata, 3 M.2 NVME, 2 physical PCIE) w/32 gb DDR5 RAM
• 500 GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD
• 1 TB WD Black SN750 NVME
• New 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro NVME
• 8 TB Seagate FireCuda HDD

My thinking is... Use Evo SSD for Win 11, combine NVME's under one drive letter for games, and use 8 TB HDD for photos, music, vids, zips, etc. I really want to combine the NVMEs because I hate having my large game library stored across multiple drives (as I do with my current PC).

Thoughts on best setup and optimal method to combine the two NVMEs under one letter?

Thanks!!!

 

[USAFRet]

OS and applications on the 1TB WD Black.

combine NVME's under one drive letter for games

Absolutely not.
Current game platforms, especially Steam, are really good at managing multiple drives and drive letters.

I (sort of) understand your concern, but that just makes ongoing maintenance much much harder.

 

[punkncat]

Just as a mention. Whatever drive you install OS to, disconnect every other drive while you do that.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Thoughts

500 GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD: OS temp folders/page file/...

1 TB WD Black SN750 NVME: OS & applications

4 TB Samsung 990 Pro NVME: Games

8 TB Seagate FireCuda HDD: backups/misc storage/downloads/...

 

[doesnotcompute]

OS and applications on the 1TB WD Black.


Absolutely not.
Current game platforms, especially Steam, are really good at managing multiple drives and drive letters.

I (sort of) understand your concern, but that just makes ongoing maintenance much much harder.

Could you/someone please explain why it's a bad idea to combine multiple drives in one letter?

To ensure I've been clear, I'm talking just about the two NVMEs, so performance disparity shouldn't be an issue. I'm also not combining OS/Win 11 w/other drives. And the only downside to the one drive letter practice that I've learned about so far is if one drive fails, the other does too. If we're talking about games-only drives, that doesn't matter to me since games aren't critical and can be restored. And I have confidence in both the WD Black and Samsung NVME drives.

Again, appreciate the guidance.

 

[doesnotcompute]

Just as a mention. Whatever drive you install OS to, disconnect every other drive while you do that.

I've not done this in the past. But that's easy enough. What's the thinking behind this?

 

[USAFRet]

Could you/someone please explain why it's a bad idea to combine multiple drives in one letter?

To ensure I've been clear, I'm talking just about the two NVMEs, so performance disparity shouldn't be an issue. I'm also not combining OS/Win 11 w/other drives. And the only downside to the one drive letter practice that I've learned about so far is if one drive fails, the other does too. If we're talking about games-only drives, that doesn't matter to me since games aren't critical and can be restored. And I have confidence in both the WD Black and Samsung NVME drives.

Again, appreciate the guidance.

How are you planning to combine them?

 

[USAFRet]

I've not done this in the past. But that's easy enough. What's the thinking behind this?

To ensure that the small boot partition does not end up on one of the other drives.
Yes, Windows often does this.

Makes future maintenance problematic.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

why would you want to combine the 2 to make a single game location?
there would be no upside to doing it.

gaining a single TB is nothing and data being split across 2 drives means that data is unevenly distributed across both.

What's the thinking behind this?

the OS installation procedure is going to distribute data across all connected drives during the process.

this means that there will be dedicated space on all of those drives that the OS requires to boot & run.

 

[doesnotcompute]

To ensure that the small boot partition does not end up on one of the other drives.
Yes, Windows often does this.

Makes future maintenance problematic.

why would you want to combine the 2 to make a single game location?
there would be no upside to doing it.

gaining a single TB is nothing and data being split across 2 drives means that data is unevenly distributed across both.

the OS installation procedure is going to distribute data across all connected drives during the process.

this means that there will be dedicated space on all of those drives that the OS requires to boot & run.

Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you.

I'll do my initial install with just the single OS drive connected.