[SOLVED] Put Windows On Smaller SATA SSD Or On Larger M.2 NVMe?

LoneGreyWolf20

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I am getting a new gaming computer soon that has a 1Gb M.2 NVMe with Windows already installed. I am going to be using Samsung - 860 EVO SSDs from my current build as drives as well. One is 1TB and the other is 250GB. The way I have it setup now is that the smaller SSD has my OS and programs on it, while the larger one has my games on it.

Should I keep the OS on the larger NVMe and just utilize the other two as my gaming drives or do what I did with this build and utilize both the 1TB drives as gaming drives and the smaller 250GB as my OS drive?
 
Solution
What do you use this system for?

OS on the faster NVMe drive - Everything interacts with the OS and applications, so that being faster helps.
Data on the faster NVMe drive - read/write to that drive is 'faster', so that being faster helps there.

OS and applications on the smaller drive, everything else on the larger - much less hassle when a reinstall is needed.
Other people like everything on one single drive.

Personal preferences either way.

In truth, you probably won't notice much if any real difference.

LoneGreyWolf20

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If it already has the OS on the 1TB NVMe, and you're adding a 1TB and 250GB SATA SSD...I'd leave on the drive it comes with.

There are (theoretical) benefits and drawbacks either way.

Let me add my thinking. My current drive has been in my computer for almost two years. The lowest my drive went was down to 185GBs.

I don't have alot of programs that I use. For me it seems the extra space left on the 1TB NVMe would be wasted. Does that make sense?

What are your theoretical benefits and drawbacks?
 

USAFRet

Titan
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What do you use this system for?

OS on the faster NVMe drive - Everything interacts with the OS and applications, so that being faster helps.
Data on the faster NVMe drive - read/write to that drive is 'faster', so that being faster helps there.

OS and applications on the smaller drive, everything else on the larger - much less hassle when a reinstall is needed.
Other people like everything on one single drive.

Personal preferences either way.

In truth, you probably won't notice much if any real difference.
 
Solution

LoneGreyWolf20

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Jan 24, 2008
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18,540
What do you use this system for?

OS on the faster NVMe drive - Everything interacts with the OS and applications, so that being faster helps.
Data on the faster NVMe drive - read/write to that drive is 'faster', so that being faster helps there.

OS and applications on the smaller drive, everything else on the larger - much less hassle when a reinstall is needed.
Other people like everything on one single drive.

Personal preferences either way.

In truth, you probably won't notice much if any real difference.

I am mostly a gamer, but use the computer as an everyday computer as well.

Maybe some day I may dabble in YouTube videos of my game playing.
 
There is a minimal performance difference no matter how you distribute things.
They are all ssd devices and really not that much performance difference among them.

What is different is how you decide to manage things.
I find it easiest to manage one single C drive space.
But, I do not have an excessive amount of folders to manage.

All things being equal, I would use a 2tb ssd for the C drive and relegate all the others to spares or backups.
What do you use for backups of the files you cherish?
You want to set up some sort of EXTERNAL backup.