Hello all,
Long time reader, 1st time posting. I did search for an answer but none of the questions really matched my exact question.
Been using SSD's for a while now, had SATA I, II, III and now M.2 drives.
I hardly ever install anything in windows drive. Besides the DEP headaches it avoids I just like having my system compartmentalized for backup purposes as well.
I usually keep my OS, Apps, Games, Photoshop scratch disk, and pagefile on separate SSD's and then docs,videos,music etc on a raptor 10K drive.
I know the general wisdom is that putting the OS on the fastest drive will give you a slight bump in everything. Please note, I don't care about start up and shutdown times.
However, I noticed a while back something funny. I was upgrading my SSD's to SATA III from SATA I and II drives. Because I was short on time and couldn't afford any delays I left my OS on a SATA I SSD drive, but transferred my program partitions to faster SSD.
I was amazed for some of the software. Apps like CAD, and Photoshop were leaps and bounds better. Games with large load requirements or high res texture pack mods were snappier as well. Any app or game that used a bunch of large files saw a good jump in performance.
I was especially stumped about the scratch disk in Photoshop. I do focus stacking with large images. Having the scratch disk on a faster SSD seemed to really affect performance too. Ironically, even though I have 16 and 32 GB of RAM on my two machines the scratch disks end up still being used.
On the opposite side though, when I finally reinstalled Windows to a faster SATA II drive, and eventually an even faster SATA III drive, I didn't notice anything magical happening on going from I to II but did notice a bump going from II to III.
I guess my point is I have never really noticed a huge boost on the OS side going up through the quicker SSD's but see a definitive boost on the programs side, maybe because of how I use windows so barebones?
Anyway back on point,
Comparing my two fastest drives. The m.2 is about 3 times faster at 4k random benchmarks, but almost 6 times faster at larger file benchmarks. The games and CAD stuff are all predominately huge files.
My questions are:
1. Is there a point where windows just can't take advantage of the faster drives? I often wonder when using CAD or Photoshop, how crucial windows is behind the scenes.
I always run a real clean machine, no bloatware or extra crap running in the background constantly accessing little files on the OS.
I once built two identical PC's for me and my nephew, yet my hdd was snappier than his, I am clearly not an expert lol hence why I creep around on Tom's frequently lol But I think it is because he was running so much crap, sidebars, widgets, charms etc etc his hdd was always having to access tons of little crap files where mine was running as little as possible.
I use windows solely so that I can use programs made for windows. I would actually prefer a barebones Linux distro but can't get alot of programs to work right in Wine.
All the bling crap in Windows doesn't appeal to me. Often when gaming or doing CAD I will use an app like MSI gaming or Razer Cortex to shutdown all non essential windows services etc etc.
2. Should I put windows / OS on the m.2 SSD like most posts suggest? Or should I give my intensive apps like CAD and Photoshop as well as a few games my fastest SSD?
3. My mobo mentions an "unlimited RAMdisk" says its "22 times faster than SSD's etc" But several forum posts here on Tom's kind of foofoo the whole RAMDisk notion. Spent alot of money over the years on SSD's, RAM is by far cheaper. Is it just a marketing gimmick in your opinion?
I truly appreciate the help and opinions.
Thanks,
Long time reader, 1st time posting. I did search for an answer but none of the questions really matched my exact question.
Been using SSD's for a while now, had SATA I, II, III and now M.2 drives.
I hardly ever install anything in windows drive. Besides the DEP headaches it avoids I just like having my system compartmentalized for backup purposes as well.
I usually keep my OS, Apps, Games, Photoshop scratch disk, and pagefile on separate SSD's and then docs,videos,music etc on a raptor 10K drive.
I know the general wisdom is that putting the OS on the fastest drive will give you a slight bump in everything. Please note, I don't care about start up and shutdown times.
However, I noticed a while back something funny. I was upgrading my SSD's to SATA III from SATA I and II drives. Because I was short on time and couldn't afford any delays I left my OS on a SATA I SSD drive, but transferred my program partitions to faster SSD.
I was amazed for some of the software. Apps like CAD, and Photoshop were leaps and bounds better. Games with large load requirements or high res texture pack mods were snappier as well. Any app or game that used a bunch of large files saw a good jump in performance.
I was especially stumped about the scratch disk in Photoshop. I do focus stacking with large images. Having the scratch disk on a faster SSD seemed to really affect performance too. Ironically, even though I have 16 and 32 GB of RAM on my two machines the scratch disks end up still being used.
On the opposite side though, when I finally reinstalled Windows to a faster SATA II drive, and eventually an even faster SATA III drive, I didn't notice anything magical happening on going from I to II but did notice a bump going from II to III.
I guess my point is I have never really noticed a huge boost on the OS side going up through the quicker SSD's but see a definitive boost on the programs side, maybe because of how I use windows so barebones?
Anyway back on point,
Comparing my two fastest drives. The m.2 is about 3 times faster at 4k random benchmarks, but almost 6 times faster at larger file benchmarks. The games and CAD stuff are all predominately huge files.
My questions are:
1. Is there a point where windows just can't take advantage of the faster drives? I often wonder when using CAD or Photoshop, how crucial windows is behind the scenes.
I always run a real clean machine, no bloatware or extra crap running in the background constantly accessing little files on the OS.
I once built two identical PC's for me and my nephew, yet my hdd was snappier than his, I am clearly not an expert lol hence why I creep around on Tom's frequently lol But I think it is because he was running so much crap, sidebars, widgets, charms etc etc his hdd was always having to access tons of little crap files where mine was running as little as possible.
I use windows solely so that I can use programs made for windows. I would actually prefer a barebones Linux distro but can't get alot of programs to work right in Wine.
All the bling crap in Windows doesn't appeal to me. Often when gaming or doing CAD I will use an app like MSI gaming or Razer Cortex to shutdown all non essential windows services etc etc.
2. Should I put windows / OS on the m.2 SSD like most posts suggest? Or should I give my intensive apps like CAD and Photoshop as well as a few games my fastest SSD?
3. My mobo mentions an "unlimited RAMdisk" says its "22 times faster than SSD's etc" But several forum posts here on Tom's kind of foofoo the whole RAMDisk notion. Spent alot of money over the years on SSD's, RAM is by far cheaper. Is it just a marketing gimmick in your opinion?
I truly appreciate the help and opinions.
Thanks,
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