Question SSD...1 Single Drive or 2?

[bdcrlsn]

Good morning, happy holidays!

I'm in the process of upgrading my PC (listed in signature) and was wanting opinions. I do a lot of gaming through Battle.Net, GOG, Origin, and Steam as well as video and photo editing. I found a Crucial M.2 4TB drive on NewEgg for $280 that caught me eye because it would be cheaper than upgrading both my current drives. My question is what are y'all's thoughts on using a single drive for everything instead of a main drive of OS and apps and a second drive for storage/games.

 

[USAFRet]

My question is what are y'all's thoughts on using a single drive for everything instead of a main drive of OS and apps and a second drive for storage/games.

Opinions on this are pretty evenly divided.

Some people like the simplicity of a single large drive.

Other (like me) like to have things split out. One drive for the OS+applications, other drives for other things.

 

[bdcrlsn]

Yeah, my only concern about the whole thing is SSD endurance, that's why I'm on the fence.

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah, my only concern about the whole thing is SSD endurance, that's why I'm on the fence.

In the consumer world, endurance has not been an issue for years.

Either way you configure it, you will not reach the warranty TBW number for many years.
And consumer drives have been tested/proven to last long beyond that.

You will not kill the drive due to too many write cycles.
It may die of something else, but not that.

 

[geofelt]

The larger the drive, the longer the endurance.
With 4tb, there are so many nand blocks that a desktop user will never run out of updates.

I am in the camp of putting everything on a single C drive.
It is just easier.

And... don't for get to protect that drive with some sort of EXTERNAL backup.

 

[Pextaxmx]

you can choose to have multiple volumes in one drive as well. I heard the C drive with Windows 11 tends to be slower than non-OS partition. So I would definitely choose bigger single drive over multiple smaller drives.

That said, Crucial 4Tb you saw is QLC NAND based. QLC NAND offers roughly half of the TLC endurance coverages.
Personally, I would exchange the burst speed of PCIE4 QLC with better endurance of SATA TLC (4TB MX500) but that's just me.
I believe TLC has better data retention over QLC as well

 

[Pextaxmx]

I just looked up the TBW coverage of P3 4TB (800 TBW) vs MX500 4TB (1000 TBW) and for 4TB size, the endurance warranty coverage is not that different and maybe endurance-burst speed exchange is not on MX500's favor.
Just wanted to give accurate information.

 

[bdcrlsn]

And... don't for get to protect that drive with some sort of EXTERNAL backup.

Oh yeah, I have an external 4TB hard drive for backups.