SSHD sustained write speed question

[otacon237]

Hello all
I am in the market for a new storage drive, I am using it to record gameplay for YouTube videos to it. A criteria for me is that the write speed needs to be fast. I was previously writing to my active drive that contains the game and OS itself (7200 rpm wd black), and for some higher-quality and lossless codecs I was getting lag issues.

My original intention was to buy another 7200rpm drive in the hope that writing and reading from different drives would resolve the video lag.

But I noticed that newegg has some of the Seagate 4tb sshd's at a deep discount and they are claiming super fast write speeds. The problem is that a typical recording session for me is anywhere from 100-300gb. Am I correct in assuming that the 8gb NAND cache on the seagate drive won't do much for the sustained write speeds and volume I am looking for?

seagates seem to get mixed reviews and reliability issues so I would prefer to avoid them unless there is a noticeable difference in wrote speed over a regular 7200rpm hdd in which case I might be willing to try it at a discounted price.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there Hal Emmerich. 😉

It's odd that you'd be getting such lag with a WD Black drive as recording in full HD and 60Fps while gaming never gave me any issues. However, it is true that having the OS and pushing the limits with codecs might lead to something like that.

As you've already guessed on your own, an SSHD should not have a great impact on what you want to do. Basically SSHDs are a waste if you don't use them as the OS drive. So you might want to put your OS on the SSHD and try the WD Black alone, to see if you'll still get the lag you are talking about. You can even install the game on the SSHD as well and make the WD Black drive the default destination for the video file so that it does nothing else except writing the file.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

 

[otacon237]

Ah true, I had not considered the option of putting my OS on the new sshd and clearing out the old wd black to use as the write drive! But I am planning on getting an ssd down the road so I think I would rather avoid the hassle of moving my OS and all the data over twice.

Yeah I did not have lag issue previously but I am trying out MagicYUV which seems to cause it. The hdd is getting close to full as well so that probably has something to do with it as well.

I think I will probably get another standard hdd now and pick up an ssd later for my OS install. On a side note, do you think one SSD would be able to handle reading and writing at the same time in terms of recording gameplay? Or better in general to have the recording being written to a different drive.

Trying to plan ahead for upgrading my metal gear

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well basically I doubt that you'll have any issues with an SSD if you both read the game from it an write the record video at the same time. If there's still lag or stuttering, I'd probably try to update the software I'm using or check if all the settings have been set accordingly, if I were you. So having that said, I think you should be fines with doing everything on the same SSD. However, you probably know how SSDs work and that there's a limit to what you ca write to them. It's true that with extensive usage you still might get a couple of years out of them, however if you regularly fill them up with large videos and if you're doing video game recording every day, you might shorten the life of that said SSD a bit.

So basically if you plan on getting a different HDD perhaps you could skip the SSHD part and go straight for the SSD, even if it's a bit later, if you don't mind waiting to get it.

Snake Eater is the best one! 😀

 

[otacon237]

Hello again! Sorry for the late response, I ended up getting a new 5tb WD black, haven't tried recording yet but I ran a write speed test using Dxtory (my recording software) and it came back nearly double the speed of reading/writing on the same WD black so that is promising. I think I will get an SSD down the road once I save up some more money.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Awesome! I'm glad that you're happy with the results shown by the new drive.

However, it's a bit concerning that you'd get double numbers compared to your older WD Black HDD. Perhaps you should backup your data and test it with different SATA ports and cables, to see if the same thing happens. You could also give it a go with the two DLG tests (Quick and Extended), just to be on the safe side: How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows.

Let me know how it goes.