Question What type of hard drive should I get?

[Saint Grimm]

I'm constantly fighting for space on my C drive. Between hundreds of games that I refuse to uninstall and a constant flow of new files, it's not uncommon for the drive to have less than 20gb of free space.

Today, I decided I was going to buy a new drive, but before I get into that, my current set-up is:

2x internal HDDs,
One used as the main drive and one for general storage.
2x external HDDs,
both for general storage, pictures, music, rips of movies/TV shows that I want to keep the discs in good condition etc, etc.

My original plan was buying another external HDD, moving all the storage from my 2nd internal drive onto the new drive, then installing all of my games and storing saves, mods, etc on the 2nd internal drive.

However, while browsing drives, I saw some SSDs and started thinking; would it perhaps be better to buy an SSD, install my OS, browsers, etc onto the SSD and then use my current C drive in that fashion, all games + files installed to it?

I don't have a lot to spend, going by random browsing prices on amazon, I can afford a 3tb external HDD. But if I go with the SSD idea, I'll only be able to get around 250gb.

Would it be worth using a 250gb SSD and storing games on a 2tb HDD? Or am I better off just buying a 3tb external HDD as explained above?

 

[Saint Grimm]

The main thing I'm not sure about is that I may not even need an SSD at all. With the current HDD, my PC starts up relatively fast, the apps I use that I would install to the SSD run fine, mainly just browsers and etc...

So saying that I don't need an SSD for fast start-ups or quicker use of apps installed to it, is there any other benefits to an SSD? The games will be installed onto an HDD, so the SSD would have no effect on their speed, right?

 

[mandeep57]

The main thing I'm not sure about is that I may not even need an SSD at all. With the current HDD, my PC starts up relatively fast, the apps I use that I would install to the SSD run fine, mainly just browsers and etc...

So saying that I don't need an SSD for fast start-ups or quicker use of apps installed to it, is there any other benefits to an SSD? The games will be installed onto an HDD, so the SSD would have no effect on their speed, right?

why go for SSD when you dont even want to install Games on it...
GO for HDD

 

[Gam3r01]

If your system feels fast enough to you, get another large HDD.
Personally, I dont think any system these days is complete without an SSD for at least windows and programs.
But, if all of your drives are full, thats a different problem.

Honestly sounds like you need to save up for a while and build a NAS, keep your windows+programs on an SSD, common games/files on internal HDD, and bulk files on the NAS.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I'm constantly fighting for space on my C drive.

If you're fighting for free space all the time, then get large internal HDD
(large enough to hold contents of all of your other internal/external drives).
If you want faster boot times, better system responsiveness, then get SSD.

Summary - get both, HDD first.

 

[popatim]

You can’t install another hdd initernally?

 

[geofelt]

Once you have a SSD you will never build again without one.
It is not about just boot times. Everything becomes quicker. browsing is quicker, thumbnails open instantly.
Windows updates take half the time ...

How large is your current C drive?
If you can afford a ssd of equivalent size the transformation is easy.

On HDD drives, you might want to read this article on the WD "rainbow"

Understanding the WD Rainbow

WD has a very diverse hard drive product line that can be difficult to decipher at times. In this article we go over the various 3.5inch hard drive lines from WD to help you decide which is right for your system.

www.pugetsystems.com

 

[cryoburner]

What are the capacities of all these drives, and how full are each of them? And do you happen to know if your motherboard happens to support newer M.2 SSDs, or just has SATA connections?

I don't have a lot to spend, going by random browsing prices on amazon, I can afford a 3tb external HDD. But if I go with the SSD idea, I'll only be able to get around 250gb.

What kind of prices are you looking at? You should be able to find SSDs with around 500GB of capacity for around the cost of a 3TB external hard drive, if not less. For SATA drives, the 500GB Crucial MX500 is a good model that can currently be had for around US $65, and some other SSDs can be had for as little as $50 around that capacity range. Prices for 1TB SSDs currently start around $100, or a little lower for some models.

 

[Saint Grimm]

Sorry for the late replies, after I got the first few saying why SSD if everything starts fast enough, so I bought an HDD instead.

I have room for 1 more internal drive, but that's where I would have put the SSD and will eventually put one in it (so that's why not internal HDD), but for now I don't have the money as I'd want at least 1tb and that wouldn't have given me enough space to do what I need to currently.


I don't order hard drives online anymore, Newegg sent me 4 in a row that were DOA when I was building this machine. Best buy is the only tech store within an hour drive and I ended up getting my HDD at walmart. Best Buy wanted 75-80 for 2TB external HDD, $100 was their starting price on SSD, so I didn't even bother looking at the size.. Walmart had 4tb HDD for $89, so that's what I got. Was only looking to spend $60ish for 2TB, and they did indeed have a 2TB for $58 something, but the deal on the 4TB talked me into spending a little extra lol