Building a gaming PC

[Triffid77]

Hey I'm late to the SSD party and just now I've been thinking about getting a relatively large, 1 TB SSD for OS and games. Samsung is a popular choice but are the PRO's really worth it over the EVO's? They're like twice as expensive.

No. You've got a few options.
Games take up huge amount of space. For e.g. GTA 4 install was 60gb but required approx 90gb for unpacking.
Fallout 4 with all DLC and high texture pack - no mods, was 94gb.

860 evo (sata):
250gb - $60
500gb - $100
1tb - $170

970 evo (nvme):
250gb -$90
500gb - $150
1tb - $300

Ideally you'd have 2 drives - 1 for O/S and 1 for important programs/games (both can work simultaneously when the o/s wants to do its thing - it always does).
e.g. 500gb C: (o/s & some apps), 1tb D: (games & programs). 250gb is getting small these days.

Whether or not youll really notice a difference with the nvme drive is another thing. Though they are quicker (mostly at sequential transfer). In this day and age id have one for my o/s at least. (but you wouldnt be a fool for going with sata)
If you're going to be judicious with only installing a few games at a time id just get the 1 drive - 1tb 970 evo - $297.

Otherwise some combination of the above drives - with 1tb being the minimum for your game drive.
Apart from the crazy expensive SSD's, they all slow down when nearing capacity - SSDs like breathing room.

I suggest 500gb 970 nvme for c: and a 1tb 860 evo for D: - $320

 

[volsung]

Thanks guys. I'm currently using a 1 TB WD Black as an OS and work drive and a 3 TB WD Black for large files, games, and so on. I thought I could replace the 1 TB HDD with a 1 TB M.2 SSD and run a couple of games from it (stuff like Pillars of Eternity with lots of loading screens). Ever since I got the large HDD I stopped uninstalling games so yeah I don't think I would move my entire game library to the SSD. Maybe just the 2 or 3 games I'm playing or so.

Gilrond, do you mount anything on the HDD, like /var or /tmp? I'm tempted to just do a normal install on an SSD. 1 TB seems large enough for that.

 

[Triffid77]

Thanks guys. I'm currently using a 1 TB WD Black as an OS and work drive and a 3 TB WD Black for large files, games, and so on. I thought I could replace the 1 TB HDD with a 1 TB M.2 SSD and run a couple of games from it (stuff like Pillars of Eternity with lots of loading screens). Ever since I got the large HDD I stopped uninstalling games so yeah I don't think I would move my entire game library to the SSD. Maybe just the 2 or 3 games I'm playing or so.

Gilrond, do you mount anything on the HDD, like /var or /tmp? I'm tempted to just do a normal install on an SSD. 1 TB seems large enough for that.

Just do a normal install. Of course making sure that programs install where you want them to and that goes for their operating directories (tools/options once installed)

Keep spinning rust just for large media storage. Blacks are terribly slow in comparison (they are reliable HDDs thoguh vs a standard seagate or WD green/blue).
Theyre the only online HDDs ive been running since the 150gb raptor days. You are VERY late to the SSD party - almost a decade.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Gilrond, do you mount anything on the HDD, like /var or /tmp? I'm tempted to just do a normal install on an SSD. 1 TB seems large enough for that.

My whole system is mounted on NVMe SSD (basically /boot/efi and /root, I don't make separate partitions for /home, /var and etc.). It is indeed enough. Then I made a BTRFS formatted Toshiba HDD (one 4 TB partition, whole HDD), where I created BTRFS subvolumes for games, video / music and so on, for all the stuff that takes a lot of storage space. And I mount those volumes inside $HOME through /etc/fstab. Example:

UUID=<drive_id> /home/<myuser>/archive  btrfs  subvol=archive,compress=zstd  0    0
UUID=<drive_id> /home/<myuser>/games    btrfs  subvol=games,compress=zstd    0    0

BTRFS is good, since you don't need to make many partitions to mount things, its subvolumes are a powerful and flexible way to do it using same shared partition (you can add / remove as many of them as you want without the need to resize things). And enabling compression in BTRFS is an extra bonus. With current powerful CPUs, compression reduces I/O on the HDD.

My /root on SDD is XFS, and there is an extra EFI partition (fat32).

 

[volsung]

This has been very useful. I'm leaning towards the above solution of a 500 GB NVMe + 1 TB SATA SSD and use the former for OS and the latter for games and "fast" programs. This gives me 500 extra GB for approx. 40 € more.

Are there any reasons to prefer the 1 TB NVMe other than it being technically faster?

 

[Triffid77]

Are there any reasons to prefer the 1 TB NVMe other than it being technically faster?

Not really. On the mobo so theres no need for cabling & spare bay. (m2 does that also but that techs basically dead. its sata using the same mobo connector as nvme).

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Are there any reasons to prefer the 1 TB NVMe other than it being technically faster?

The bigger is the SSD, the longer is the wear time. The less capacity it has, the higher are the chances of writing on the same block, so wear time is shorter as well.

For SSD you need to set up periodic trim. Linux does it once a week, but you need to enable fstrim systemd timer, at least on Debian it's off by default.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_state_drive#TRIM

Or you mean to use 2 NVMes instead of NVMe + SDD (or HDD)? That would be an overkill IMHO, and a lot more expensive too.

Also, your motherboard might be limited in how many NVMes it supports at maximum speed. You should check if it doesn't halve it if you have two.

 

[Triffid77]

The bigger is the SSD, the longer is the wear time. The less capacity it has, the higher are the chances of writing on the same block, so wear time is shorter as well.

I used to be worried about wearing out SSDs but ive seen so much data on the subject over past year ive learned its practically paranoia.
The real world usage would have to incredible (data centre levels) to be a concern.
As stated above, space is a concern for speed when it comes to nearing capacity. Say past 75% full. Thats one major benefit of the $$$$ intel optane tech. No speed loss when full.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

As stated above, space is a concern for speed when it comes to nearing capacity. Say past 75% full. Thats one major benefit of the $$$$ intel optane tech. No speed loss when full.

Samsung also has some reserved space (10%), I assume to avoid speed degradation when capacity is filling up. But I didn't really test it.

 

[Triffid77]

Samsung also has some reserved space, I assume to avoid speed degradation when capacity is filling up. But I didn't really test it.

The good ones have more reserved space but they are all affected. Pro handles it a bit better. Optane does away with it altogether. For our purposes its better just to get a bigger capacity drive.

Volsung, i think youre going to be blown away with how much faster (responsive) your pc will feel.
Im waiting for cheaper SSDs (not nasty though) like the reliable crucials to get gb/$ down enough to replace TBs of HDDs. Maybe 5-8 years?
Regarding SSD speed, most consumers cant, currently, really take advantage of the speed the best stuff has.

 

[volsung]

OK so in summary I get more SSD for less by purchasing 1x 500 GB NVMe M.2 SSD and 1x 1 TB SATA SSD?

I will probably be dual booting so I don't know how much space would be left if I bought a single 1 TB NVMe.

 

[Triffid77]

OK so in summary I get more SSD for less by purchasing 1x 500 GB NVMe M.2 SSD and 1x 1 TB SATA SSD?

I will probably be dual booting so I don't know how much space would be left if I bought a single 1 TB NVMe.

Yep. Though you wouldnt be foolish just going with 860s, but its 2018 - treat yourself & go with the nvme for o/s.

(Assuming you havent compromised on your GPU & havent yet got a 30"+ monitor! 32" 16:9 1440p non curved samsung s32d85 is a bargain these days)

 

[volsung]

Yeah I'm in the process of upgrading some components, and thought storage was long overdue. I've been waiting for the next generation of GPU's to make a choice and for 1440p monitors to drop down in price.

A 500 GB M.2 860 (just M.2 form factor, I believe it is SATA) would save me like 40 € over the NVMe so I guess it's not too crazy to pull the trigger on the 970.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

I'd wait with high resolution / high refresh rate monitors until at least next generation of AMD GPUs.

Post automatically merged: Sep 18, 2018

A 500 GB M.2 860 (just M.2 form factor, I believe it is SATA) would save me like 40 € over the NVMe so I guess it's not too crazy to pull the trigger on the 970.

Going from SATA to NVMe SSD is close to going form HDD to SSD to begin with. Noticeable difference. But if you only used HDD before, it will all feel fast

Post automatically merged: Sep 18, 2018

By the way, prices on AMD Vega 64 have dropped now too like it happened with AMD Vega 56 before.

 

[volsung]

OK ordered two SSD's: a 500 GB 970 EVO NVMe M.2 for OS and some games, and a 1 TB 860 EVO for a whole buttload of games. I figured since it took me so long to get SSD's I might as well move as much as I can in there. I'll keep my large WD Black for regular storage.

I'll have to look into that Vega 64, at this point I think AMD might be (again, like it was many years ago) better value than Nvidia.

 

[volsung]

Shit, something happened. Installed the NVMe, BIOS saw it OK, installed OS and shutdown to plug HDDs, and now the computer won't turn on. Standby light is on and the power strip works.

I tried unplugging, removing the NVMe, etc. Is it my PSU? I have a Seasonic 650w Gold.

Ideas?

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Can you get into UEFI or even that doesn't work?

It might be not related, but NVMes can benefit from better cooling. Is your case well ventilated? I ended up using this heatsink for it.

 

[Hoplite_22]

might be, that the standby light on the main board is there means the problem might be the mainboard too. (assuming that you ment the led on the main board)

 

[volsung]

Hi, the case has pretty good airflow, it's a Fractal Design Define R4. I can't get into UEFI/BIOS, it doesn't turn on at all. The stand by light on my motherboard is on all the time as long as there is power.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Try clearing CMOS. But if it won't get into UEFI even with that, it might indicate a hardware issue. May be try re-seating some components (RAM, CPU, etc.). If it's some kind of electrical damage, it can end up in requiring RMA.