Question about storage configuration for gaming PC

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The PC described is almost exclusively for gaming with some light productivity uses (Word, Excel, etc). It is in the process of being upgraded and I'd like to get your thoughts on the best way to configure the hard drives.

Motherboard : Asus Z87 Pro LGA 1150 (to be purchased)
CPU : Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz (to be purchased)
Hard drive #1 : Hitachi Deskstar SATA II 7200 RPM 1 TB drive (already own)
Hard drive #2 : Hitachi Deskstar SATA II 7200 RPM 1 TB drive (already own)
Solid State drive : OCZ Technology VTR1-25SAT3-256G (already own)
Memory : Kingston Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) (to be purchased)

I've heard that using a SSD can improve some aspects of a PCs performance and even recommendations to load some programs on the SSD and others on the hard drive.

I'm not married to the Hitachi hard drives if they need to be changed. I'm also open to suggestions regarding the components that have not yet been purchased.

With gaming being the priority I have two questions:

1. How would the SSD be setup ? Should it contain the operating system only or everything BUT the OS ?
2. In this hybrid HDD/SSD scenario, how would the two HDD be best used in order to protect/backup the program files, system settings, etc in case of drive failure AND to maximize the gaming experience ?



 
Solution
lonewolf7
First of all you wont need 16GB of RAM, its an overkill, and waste of money, cause no modern day games or programs will use that number of memory. All you need is 2x4=8GB of RAM, enough for everything.

Yes SSD will help the OS to boot fast. You will not see a performance improvement in games, except the maps will load fast.

If you buy a SSD then set it up as a boot drive to get the best out of it.

Don't go with Hybrid drives, they wont help anything rather than a faster boot up time.

SSD= OS, one 1TB HDD = for games and programs, another 1TB= backup, is the idle setup.

Here is a solid performance HDD : You can get two of those :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage:...
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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The SSD will have your OS and key programs. Install the OS with only the SSD and no HDDs connected and insure that your bios is in AHCI mode before install, then attach the HDDs after the install. Use one Hitachi to load all of the games, and the other for a backup and data disk.

SSDs do not really enhance gaming much as they only speed the initial loading time and maybe new levels if those load from a drive.
 
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lonewolf7

lonewolf7

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May 6, 2013
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First of all you wont need 16GB of RAM, its an overkill, and waste of money, cause no modern day games or programs will use that number of memory. All you need is 2x4=8GB of RAM, enough for everything.

Yes SSD will help the OS to boot fast. You will not see a performance improvement in games, except the maps will load fast.

If you buy a SSD then set it up as a boot drive to get the best out of it.

Don't go with Hybrid drives, they wont help anything rather than a faster boot up time.

SSD= OS, one 1TB HDD = for games and programs, another 1TB= backup, is the idle setup.

Here is a solid performance HDD : You can get two of those :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $59.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-30 14:53 EST-0500)

And what is the make/model of PSU ?
 
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The PSU is a Corsair GS700.

I didn't realize there were hybrid drives. I was calling this a hybrid to just describe a system with both a SSD and HDD but they are separate drives.
 
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