SSD Cache For Gaming

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

mrsquish

Reputable
Apr 10, 2014
3
0
4,510
Hi there,

I'm currently building a new gaming rig and intended to have a 120 or 254Gb SSD for my system disk.

I don't really like installing games and applications on my system disk as I find it can quickly become cluttered. I'd like to have a resonably large 1Tb+ storage disk for files and games but would also like the speed of an SSD.

Are there caching options that would work for this kind of purpose? Or am I perhaps heading in the wrong direction?

Would love to hear peoples thoughts.
 
Solution
DarkSable
Wrong direction. Buy an SSD, buy a 1TB drive.

Install windows to the SSD. Install programs like steam and photoshop to the SSD for load time reductions.

Install the hard drive, format and initialize it. Install your games and non-critical programs to a partition on it, and store your data to a second partition on it.


Cashing is just too much of a pain and really not all that useful for a situation like this; just use it as a system drive with another one or two drives for data and games.

EDIT: Oh, and a 120GB SSD is absolutely the sweet spot for price, since in almost any scenario you aren't going to need more than that (with windows 7 you'll have about 70GB free, with windows 8.1, about 85GB), so there's no need to go bigger, but...
Sort by date Sort by votes
DarkSable

DarkSable

Judicious
Sep 27, 2012
8,890
1
34,965
Wrong direction. Buy an SSD, buy a 1TB drive.

Install windows to the SSD. Install programs like steam and photoshop to the SSD for load time reductions.

Install the hard drive, format and initialize it. Install your games and non-critical programs to a partition on it, and store your data to a second partition on it.


Cashing is just too much of a pain and really not all that useful for a situation like this; just use it as a system drive with another one or two drives for data and games.

EDIT: Oh, and a 120GB SSD is absolutely the sweet spot for price, since in almost any scenario you aren't going to need more than that (with windows 7 you'll have about 70GB free, with windows 8.1, about 85GB), so there's no need to go bigger, but smaller is going to cramp you.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
M

mrsquish

Reputable
Apr 10, 2014
3
0
4,510


Cool, thanks mate. That was my gut feeling but just wanted to check that I wasn't missing out on something.

I've already got an SSD from my existing system (lappy), So I think I'll buy another SSD for system, use the existing one for games and a new HDD for files.

Ps. My calculations point to 240's being better value.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
leeb2013

leeb2013

Honorable
Aug 5, 2013
1,967
0
12,460
windows 7 does have a cache option, something like 16GB on an SSD, but I found it didn't improve much and then crashed and I had to reinstall everything.

Actually, there's no real advantage of games on an SSD, most loading times are relatively short and it doesn't effect game performance. The only game I put on SSD is BF4 as it gets me onto the maps a bit quicker.

So, as above, system and apps on SSD, games on 1TB HDD
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DarkSable

DarkSable

Judicious
Sep 27, 2012
8,890
1
34,965
240GB ssds do have better value, but you aren't going to be USING that much space on an SSD, so it's not actually better value. Does that make sense?

And like leeb said, there's no reason to do that. 90% of the games out there get absolutely nothing from being on an SSD. Think about it - if you're in COD and it's on an SSD, what benefit do you get? You load into the match faster... and then have to sit there waiting for everyone else to load anyways. The only games that get a serious benefit from being on SSDs are things like MMOs or single player games with intrusive loading screens (think skyrim or half life) that you want to make load faster. And those you can fit on a 120GB SSD that has your windows install on it just fine.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

mrsquish

Reputable
Apr 10, 2014
3
0
4,510


Oh ok, I see what your're saying.

Yeah, ok but I don't play COD or BF4 or the like. At the moment I mostly enjoy voxel games with dynamic terrain that I've backed on Kickstarter. Traditional AAA games don't really interest me anymore. Given the storage requirements for voxel environments, my guess is that they would benefit from an SSD, but you're right it might be worth checking with the developers before shelling out for one.


 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom