Multiple HDD or not

thewizard174 · Jul 22, 2014

I currently have a 1TB 7200rpm harddrive and I have tried recording gameplay but I keep getting lag in game and even more when I play the video back. I know that getting another hard drive to record videos on will help the lag.

I have also heard that having all the windows software on one hard drive and everything like games and personal stuff on the other disk will help the performance and boot time of a pc. Is this true? If so, is it easy for me to transfer all the windows software on my new hdd and keep all my other personal storage on my current disk(or vise versa)?

Brunostako · Jul 22, 2014

Get an SSD for your system and apps and all your data in the HDD.

thewizard174 · Jul 22, 2014

Brunostako :

How easy is it to get all my windows software on the ssd?

Dorosh · Jul 22, 2014

It's actually the other way around. You want all of your windows files, games, and other software on one disc (the C:/ drive) and personal files on another drive. This will help your performance for recording if for example your saving the recording to the second hard drive. It will still slow down the computers performance a bit, but it shouldn't be so much to stop you from being able to play.

Dorosh · Jul 22, 2014

thewizard174 :

Not easy, you have to install windows, and re-install all programs.
You could use some imaging software to create a copy of what you have currently then put that onto the new drive - but thats a PITA and it's worth re-installing windows once and a while to keep things clean, so I wouldn't transfer.

InvalidError · Jul 22, 2014

Most Steam games are pretty easy to move elsewhere: move the Steam folder, re-open Steam and the most you may need to do is point it back to its new location. Most of Blizzard's games are similarly easy to move around. For other software, it varies from easy all the way to having to re-install.

If you do not want to re-install Windows, the easiest way would be to move your other stuff and games to the new HDD.

If you have "more lag" in your playback, it means your video encoder is most likely dropping frames. Since most screen capture/streaming software does not use QuickSync or other hardware encoding acceleration features, they can be fairly taxing on the CPU. These are the times where an FX-8xxx or i7 make a difference even in games that otherwise have no need for them.

Brunostako · Jul 22, 2014

thewizard174 :

Make a fresh windows install on the SSD. You're not gonna regret it (personal experience).

thewizard174 · Jul 22, 2014

Brunostako :

What about the existing windows 7 on my HDD?

thewizard174 · Jul 22, 2014

I was thinking about it and wanted to see if this is a good idea or not. Buy an SSD for my windows for faster boot and what not, keep my apps on my current hdd, and buy another hdd for recording videos and other personal things? Idk if this is a good idea or not. Thanks for helping me out guys.

InvalidError · Jul 22, 2014

thewizard174 :

There are many ways to go about it. Another possibility would be to add more RAM so the streaming software can buffer video when the HDD is busy... and/or get a faster CPU so you can crank compression up a notch.

Even better would be to get a video capture card and run the recording/streaming off a separate PC altogether.

Dorosh · Jul 22, 2014

thewizard174 :

The SSD will help boot windows faster, but not a huge amount faster. Still use it as your main hard drive and save streams to another one.
I use SSD's and once windows is loaded, it's insane how much faster programs, including games, load up. Windows load has a lot of small files that don't hugely benefit SSD speed for start up, but it's still faster. Keep all programs that run on the SSD, including windows. This will give you a huge speed benefit for them.
Other files like streamed ones would go on another drive because of space and you still get the benefit of not taking up the SSD's time while streaming a game.
If you play a game from the SSD and save streams to another HD - the game has all the time it needs to load off the SSD and not interrupt the stream. Get it?

thewizard174 · Jul 22, 2014

InvalidError :

I do need a better cpu I have an AMD FX 4300 it's ok but it isn't a great cpu.

How does the video capture card work?

InvalidError · Jul 22, 2014

thewizard174 :

You take a card like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100100&cm_re=video_capture-_-15-100-100-_-Product
Plug your GPU's HDMI output in the capture card's HDMI input
Plug your HDMI display in the capture card's HDMI pass-through output
Use the capture card for your recording/streaming output

Since the capture card does h264 in hardware, your CPU is almost completely free for other stuff.

thewizard174 · Jul 22, 2014

Dorosh :

thewizard174 :

The SSD will help boot windows faster, but not a huge amount faster. Still use it as your main hard drive and save streams to another one.
I use SSD's and once windows is loaded, it's insane how much faster programs, including games, load up. Windows load has a lot of small files that don't hugely benefit SSD speed for start up, but it's still faster. Keep all programs that run on the SSD, including windows. This will give you a huge speed benefit for them.
Other files like streamed ones would go on another drive because of space and you still get the benefit of not taking up the SSD's time while streaming a game.
If you play a game from the SSD and save streams to another HD - the game has all the time it needs to load off the SSD and not interrupt the stream. Get it?

Yep. so if I want to buy an SSD, I'll have to move everything from my hd to the SSD and then record to my hd? Is that easy?

thewizard174 · Jul 22, 2014

InvalidError :

thewizard174 :

You take a card like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100100&cm_re=video_capture-_-15-100-100-_-Product
Plug your GPU's HDMI output in the capture card's HDMI input
Plug your HDMI display in the capture card's HDMI pass-through output
Use the capture card for your recording/streaming output

Since the capture card does h264 in hardware, your CPU is almost completely free for other stuff.

So this will also help CPU performance?

InvalidError · Jul 22, 2014

thewizard174 :

It helps by taking most of the compression and streaming processing off the CPU. If you already have some game performance issues even without recording/streaming, that won't change.

As I said earlier, one possibility when using a capture card is to dump the recording/streaming on a separate computer so it has absolutely no effect on your main computer.

thewizard174 · Jul 22, 2014

InvalidError :

I don't have many gaming performance issues. I don't really want to get a capture card right now, maybe in the future. Any other suggestions?

Dorosh · Jul 23, 2014

thewizard174 :

It's not "that easy" to move your stuff over to the new SSD. You're best bet is to install fresh Windows on the SSD and all games, apps, etc. Most games these days save on the network so saved games don't have to be transferred. Don't delete the stuff off the old drive just yet though.
Once that is done, the performance of saving streams to the other hard drive and using the other hard drive for data will "easily" increase performance, yes.

thewizard174 · Jul 23, 2014

Dorosh :

thewizard174 :

It's not "that easy" to move your stuff over to the new SSD. You're best bet is to install fresh Windows on the SSD and all games, apps, etc. Most games these days save on the network so saved games don't have to be transferred. Don't delete the stuff off the old drive just yet though.
Once that is done, the performance of saving streams to the other hard drive and using the other hard drive for data will "easily" increase performance, yes.

ill probably do that then. I just hate to have to download everything all over again.. Thanks for the help men!

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