SSD vs SSHD gaming

DukiNuki · May 31, 2016

hey guys

iv'e been told that SSHD is lot faster than HDD and performs closer to SSD but i also have been told that games or any other files will only load faster or play smoother if they can fit into that 8GB buffer . and i also read that SSD has no impact on FPS but makes the game feel smoother but some report that they got fps boost with SSD .

ok help me decide , which one should i go for ?

SSD : Very fast , enough capacity for my needs , possible FPS boot , if i run out of space for games ill move them to external drive and later move the ones i need back to my SSD . Note that the place i'm living Doesnt have great internet so i cant just Redownload games from steam , if i have one i gotta find some place to store it either on Discs or External Drive .

SSHD : Has all the space i need so i Don't need an external drive because i can store all my games in it , but its still not as fast as SSD so i can expect stutters or slow load times and overall slower experience than SSD

USAFRet · May 31, 2016

If you have the budget for the SSD of sufficient size, do that.

The SSHD is only 'fast' for whatever ends up on that small SSD space. Generally 8GB. And you do not get to influence what that is.
The firmware lears what individiual files are most often used, and those end up on the SD portion.
Not applications, individual files.

The rest is exactly the same as a spinning drive.

However, your FPS will almost certainly not change between HDD, SSHD, or SSD.
Load times and in between levels, yes. FPS, no.

Also...is this a secondary drive?

DukiNuki · May 31, 2016

I can wait for few more seconds for games to load up on SSHD thats not a big deal but if SSD offer way more than just loading times and it can actually improve FPS or can make games run and feel smoother then why not SSD ? so many conflicting reviews of SSHD , some say they are so close to SSD and some say they are mostly operate close to and HDD . donno

BadActor · May 31, 2016

With the price of SSD's falling, I don't think SSHD's are worth it. Buy a small SSD for the OS and frequently used programs, and an HDD for storage.

DukiNuki · May 31, 2016

what is secondary drive ? external hard drive ? no no i'm just using external hard drive to store my steam games that i don't wanna play for a while , then later if i decide to play ill move them back to SSD , ill store unneeded files and ill just unplug the external drive im not using it as secondary drive . i hate SSD + HDD . its either SSHD or SSD for me

and a question about FPS , why do some people report smoother stutter less game play with slightly higher fps ?

USAFRet · May 31, 2016

DukiNuki :

Is this a desktop or laptop?
What type of drive is the OS on?

DukiNuki · May 31, 2016

So i'm mainly choosing and SSD just because it loads things faster ? it kinda doesn't justify its high price but when i hear "fast" i automatically ignore everything else

.

DukiNuki · May 31, 2016

Its PC . the OS and everything else will be either on SSD or SSHD , i haven't bought yet , just deciding

its either 2 or 4 TB SSHD or 500 - 1TB SSD plus an external drive for steam games i don't play .

USAFRet · May 31, 2016

DukiNuki :

An SSD is quieter, cooler, and blazingly fast vs a HDD.
I would not have another main use PC without one. My main PC has 4.

So...what other drives are in this system?

DukiNuki · May 31, 2016

nothing else just one simple SSD

USAFRet · May 31, 2016

DukiNuki :

If all of your stuff fits into an SSD that fits in your budget, do that.

Solandri · May 31, 2016

A modern HDD is now pushing 200 MB/s sequential read/writes, which is only 1/3 the speed of a SATA3 SSD at sequential writes. There's very little speedup to be gained by storing large files in a SSHD's 8GB cache.

A modern HDD is still down around 1 MB/s 4k read/writes. SSDs are around 30-70 MB/s, 250-400 MB/s if you can queue multiple 4k read/writes. So the SSD can be hundreds of times faster than a HDD at reading and writing small files. You can fit a LOT of these small files in 8GB of cache.

So yeah, the SSHD can be substantially faster than a HDD for a lot of programs. But there are several important caveats:

■A SSHD won't help with write speeds.
■If this is the first (and often second or third) time you're reading a file, it will be read at HDD speeds.
■Avoid the WD SSHDs. For some bizarre reason they coupled it with a short head parking timeout, something like 8 seconds. The result is that Windows will constantly freeze for a split second every 20-30 seconds, as it has to wait for the heads to unpark. The presence of the 8GB cache actually hurts here, as it means fewer accesses to the disk itself, meaning the heads are more likely to park. (The same thing happens with WD laptop and green drives, if you put the pagefile on it.)

I recommend the SSHDs (non-WD) only if you're limited to one drive and want something fast like a SSD, but need the capacity of a HDD. In all other cases, I recommend going with a SSD + HDD combo.

DukiNuki · May 31, 2016

then SSD it is ,but i still have one more question

Games these days are bought from online sources digitally so you have to download them and store them somewhere , you cant buy them on disc and this becomes the norm so storage is an important thing

I Don't have enouhg internet to remove my steam games and re download them when ever i want so i have to find some place to store them , heres my question . can i buy an external hard drive and move the games i don't play in it and later move them back in SSD to play them ?

i have 10 games but my SSD can only house 5 of them , can i store the other 5 in my External drive until i'm done with the first 5 , is it even possible to store steam games on external drive ( not play them from external drive just store them for later ) then move them back to their installation path in SSD and play them again ?

Solandri · May 31, 2016

DukiNuki :

Yeah, Steam puts each game's files (except common files) into a separate folder under /Steam/Steamapps/Common/[Game name]. You can move that game's folder back and forth to another drive with no ill effects as long as you don't try to play the game while it's on the external drive. However...

i have 10 games but my SSD can only house 5 of them , can i store the other 5 in my External drive until i'm done with the first 5 , is it even possible to store steam games on external drive ( not play them from external drive just store them for later ) then move them back to their installation path in SSD and play them again ?

You can in fact play them off the external drive if you want. Steam doesn't support dual game folders, but you can trick it using the mklink command to create a directory junction. That's like a shortcut, except it's at the filesystem level so apps don't know it's a shortcut.

My C: drive is a SSD, and my D: drive is a HDD. I install Steam in C:\Games\Steam, but I also create a D:\Games folder. The games I'm finished playing or only play infrequently, I move over to the D:\Games folder. Then I open a command prompt and type:

mklink /j C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\GameName D:\Games\GameName

And even though the game files are stored on the D: drive (HDD), Steam thinks they're still in original location in the C: drive (SSD) and lets me play them. Here's more complete instructions if the above didn't make sense.

http://windows7themes.net/en-us/how-to-change-download-location-in-steam/

DukiNuki · May 31, 2016

wow thanks for the detailed answer man , just one last question

850 Evo m.2 vs 2.5 which one is faster ?

what are top SSD brands for SSD ? faster than Samsung ?

USAFRet · May 31, 2016

Solandri :

Yes it does. Multiple drives/folders is no issue.
No mklink needed.

This is my current setup.

Solandri · Jun 1, 2016

USAFRet :

Great to know. Thanks.

SSD vs SSHD gaming

Distinguished

Titan

Distinguished

Expert

Distinguished

Titan

Distinguished

Distinguished

Titan

Distinguished

Titan

Illustrious

Distinguished

Illustrious

Distinguished

Titan

Illustrious

Share this page