Beginner Question: How should I organize applications on multiple SSD's?

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voxdan

voxdan

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Just built my first computer in ages and have a 600P 512GB on which I installed my OS. I also installed the various drivers and apps for things like my ASUS motherboard, NZXT Kraken, and Corsair peripherals. Other than Chrome, I haven't installed anything else yet. I have a second SSD I want to add to the system, and before I install anything else I want to know what the best practices are for organizing applications, etc. on hard drives.

I hear people talk about putting your OS on this drive and your games on that drive and your big productivity applications on whatever drive, etc. but they don't always agree on which drives to store things and why. I'd appreciate a "dummies" guide to organizing my drives before I install anything so I don't have to reorganize later. You can safely assume I don't know much about this stuff. I'm looking for efficiency and speed. I will be playing some open world games, doing some gameplay recording and rendering, and basic web and office stuff, and not much else (this PC was built primarily for gaming and recording).

Thanks for your help and time.
 
Solution
greens
With two SSDs of equal speed - where you save files, applications, and other things is of no consequence to performance.

Now if you had a 120GB SSD and a 2TB platter - then yeah you'd install OS, drivers, and common apps on the SSD, with bulk data and large programs going on the platter.

But with SSDs all around - there is ostensibly no difference in performance. Any organization you choose is for your monkey brain, the computer doesn't care how files are organized. Organize it how it makes sense to you.
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greens

greens

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With two SSDs of equal speed - where you save files, applications, and other things is of no consequence to performance.

Now if you had a 120GB SSD and a 2TB platter - then yeah you'd install OS, drivers, and common apps on the SSD, with bulk data and large programs going on the platter.

But with SSDs all around - there is ostensibly no difference in performance. Any organization you choose is for your monkey brain, the computer doesn't care how files are organized. Organize it how it makes sense to you.
 
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voxdan

voxdan

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Thank you! Frankly, I think I like just having someone tell me what to do in situations like this, so I can get'r done and move on. So, this is good to read. :)

To clarify, when you say "common apps" and "large programs" what are some examples of each? Would browsers be common, and MS Office or Photoshop be large? Of course, as you said, two SSD's vs an SSD and a HDD changes things, but for my own understanding.... :)
 
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BadAsAl

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What greens said...

512GB is a lot of space but what you might want to do is install all your non-gaming applications on there, but install any games to the second SSD. Games take a lot of space so this is how I do mine.

Don't forget no matter what you do, have another place to backup your data on top of all this.

 
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voxdan

voxdan

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Ya, I think my boot drive is probably much larger than it needed to be, but the drive was a good price, so what the heck.

My brain prefers organization, so while it may not matter with regards to speed, I probably will put my games on the second SSD, like you. I am implementing a backup drive later today (just finished the bulk of the build two days ago). Thanks for the reminder!
 
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BadAsAl

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When SSD's were really expensive it made sense to buy a small one and use that for just the OS, then have a larger HDD to store your apps and data. But now with the prices lower I like to buy the biggest one I can afford and use it for everything, except my games. I probably don't even need to do that... I just hate to uninstall games I may pick up again in the future just to get some more storage space.
 
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