SSD Storage and Games

[john181818]

I just purchased and installed an Intel X25 120 GB drive and left the old HDD in place in the computer. The question that I have is that I play some games such as Mass Effect, Dragon Age and other similar games and I know that I should leave 20% of the drive free. So can I install games and switch out the files to the HDD when I am not playing that particular game and/or need room and then swap the files back when needed? I wouldn't be uninstalling the game and therefore would be leaving the registry intact as if the game were installed.

So can I do this?

 

[blackhawk1928]

I don't think you need to leave any (Or at least you can go a lot lower then 20%) space free on an SSD. I could be wrong though. Im not sure though, from what I see online, for an SSD, freespace isn't really useful.

 

[tecmo34]

I would advise against that moving files back and forth, as it puts un-need writes on your SSD. I would install the most used game on the SSD and run everything else from the HDD and leave as is. You don't need to be moving back and forth, as the SSD will only benefit you truly with the load time but not increase FPS.

I've heard more along the lines of 10% for TRIM to be effective at garbage collection. There are those that say create a "partition" of 20% to create the SSD's version of short stroking. I'm not a supporter or really see the benefit in doing so myself.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

How free space, garbage collection, TROIM and "over provisioning" is used is well documented .... see THG's home page under the storage section. On my ole Palm Treo there was a great little app called "PowerRun". Smartphones had very little memory so storage was augmented ion a much slower SD card.

What PowerRun did was allow you to store programs on the SD card. You'd install an app (to memory) and then use PR to swap it out to the SD card. When you "launched" the app, PR would 1st swap it back to memory and then launch it.

Seems this would be an ideal app for gamers. All games would have to be installed to the SSD. The utility, using a drag and drop interface, would allow you to swap the locations of the app to the HD. When you launch the game, if its location was "swapped", the utility would swap it back before launching. Upon closing, you'd get a prompt asking if you wanted to leave it there or swap it back.

Well nice a that may be, you can do it yourself just by moving your game folders from the SSD to the HD. Then mpve it back when you wanna play any individual game.

 

[john181818]

Just to be clear I am not thinking of doing this frequently, but it would happen on occasion such as tomorrow. Dragon Age 2 comes out and there will be some kind of reward for having a DA: Origins completed character. So I loaded DA: Origins onto the SSD in anticipation of installing DA2on Tuesday. Once that is done DA: Origins is a candidate for removal from the SSD, especially at 17.2 GB of space. DA2 will probably be on the SDD for months. So in my case we are not discussing doing this frequently.

 

[adampower]

I would move my games to the HDD as they get outdated or less played. If it were me I would probably leave them there to be played on the hdd if I get nostalgic.

I'm not too worried about unnecessary writes 'burning out' my ssd or even slowing it down. But it's just a matter of time, energy, and the added writes making my life difficult.

Over provisioning is so much less important these days. The intel drive is already over provisioned to an extent. TRIM will fairly quickly open up any open blocks. That being said I never like seeing any drive in the red.

My advice is to use the ssd as you will. If you see a slowdown THEN move some files off it.

 

[john181818]

Best answer selected by john181818.