Storage Setup for Gaming/Recording PC?

Flizzelz

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
78
0
10,630
Hello,

I am going to be building a gaming/recording computer soon and I am planning on getting a 240GB SSD for the OS and various other things. I am also thinking of getting 2TB of regular HDD space. I am not sure for the purpose I would like to use this computer which would be Gaming and Recording whether I should go with one 2TB HDD that I would keep all of my games on, play them from, and record to. Or have two 1TB HDDs where one would be used to store my games and play them, and the other one to record to.

(I would just like to mention that I can't use the SSD in this equation at all because if you have used Fraps for recording things the files are massive and I don't have enough money to go and get a 500GB SSD no can my Steam library for games all fit on the SSD including OS and programs. So please don't say that I could use the SSD to store one thing or the other because its not going to happen).
 

djscribbles

Honorable
Apr 6, 2012
1,212
0
11,460
You don't need to have your entire steam library in one location, steam simply has to think it's all in one location. Using this: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753194%28v=ws.10%29.aspx you can actually fool steam into thinking everything is co-located on your HDD while keeping your active games (or ones you record) on your SSD.

I personally setup steam this way:
Install steam to C:\program files(x86)\Steam. Don't launch steam yet though
Make a directory D:\SteamGames
mklink /D C:\program files(x86)\Steam\steamapps D:\SteamGames (these folders maybe backwards)
Now, launch steam, it will get your game library, any games you download will be directed to D:\SteamGames (this redirection is at the filesystem level, Steam doesn't know)
Then create a directory C:\LinkedGames
Download the application "SteamMover" and configure it to move steam games between D:\SteamGames\common and C:\LinkedGames
Alternatively, you can manually move a game out of D:\SteamGames\common to C:\LinkedGames, and manually create a directory link using mklink /d D:\SteamGames\Common\gameName C:\LinkedGames\gameName

It's actually quite a lot easier than it sounds. The only time it gets difficult is for some valve games that aren't kept in steamapps\common.
 

Flizzelz

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
78
0
10,630


I heard that using RAID can make your hard drives more unstable than if you just had them sitting there normally. Also does RAID cost anything and in your opinion is it easy to setup?
 

Flizzelz

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
78
0
10,630


Thank you for the very detailed explaination. I dont think I will do that though because I think I will want to just use the SSD for my operating system and various other things and then have 1 HDD for games and 1 HDD for files or just one 2TB HDD for everything.
 

Flizzelz

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
78
0
10,630


I guess I could just get two hard drives and even if I don't do RAID at the start I will always be ready to do it if I want to later... Hmm...