Ssd

[royboi]

I recently wanted to add an ssd to my build, but I have minimal knowledge about ssd's.

A few questions:

Can I use an ssd and an hdd at the same time?

Can I put windows and some files on the ssd and some other files on the hdd, will I still be able to access my all files?

Do I need to run them in raid?

If I have a game on my hdd, but not on my ssd, is there a way to load the game from the ssd or do I actually have to have the file on the ssd to do so?

 

[BikerEcho]

1) YES
2) YES
2) NO
4) maybe there will be some cases or workarounds where it will be possible. but don't bother with it.

 

[Kage]

I'd just uninstall the game, and install it again on my SSD.

A lot has gone on in this technology though, where its actually worth trying out now. When the technology first appeared (except for the price of course) I wouldn't have tried it.
Life of the drives have increased excessively since the beginning.

Compared to hard drives, they do in fact have a specific number of times each bit of data can be wrote over.
But in the lifetime of the drive now, I don't think you'd ever encounter a problem.

 

[royboi]

Hm, Im curious about my fourth question. I'd like to have fast load times, but games take up a lot of space. I have a lot of games and an ssd can only store so much. They cost so much more per gb than hard drives do.

 

[Kage]

I'm afraid, even if there was a way to stream data from the hard drive to the SSD, the speeds would be exactly the same, as it'd still have to copy from the main drive.

 

[Indigo]

I'm afraid, even if there was a way to stream data from the hard drive to the SSD, the speeds would be exactly the same, as it'd still have to copy from the main drive.

What are you saying here? That's a little confusing. If you copy the data from the HDD onto the SSD, if you launch the game / program from the SSD, it will access it from the SSD, not the HDD. The access times will be exponentially faster on the SSD vs the HDD

 

[nbrikha]

What are you saying here? That's a little confusing. If you copy the data from the HDD onto the SSD, if you launch the game / program from the SSD, it will access it from the SSD, not the HDD. The access times will be exponentially faster on the SSD vs the HDD

Then you'd have to wait to load all the files from the HDD to the SSD. So either, you stream through the SSD from the HDD, meaning you run at the HDD speed...or you wait however long it'll take to load the game onto the SSD...which would be at the read speed of the HDD...then play the game. In any case, it seems like a lot of trouble to do to save yourself a few seconds in load times on a game.

 

[BikerEcho]

i think he can gain some speed by having some of the files that is required to load the game on the ssd. the question is then how are you gonna do that.
i think it is just a waste of time wondering about it, it will be more trouble then good.

get an Z68 motherboard and set the SSD as chaching.

 

[Kage]

I meant, if there was a way to run from one to the other.

Most games don't like being simply copied over. You'd have to partake in a re-installation.

Then, if you didn't want that game on that drive anymore and had a new one, uninstall and then re-install it on the hard disk.

 

[Indigo]

So either, you stream through the SSD from the HDD, meaning you run at the HDD speed...or you wait however long it'll take to load the game onto the SSD...which would be at the read speed of the HDD...then play the game. In any case, it seems like a lot of trouble to do to save yourself a few seconds in load times on a game.

You can't "stream through" anything on a HDD to SSD. You either load the game/program from the source disk, whether it's SSD or HDD, and then it runs from that source. There's no "streaming" anything.

I can see how copying the games would be a hassle, but Kage is right, you'd have to uninstall from the HDD then reinstall on the SSD to get it to that setup, but in the end, games do load faster on SSDs, it varies on game type and the kinds of accessing, but games and programs DO load faster from an SSD vs. a hard drive, hands down.