So far, I have this HDD in my computer:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
And I plan on getting this HDD at some point in the future:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
How would you configure these two HDDs in order to get the most speed out of them? I mostly play games. But I also watch movies, listen to music, surf the web, and do other basic tasks. With the exception of movies, I oftentimes have these applications running at the same time. I was just wondering which drive I should use to store each of those various file types on. Should I store the OS on the same drive as my games (primary 1TB drive)? And then store everything else on the secondary drive (500GB WD)? I only have about 3-4GB of music. And I don't have a very large movie collection either. I typically keep 4 or 5 newer movies on my HDD.
I was thinking about getting a SSD, but I really don't think the extra $100 is worth it. I can wait a few extra seconds for my games to load. If I do run into extra money, then I'll consider it. But for now, what could I do with two mechanical HDDs? I don't wanna bother with RAID. But I'd be willing to learn about partitioning if that would help. I also plan on doing a full reinstallation of Windows 7 when I get my new HDD (or SSD; whatever the case may be).
Any advice? Thanks in advance.
If speed is your aim, I would highly recommend getting a SSD. The speed is MUCH faster. If your total data isnt close to filling the 500gb drive, then just install windows and essential programs onto the SSD and install games and media on the HDD. I have this setup but I have a second HDD for my media and backup and my games have a dedicated HDD. It is MUCH faster than a single HDD.
Now if you need the extra storage and want a speed increase, then install windows and essential programs on one HDD, and your games on the second HDD. If you like to install a lot of games at the same time, then put the games on the larger drive if you think you will use more than 500gb.. some people do that. Putting your games on their own drive will greatly decrease load times and will also minimize fragmentation.
Make sure you back up all important files and save games to both drives.
Hm, I think I'll go with the second option and dedicate the newer drive to games. I do plan on playing lots of games in the future, and I tend to add lots of mods to my games. So the extra storage will be more useful than the speed of an SSD. Thanks for your input. :)
Bump. Anyone else have anything they would like to add? I also thought about getting a Seagate Momentus hybrid drive.
If you arent going to get an SSD, get a momentus hybrid drive as your boot drive. They take a little to "learn" what to store to the flash, but once they do, they are nearly as fast as SSD's. And if the flash fails it just becomes a regular disk drive, so you dont lose your data.