So im building a mid class gaming computer for around $1200-1300 and I want to boot my computer from an SSD to get blazing fast boots, but, i wanted an SSD only for my operating system. I was thinking about using a 64Gb SSD, but, I also want a physical drive for storage. My problem starts here: I download a lot of things, and I was wondering where things save, like when I play a game like planetside 2 would the file be contained in my OS? All i want to do is boot from that drive, I dont want to be filling it up with games that I have/will install. My current laptop has 1 hard drive, so when I look at the file locations, I see everything in the (:C) drive. Is it possible to load my games onto my 1TB hard drive then keep my OS clean on the SSD? (If not im getting 2, 1TB hard drives and putting them in RAID 0) HELP!
This is good, because in a game like minecraft where it runs in the %appdata% (Roaming) would that not be in the SSD? (If i were to have the OS on the SSD)
Forget what I said, I might have been mistaken.
Alright then, i'll keep looking
Here's a couple of threads on other forums that deal with the subject
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1660934
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/281175-32-question-only
Thanks :)
You'll want to just start anew with a fresh install of windows onto the SSD and then whenever you are asked where you would like something to be installed (and they always ask you where you would like to install it) just click over to your HDD and stick it in a folder there. I would also make sure that steam winds up over there so you can plunk all of your steam compatible games into its game folder. Some games will still save their save states onto your documents folder (I'm looking at you Borderlands 2) but they don't take up very much space at all.
So when i download steam, i save it to my HDD and i should be safe with a small SSD?
I have built a few computers that run the OS and Games on the SSD and all downloaded and stored files are saved to the HDD. This guide might help you when you do the install.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds
Basically it's like this - SSD for OS and programs (Skype, MS Office, Photoshop etc. (or just the small ones, if you're tight on space)) and a larger HDD for Games, Music, Downloads and files in general.
Another thing to do, if you don't want to fill the SSD too quickly, is to relocate My Pictures, My Documents and all those folders to the HDD, that way the game save files also go on the HDD
can drivers be put on a seperate hdd instead of the ssd fo the os? does anyone know?
I think no, they have to be at the same place, where system files are, besides, you can't choose the location to install them anyway
You can install Steam virtually anywhere you want to. My friends uses an external HDD for his Steam games whenever he wants to game on his Mac while he's at school. It's nice to put a shortcut on the desktop, pin it to the taskbar, a tile on the Windows 8 interface, etc. just so you don't have to dig your way to the steam directory every time you want to boot it up.
This is just a personal opinion, but I like to install games with long loading times to my SSD, like Battlefield 3. I installed Origin on my SSD in order to do this because I have no clue how else to do it. I still haven't been able to figure out how to install various games in different directories. I dunno if it's even at all possible.
In summary, install Steam on whatever drive gives you the most storage space. It will let you select the directory in the installation process.