1-2TB SSD worth it if want a quiet gaming PC?

[Dave3000]

I right now have a 512GB SSD but it does not have enough room to install many of my games, along with the OS, and I don't even think about using it for data storage(downloaded program installers, DLC installers, driver installers, documents, pictures) which is on my 1TB Black HDD along with my less frequent played games. I want to consolidate my OS, games, and data storage to only one physical drive and was thinking about upgrading to a 1 or 2TB Samsung 850 Pro SSD. I right now have two 6TB Green HDDs (blu-ray rips and CD rips), one 1TB Black HDD (Games and Data Storage), and one 512GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD (OS and Games). The Green drives stay. I just want to get rid of my 1TB Black drive and my 512GB 840 Pro SSD, mainly to make my system less noisy and going for a big enough SSD would make it a little quieter which is important for me when watching movies using my PC. Would it make sense buying a 1 to 2TB SSD for a OS/Gaming/Data storage drive?

 

[Yuriman]

If you don't mind paying for it, sure. The cost per GB isn't out of line with smaller drives. I don't ever find myself playing more than half a terabyte of games in a given week, personally, so it's not an issue I've had to struggle with personally. I still have about 150GB free on my OS/games drive.

 

[nanaki333]

after going with my first 1TB SSD, i could never go back to mechanical for my steam/games. i grabbed 3x 840 EVO 1TB drives so i can keep my whole library on my machine.

i'm a bit biased as you can see, but once you go SSD for things like, it is hard to recommend anything BUT an SSD for your games. even a single one. i haven't seen any need to upgrade my array because the 850 series are nearly identical in performance, they just have the 3D NAND, but otherwise, benchmarks are about the same. so keep that in mind when looking. you may be able to find a great deal on the older series.

if you go on ebay and search for 1TB SSD or 960GB SSD, you would be surprised how cheap you can find them. i've seen them under $200 for manufacturer refurbished (fresh NAND).

 

[Dasa2]

i recently purchased a 960g sandisk ultra ii $199us from amazon while it was on special ended up being ~$300au it makes a great games drive
big improvement with noise now that i just have a 3tb green for storage that spins down when idle

3tb 7200 toshiba with a 64g ssd cache that was what i had previously and a 2tb seagate 7200 before that

 

[nanaki333]

i recently purchased a 960g sandisk ultra ii $199us from amazon while it was on special ended up being ~$300au it makes a great games drive
big improvement with noise now that i just have a 3tb green for storage that spins down when idle

3tb 7200 toshiba with a 64g ssd cache that was what i had previously and a 2tb seagate 7200 before that

nice pull! just about any SSD that you use for gaming, you are going to perceive the performance almost all the same. benchmark wise you will see differences, but day to day gaming and such, anything would be nice.

i actually still have a vertex 2 (yes, a 2) in an HTPC that is still kicking and everything boots instantly, loads instantly, windows feels just as fast as my primary machine.

 

[Yuriman]

nice pull! just about any SSD that you use for gaming, you are going to perceive the performance almost all the same. benchmark wise you will see differences, but day to day gaming and such, anything would be nice.

i actually still have a vertex 2 (yes, a 2) in an HTPC that is still kicking and everything boots instantly, loads instantly, windows feels just as fast as my primary machine.

My wife's PC is still rocking a pair of X25M G2's in raid which I picked up on release day. They don't feel significantly different than any other SATA SSD I've used, and they're still reporting 97% life remaining.

 

[Charlie98]

OP, would it make sense to just leave the 512GB SSD and just add a 1TB SSD for the game files?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Why don't you use a HDD power bay, like this one from Lian Li Lian Li HDD Power Controller I use one for my 6 1TB HDDs

 

[BSim500]

1TB SSD is definitely worth it. 2TB SSD's still do carry a premium. If money is no object, get the 2TB. Otherwise, you could buy a 1TB SSD + 1-2TB 2.5" drive (eg, Samsung M8/M9T). They are very quiet, even quieter than the 3.5" Green's you seem happy with. Virtually zero vibration, barely perceivable idle / seek noise, typical low power of 1w idle / 2w seek, etc. That way you'll have 1TB fast storage for installed games, plus another 1-2TB slow storage for game installers, music, videos, photos, etc, resulting in 2-3TB silent storage without spending a small fortune.

 

[moonbogg]

I recently got a 1TB 850 EVO and love the crap out of this thing. Next SSD will be even higher capacity I'm sure.

 

[JimmiG]

5400 RPM HDD's are nearly silent, and if you only use them for data storage and don't access them frequently they'll spin down most of the time. I could never use SSD's for data storage, since 10TB of SSD's would be too expensive.

For games and applications however there's no question that you should use SSD's.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Just wanna add that your GPU fan alone probably is noisier than a HDD in a gaming load.

 

[Charlie98]

Just wanna add that your GPU fan alone probably is noisier than a HDD in a gaming load.

I thought of that, too, but the OP mentions that he uses it as an HTPC, too. I don't have a problem with my HTPC and HDD noise, but I have a good case. I could see where a noisy drive could be heard over the TV, however.