Question Most Efficient Drive Configuration of these Options?

[Dave3000]

I have 3 SSDs installed on my system currently, a 2TB Samsung 980 Pro, 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus, and a 2TB Samsung 850 EVO SATA. I have an Asus B550-F ROG Strix (Wi-Fi) motherboard with a Ryzen 5800x CPU and my 980 Pro SSD is installed on the 1st M.2 slot (PCI-E 4.0x4 dedicated CPU lanes) and the 970 EVO Plus is installed on the 2nd m.2 slot (PCI 3.0x4 shared chipset lanes). Keep in mind that I want to take into consideration that I will be upgrading to Windows 11 and will want to take advantage of it's DirectStorage feature. Which of the listed configurations below would be the most efficient drive configuration for my system?

1. 2TB 980 Pro (250GB Windows partition, 1750GB Data partition w/games) and remove the 2TB 970 EVO Plus and 2TB 850 EVO drives
2. 2TB 980 Pro (250GB Windows partition, 250GB Data partition, 1500GB Games partition) and remove the 2TB 970 EVO Plus and 2TB 850 EVO
3. 2TB 980 Pro (Windows), 2TB 970 EVO Plus (Games) and 2TB 850 EVO (Data)
4. 2TB 970 EVO Plus (Windows), 2TB 980 Pro (Games) and 2TB 850 EVO (Data)
5. 2TB 970 EVO Plus (250GB Windows partition, 1750GB Data partition-no games), 2TB 980 Pro (Games) and remove the 2TB 850 EVO
6. 2TB 970 EVO Plus (Windows), 2TB 980 Pro (Data with games) and remove the 2TB 850 EVO
7. 2TB 970 EVO Plus (Windows), 2TB 980 Pro (250GB Data partition, 1750GB Games partition) and remove the 2TB 850 EVO
8. 2TB 980 Pro (250GB Windows partition, 1750GB Data partition-no games), 2TB 970 EVO Plus (Games) and remove the 2TB 850 EVO

 

[Dave3000]

I'm currently using configuration #4 in my system.

 

[kschendel]

How are you defining efficiency?

Put the most often read/written data on the 980 Pro. That's probably games and game data. I'd probably put windows boot on the 970 EVO mostly to keep it somewhat separate for ease of reinstallation. A separate windows partition there is a matter of taste, some do and some don't. I see no reason to get rid of the 850 EVO, you can use it for little-used and archival "stuff".

Regardless of how you arrange it, it's all going to perform roughly the same unless you do things that read/write massive (as in many 10's of gigabytes) files quite often. The 980 Pro will be maybe half-again faster doing that sort of thing as compared to the 970 EVO.

 

[Dave3000]

How are you defining efficiency?

Put the most often read/written data on the 980 Pro. That's probably games and game data. I'd probably put windows boot on the 970 EVO mostly to keep it somewhat separate for ease of reinstallation. A separate windows partition there is a matter of taste, some do and some don't. I see no reason to get rid of the 850 EVO, you can use it for little-used and archival "stuff".

Regardless of how you arrange it, it's all going to perform roughly the same unless you do things that read/write massive (as in many 10's of gigabytes) files quite often. The 980 Pro will be maybe half-again faster doing that sort of thing as compared to the 970 EVO.

Efficiency as in making the best use for each drive in my system and keeping in mind that I want to have an optimal drive setup for DirectStorage when I upgrade to Windows 11.