Steam and SSDs

[Stg-Flame]

Is it a viable option to have Steam set to run from a 128GB SSD or would it be better to just keep it on my 1TB HDD. Is the speed of having programs installed to a SSD worth losing so much space?

I've uninstalled everything I can on Steam, but it still exceeds 40GBs and I am down to the bare minimums of what I am currently playing at the moment.

Also, I should state that I must go buy a separate cable for my 1TB to even work. The one I ordered came in the mail as just the HDD and no additional cables. I believe I am missing the 4-pin connector since I have it connected to my SATA ports, but my computer isn't detecting it.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

There is a program called Steam Mover that will move your steam games for you from the SSD to HDD. You just point it to a folder on the HDD and you can move games whenever you need the space.

 

[Stg-Flame]

That isn't what I was asking, but thanks anyways.

 

[vss1980]

Depends completely on the types of games you play. Your best bet on finding out about any game you play and how much HDD access it does in game is to probably google for forums/optimization guides for that game.
In some cases an SSD will improve load times but make no difference actually in the game itself - I suppose load times from one level to the next could be considered as 'in-game' but generally isn't seen as such.

Certain games follow typical patterns, although in some cases may vary depending on what allowances the game has to make for the amount of system or graphics RAM available, etc.:

E.g. Source based games (Counter-strike, Half-life, Left 4 Dead), and other FPS games (Unreal Tournament, Quake, Doom) typically pre-load a large amount of the game level data in to memory and access the HDD in-level for things which are triggered by events in the game (e.g. sounds like explosions, speech, etc.).
In most cases the penalty you pay in terms of in-game performance isn't too bad as these are not massive files, but you may still notice a small drop in performance when this happens.

A lot of simulation games like racing games work in a similar method but probably do even less access whilst in-game.

Free-roaming / open-world / MMORPG games (think World of Warcraft / Guild Wars 2 / maybe GTA4??) work in a similar method however do a lot more HDD access in-game loading graphical/3D data also as you move around. Depending on the speed of your system the hit can be relatively bad and drop your FPS down whilst data loads - also you may have the side-effect of seeing things suddenly appear as you get closer to an area (as opposed to coming in to view with and like the land as you approach) and then also noticing textures automatically over a few seconds improving as the data loads.
In this sort of situation an SSD may help provided your system itself isn't a bottle-neck for the data, but that said, any relatively new decent HDD should be adequate in such games - I'd have thought the 1TB (provided its not some green/eco version) should offer decent performance.

As for the drive cabling, there is no 4-pin connector on modern SATA drives - during the transitional phase to SATA some had the old 4-pin molex connector also, however I'd expect your drive to have just SATA power and data connectors.

E.g.

©Toms Hardware

If your PSU doesn't have a SATA power connector you can get adapters which plug in to the molex connector and provide a SATA power plug.

 

[NickelPlate]

This doesn't answer your question but one thing to keep in mind is that Steam by default keeps your game files defragged in the background. And defragging is supposedly a no no on SSDs? But I think there may be an option to turn that off.

 

[Zap]

Besides a bit extra wear, I don't think current SSDs care too much if they are defragged. Older SSDs would brick themselves because the firmware would panic.

I like running Steam from an SSD because Steam itself on a HDD takes a long time to load.

 

[Coup27]

Besides a bit extra wear, I don't think current SSDs care too much if they are defragged.

Isn't defragging an SSD technically pointless? As the SSD controller continually moves blocks around what the OS may think the file system looks like may look nothing like that on the actual SSD and defragging it may re-arrange the good work the SSD controller did keeping things in ship-shape?

 

[Zap]

Isn't defragging an SSD technically pointless?

It is. People just get concerned that Windows defrag doesn't disable itself. Then there's Steam's defrag of game files...

 

[tweakboy]

Nah 128GB is not enough for Games. Put a couple games on it fine. The rest put it on your hard drive. gl

 

[Red Squirrel]

Good to know about the steam defrag... I will definitely move my steam games to my network or another drive. Defrag kills SSDs fast as it's never really considered "done" so it just keeps going forever.

 

[Skott]

Okay, so whats the real truth. Defragging via steam is just pointless or harmful for a SSD?

 

[Diogenes2]

Nah 128GB is not enough for Games. Put a couple games on it fine.l

Which two games do you have that take up more than 128GB ?

 

[Bull Dog]

Well I for one recently upgraded to a 128GB Samsung SSD 830 and I elected to run my 2TB HDD alongside it and keep Steam running on the mechanical HDD.

Well that and my Steam folder is something like 400GB so I didn't really have any other choice anyhow.

 

[zCypher]

Definitely keep it on the HDD, even a 240-256GB SSD is a bit on the small side to keep Steam, unless you never keep many games installed and don't install many other big programs on the thing.

I have under 80GB free on my 240GB SSD right now. I have Win7, Office 2010, Starcraft 1 & 2, Steam, Firefox and a few other things. So even with 240GB, there's not all that much left over. My Steam folder is only 22GB right now.

 

[F1shF4t]

Good to know about the steam defrag... I will definitely move my steam games to my network or another drive. Defrag kills SSDs fast as it's never really considered "done" so it just keeps going forever.

No it doesn't keep going forever. The filesystem will get defragged and it will finish. Its pointless because what the filesystem says is contiguous space will be allover the place in NAND due to wear-leveling.

My steam folder is only 200GB so I've got it on my 480GB sandisk SSD. Even if there is extra wear due to steam defrag it won't matter at all in the long run. The SSD will much more likely die from firmware lockup or component failure before it even gets close to wearing out its NAND.

 

[KingFatty]

Can anyone explain a little more about Steam supposedly doing defrag operations? I wasn't aware the Steam included a defrag utility, and that we are powerless to control it?

Or does Steam ask windows to schedule a windows defrag, thereby ensuring the the Windows safeguards will prevent defrags to SSDs like Windows normally prevents?

 

[Exploder87]

Can anyone explain a little more about Steam supposedly doing defrag operations? I wasn't aware the Steam included a defrag utility, and that we are powerless to control it?

Or does Steam ask windows to schedule a windows defrag, thereby ensuring the the Windows safeguards will prevent defrags to SSDs like Windows normally prevents?

I`m pretty sure Steam doesn`t defrag on its own. It`s something you have to manually trigger from the "properties" settings for each game.

 

[vss1980]

Steam will auto kick-off that process if it detects the game cache files are fragmented enough.

 

[Ben90]

Good to know about the steam defrag... I will definitely move my steam games to my network or another drive. Defrag kills SSDs fast as it's never really considered "done" so it just keeps going forever.

No it doesn't keep going forever. The filesystem will get defragged and it will finish. Its pointless because what the filesystem says is contiguous space will be allover the place in NAND due to wear-leveling.

My steam folder is only 200GB so I've got it on my 480GB sandisk SSD. Even if there is extra wear due to steam defrag it won't matter at all in the long run. The SSD will much more likely die from firmware lockup or component failure before it even gets close to wearing out its NAND.

If steam gets installed to your SSD, your SSD instantly locks up from the infinite defrag loop and within seconds uses all the write/erase cycles. Since the would be data electrons have nowhere to store, the SSD shorts out and will overload the SATA power connectors. If you are among the lucky few, the wire will melt apart and contain the problem. Unfortunately, it is much more common for the flux used to solder the capacitors to ignite from the intense heat and create a volumetric spantazaloon. I won't even go into the problems this can cause.

Be very wary of using your SSD for data. Storing only small text files is the only way to avoid volumetric spantazaloons.

 

[Skott]

Wow, this makes me rethink using all SSDs in my next SFF build.

 

[Goresplattered]

Quote:

Quote:

Good to know about the steam defrag... I will definitely move my steam games to my network or another drive. Defrag kills SSDs fast as it's never really considered "done" so it just keeps going forever.

No it doesn't keep going forever. The filesystem will get defragged and it will finish. Its pointless because what the filesystem says is contiguous space will be allover the place in NAND due to wear-leveling.

My steam folder is only 200GB so I've got it on my 480GB sandisk SSD. Even if there is extra wear due to steam defrag it won't matter at all in the long run. The SSD will much more likely die from firmware lockup or component failure before it even gets close to wearing out its NAND.

If steam gets installed to your SSD, your SSD instantly locks up from the infinite defrag loop and within seconds uses all the write/erase cycles. Since the would be data electrons have nowhere to store, the SSD shorts out and will overload the SATA power connectors. If you are among the lucky few, the wire will melt apart and contain the problem. Unfortunately, it is much more common for the flux used to solder the capacitors to ignite from the intense heat and create a volumetric spantazaloon. I won't even go into the problems this can cause.

Be very wary of using your SSD for data. Storing only small text files is the only way to avoid volumetric spantazaloons.

please elaborate on these 'spantazaloons' you speak of



Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[tweakboy]

Isn't defragging an SSD technically pointless? As the SSD controller continually moves blocks around what the OS may think the file system looks like may look nothing like that on the actual SSD and defragging it may re-arrange the good work the SSD controller did keeping things in ship-shape?

When Windows detects SSD , Defrag is disabled automatically you cant do it its highlighted out on any defrag app. Also readyboot is disabled and readyboost is disabled and highlighted out.

There is something called TRIM

Which automatically keeps the nand memory in optimized shape and go fast fast !!!

 

[KingFatty]

Be very wary of using your SSD for data. Storing only small text files is the only way to avoid volumetric spantazaloons.

And don't carry the SSD in your pants-pockets, because that may lead to the dreaded spontaneous spantazaloons in the pantaloons.

 

[jhansman]

And don't carry the SSD in your pants-pockets, because that may lead to the dreaded spontaneous spantazaloons in the pantaloons.

This is true only of the rear pockets. Fronts are fine.

And, thanks for the link to Steam Mover. Time to get all stuff that on my spinner.

 

[NickelPlate]

This is true only of the rear pockets. Fronts are fine.

And, thanks for the link to Steam Mover. Time to get all stuff that on my spinner.

Actually, 3rd party apps like Steam Mover are only needed if you want to move some (but not all) Steam games to a different drive. I have Steam friends who recommend this:

http://www.stefanjones.ca/steam/

I moved the entire Steam application all games to a dedicated gaming HDD using these instructions, straight from Steam support. Worked like a charm.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129