Hello,
I am a 43 yrs old and my son wants to build a budget gaming pc.
(Ryzen 5 2600; Zotac - GeForce RTX 2060)
Back in my day I built AMD Athlon/Duron pc's and generally had a
decent working knowledge of it all. Lately have cloned a few HDD
to SSD but that's it.
Question - I am unsure of why people are speccing up gaming computers
with both a SSD and HDD? Isn't a decent sized SSD enough?
Can somone please educate an old dude?
Thanks,
Ray
If its budget, the point is that a 'decent sized SSD' is a LOT more expensive than a small SSD and a big HDD. Some stuff doesn't need the speed of an SSD, so why spend more money to store stuff on it? Also SSD's have a limited lifespan, so storing data on them is a bit more risky than an HDD which is cheap and plentiful.
I'm not an expert, this is just my experience.
SSD's have a limited lifespan
I know what you're getting at - but HDDs also have a limited lifespan. I.e. the chance that you have a critical failure increases the longer it's in service.
Video games have become very large, AAA titles around 80-100GB, sometimes more so large amounts of storage are needed.
You could get a single SSD but anything less than 1TB will fill up very fast.
SSD prices have come down but are still are 2-4 times more expensive than SSDs of equivalent space.
To maximise value, an SSD (250-500GB) and a secondary HDD (1-4TB) is best.
^ this. Also, people use the SSD for the operating system and productivity suite and the HDD for games
I have 2.5TB of games on my computer, it would be massively expensive for me to put that on SSDs.
My current HDD configuration is a 250GB NVME Windows drive, a 500GB SATA SSD for all my programs including game launchers, a 8TB games drive for all the games files, a 3TB drive for all my Media files, and a 3TB drive for everything else.
500gig ssd for gaming and OS, 1TB hdd (or more) for backups, general storage, and torrents.
these days you can get SSDs that are fairly large, but for the past decade or so it has been ideal to have a small storage SSD and a larger mechanical drive for storing most files.
Like FireRunner says, the storage can be filled up pretty quickly.
For context sake of prices, you can get 10TB for $250. An SSD would cost around $300 for a single TB. $200 for half a terabyte.
You could leave it with an SSD or M.2 and then get more storage if it fills up, but it's better to dedicate game installs and downloads to a separate drive.
Your prices are rather outdated. These days, a 1 TB SSD costs ~150-180 AUD for a reputable brand (Samsung, EVO). 500 GB costs around 100 AUD, or 80 AUD if you're going budget. Still more than a HDD, but approaching the point where it's worth considering.
10TB HDDs are still over 350 AUD, approaching 400 AUD. The closest you might get is shucking a 8TB external (at ~220 AUD) but those are often SMR, unsuitable for any real activity (basically, archive/backup only).
I've got 2TB SSD setup on my main computer with Windows + just games and the odd software (eg. excel/VMWare etc).
However I would say this isn't a budget computer lol. It's probably similar to the prices we paid for hard drives maybe 10 years ago but the best way to build a budget PC would be get some SATA 500GB/1TB SSD and fill the rest (2-4TB) with good old fashioned 3.5" HDDs. Very cheap and good enough for gaming
Most people have answered the questions about why.
But you can buy one ssd now and then another later if you need the additional storage space. Second hand SSDs can be great value too, even enterprise grade SSDs with TBs of storage can go for very cheap.
As others have mentioned, modern games tend to be rather large. Possibly the best budget gaming setup, if you want to install many games at once (e.g. slow internet), is still a SSD-cached HDD, though QLC SSDs are a reasonable competitor.
Basically, it goes something like this:
The caching method is more technically complex, but it will give you the best value, especially considering most games only need to read a few files frequently.
Of course, the cheaper solution is to just use a SSD and remove/rotate games as you move on to new ones.
And if the extra space isn't needed for gaming, e.g. for storing movies, game recordings, etc., then just a HDD is enough. No need for SSD speeds.
250-500gb NVME + 2tb 7200rpm HDD sweet spot
only if you want to optimise the computer to get the best performance you can get for the dollar value vs price and storage.
Awesome. Thanks for all the info.
I didn't realise games were so large.
Cheers.
Ray
SSD only, 1TB at least.
Games are large, but you don't need 10+ AAA games installed all at once. (this is +$500 worth of games btw)
Most games are played through and can then be deleted, if you want it back one day just re-download.
"budget gaming pc"
1TB SSD's are still pricey
It comes to budget.
I have a SSD for OS and "current games" and then when i'm done with them i move the install to a HDD. Games like LEGO Batman don't really need to be on an SSD but Arkham Knight/Asylum/City certainly benefit. I don't have the patience to redownload a game as required, as 20gb+ is several weeks of downloading where I am.
If a decent sized say 250/500 GB SSD is enough then so be it. Stick to that and it's better for your system overall.
However, some people do require a lot more storage in the TBs and it starts to add up if you go SSD only, especially if you aren't necessarily in a professional field to cover the costs somewhat. So HDD are still cheaper value per TB and some people decide to run both.
I would recommend stick to SSD only if you can.