Allocation of SSD horsepower

Vostrail

Member
I'm looking to tap the knowledge of any IT/Windows experts out there:).

I am at the early (mainly planning) stage of building myself a gaming PC, primarily to run TANE and other simulation type titles. As part of the build, my intent is to employ SSDs, with a mechanical drive primarily for backups, storing downloads, etc. In order to keep the budget within reason, I'm leaning towards a 512GB m.2 drive (Samsung 950 pro probably) and a 1 TB 850 evo (or equivalent) SATA drive for the SSDs.

Now, from what I have read, conventional wisdom has it that the fastest drive should be used to host Windows. However, in order to get the smoothest TANE gameplay possible, I am tempted to use the m.2 drive for my Trainz content and host Windows, together with my program files on the slower, though still fast, SATA drive. My (possibly flawed) reasoning is that once Windows loads in at start-up, it will operate within RAM, whereas TANE will need to load in content from the SSD during gameplay. I certainly don't mind waiting an extra second or two for the game to start, if I reap the benefits during use.

Is this assumption correct, or will the OS still rely on regular disk access, post start-up, making the location of Windows the key performance limiting factor (outside of the GPU)?

For info, I propose to install 32 GB DDR4 RAM and I have already purchased an ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII Hero Alpha which supports an m.2 drive.

Regards,
John
 
John,

I have had excellent luck with Samsung SSDs so far myself as well as great luck with my now slightly older Intel 530-series drive so the drives you have chosen I would say are an excellent choice.

I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but M.2 drives are PCI-e based hard drives and basically use a micro-PCI-e connector to plug into your motherboard. That connector can actually be used for other devices such as sound cards and network cards if they are available, however, that connection is most popularly used for hard drives. Now keep in mind that according to the Intel spec, you will also lose two of your existing SATA ports in the process of installing the m.2 drive. This is due to the PCI-e buss channeling and bandwidth within the controller, and the SATA ports share that bandwidth with the PCI-e buss. This is true for both the Skylake and previous processors as well which I found with my MSI GODLike Haswell motherboard.

I recommend installing your O/S and applications on the SSD, whichever size/brand you go for. They need all the horsepower for performance, and with an SSD boot time of under 30 seconds, it's definitely worth it for your O/S. Putting T:ANE data on an SSD is up to you. Yes, to answer your question the OS is still disk bound hog due to all the bits and pieces just as it has been for ages.

With T:ANE there is no reason to install both the application and the data on the same drive with this Trainz version. T:ANE allows you to put your data on a separate and different hard drive which is recommended anyway due to how systems need to be rebuilt or stuff reinstalled. With the data always on another device, it's easier to back up and it's out of the way of system issues.

With that in mind, you could either use another large sized SSD for your T:ANE data, though I think it's a waste for that, or you could use a very large fast hard drive. I noticed that T:ANE does not access the data drive much once the data is loaded. This is a 64-bit application and makes great use of the system memory allocation and caching capabilities.

With the cost of components going down, except for those new 10-core processors, you can build quite a system. As I said putting T:ANE data on an SSD is your call, and I'm sure others will chime in and differ on this point.
 
Thanks John,
Yes I am aware of the M.2 drives impact on other motherboard resources, but the Hero Alpha luckily has plenty of them, at least for my needs.

To clarify, I do intend to install Windows 10 and my applications on one SSD and Tane data on a second SSD. On my current Mac, despite generally smooth gameplay (albeit at lowish frame rates), I do experience the odd stutter as, I assume, the next bit of scenery is pulled in. Hence my idea to have all the content files on the faster m.2 ssd. Of course, simply having 32GB RAM may be sufficient to sort that out.

The real nub of my query was whether I'd be better sticking windows and apps on the m.2 and using the SATA ssd for the Tane data, rather than the opposite way round, as I had initially imagined. Judging by your comment that Windows still hogs the disk, it sounds like I should install it on the faster of the 2 drives. No point in transferring scenery / assets at lightening speed if the game engine is being throttled by disk-based Windows processes.

Thanks again,
John
 
John,

You summed up the best scenario right here:

The real nub of my query was whether I'd be better sticking windows and apps on the m.2 and using the SATA ssd for the Tane data, rather than the opposite way round, as I had initially imagined. Judging by your comment that Windows still hogs the disk, it sounds like I should install it on the faster of the 2 drives. No point in transferring scenery / assets at lightening speed if the game engine is being throttled by disk-based Windows processes.

Put the Apps and OS on the m.2 and data on another drive. Windows, like all modern OSs uses virtual memory and page files, and these need the speed and the space. This was one of the issues with earlier m.2 SSDs because they used to be barely big enough to fit the OS, let alone virtual memory and temp files.

It's not that T:ANE won't benefit from having the data on an SSD, but a large fast hard drive, 7200 RPM without "green" technology and with a large cache may be better in the long run as they are still far less expensive and are still much larger than any SSD available today in the consumer market. If you're looking at commercial SSDs meant for servers, all the power to you, but they are really expensive in the size you would really want for your T:ANE data. Maybe you're luckier than I am on that front. With nearly 14 years of Trainz use, I have mustered up nearly a Terabyte of Trainz data, about 700GB of non-DLC content and this has been pared down substantially when I moved it over to T:ANE. Given how Trainz data grows, you might want to consider having the growth space available.

John
 
Many thanks again, John. I think I'm clear on the way forward now. Btw, I plan to include a 3TB HDD in the build and I'll still have some further expansion capability should I need it in the future.

I'll probably make the SSDs (and graphics card) the last items I purchase in the hope that further options emerge and prices drop a little. I'm going to be acquiring my kit of parts over a few months. So far, I just have the case, psu and motherboard.

Regards,
John
 
Just a word of caution about how you buy the various components of your new machine.
Personally I don't follow the part by part method. Two reasons:
1. Remember each component has warranty limitations. That mobo (or whatever) you bought months ago may fail at start-up or later, when you finally get the machine together. If you stretch out that build date, you may eat a component failure, if/when it occurs.
2. Filling your piggy bank first, then buying all components at once, not only is some insurance against the above, but also allows you review newer components which hit the market and/or get an older component at a reduced price.
There are big changes in the computer market as we speak. Hoard and hide your piggy until the time is right to buy.
My $.02
regards
mike
 
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