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

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