Buying an SSD

Hi All,

Looking for hard drive advice please. Earlier this year I bought a 128gb SSD just for my OS and kept all games on a 2 TB HDD. I haven’t had any issues until it came to running DCS. I get stuttering and the hard drive light remaining on. Long load times etc and difficulty with mission editor and lots of units.

I’ve got 16gb RAM, a reasonably new i5 processer and a GTX 970.

My question is, what SSD should I upgrade to since my 128gb Kingston doesn’t have the space. I’m looking at a Samsung Evo 860 with 500gb. Cost is an issue, I need something relatively cheap. I had considered an evo 970 but I don’t think my motherboard can take it and I’m not convinced I really need 3400mb/s read speed for gaming.

The evo 860 has 550mb/s read speed. Is this enough?

Hi All,

 

Looking for hard drive advice please. Earlier this year I bought a 128gb SSD just for my OS and kept all games on a 2 TB HDD. I haven’t had any issues until it came to running DCS. I get stuttering and the hard drive light remaining on. Long load times etc and difficulty with mission editor and lots of units.

 

I’ve got 16gb RAM, a reasonably new i5 processer and a GTX 970.

 

My question is, what SSD should I upgrade to since my 128gb Kingston doesn’t have the space. I’m looking at a Samsung Evo 860 with 500gb. Cost is an issue, I need something relatively cheap. I had considered an evo 970 but I don’t think my motherboard can take it and I’m not convinced I really need 3400mb/s read speed for gaming.

 

The evo 860 has 550mb/s read speed. Is this enough?

Yes it's enough.:thumbup:

I run my OS on the m.2 nvme, have DCS on one of the Evo's 500mb/s and the OS page swap file on a 2nd SSD 500mb/s. The separate page file is not really needed, it's just a "precautionary measure" for maximizing VR performance.

Price being an issue , you also have the option of using a 250gb-class SSD for DCS only . My windows is on a 128gb , DCS on a 240gb and it works very well .

I run the Samsung EVO 850s n my machine. 2 1TB drives in one, 1 1TB drive in the other, and a 500GB drive in my laptop. Never had an issue with any of them. Great drives and blazing fast.

I run a dozen+ 850Pro's, some NVMe and a handful of 840 Evo's...all still at 98% life or better, no issues yet.

I'll buy an evo 860 I reckon then. Here's the other thing I'm thinking though, I have 16gb of DDR4 RAM. Would I be better going to 32GB RAM and keeping DCS on an HDD or buying the SSD and staying at 16gb RAM. Ultimately I'll end up doing both but it's a money thing at this stage so one thing at a time.

If you don't have an SSD now, ABSOLUTELY prioritize getting the SSD over extra memory.

I'd do the SSD first as well.

If you get stutter or errors that seem to relate to memory, try to put the swapfile on the other drive or on both. Distribute the load as much as you can

as you're considering only sata 6gb ssd drives you could consider also crucial which is cheaper than samsung and performs equally.

Crucial BX300 240GB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD 55 USD

It's really hard to tell what the cause of some of the issues I had is. Originally I had enormous issues running the operation Epsom campaign so I bought a small SSD to put my operating system on and a new HDD to replace my really old one. I had DCS on the HDD and it ran really well.

Then I started getting similar sort of freezes just trying to run basic instant actions but in the last couple of days that's stopped again, the only change being a recent small update.

I've got several upgrades due. My GTX 970 is getting quite dated but I think it'll hold for a while yet. I find it difficult to get my head around that ED recommend 32GB RAM for nearly all their modules, that seems like a monstrous amount of RAM.

I think I'll do what you recommend, get a bigger SSD, get DCS on it and see what happens then work through RAM and GPU from there.

its nonsense runnin OS on SSD and the game on HDD....on modern systems nowadays both OS and games run on SSD...

I have both the OS and DCS on a single 240GB SSD. Runs smooth and I still have 93GB left over.

I have both the OS and DCS on a single 240GB SSD. Runs smooth and I still have 93GB left over.

With all of the terrains + quite a few of the modules my DCS directory is about 130GB. 250gb 2.5" ssd's go on sale for cheap regularly. I'd just let DCS have it's own if I didn't already have 480GB drives, one of which contains both of my prefered air combat sims.

The idea behind 2 drives is that they may run concurrently without hindering each others I/O, for example Windows decides to cheack for updates and may even install them, AV doing the same and other processes that you have no direct control over. At the same time you might be gaming or doing extensive Photoshop work, render content etc. with apps and data residing on the OTHER, 2nd drive. Thise two drives can work independently.

So for the 2nd drive, you can have all games and all big apps like photoshop, gimp, vmware images/machines etc...

The thing with this idea is, it lacks a bit behind reality with modern devices that got so fast that A: the need is not as great as it used to be with a single NVMe drives at blazing speeds and B: If you still do it, mind the limitations set by Intel and AMD consumer chipsets. At least Intel wont be able to serve 2 NVMe concurrently, the bus is not wide enough. So at some point, the return diminished by inferior design..or more friendly said, things developed faster than Mr. PCH Designer thought it would. Right now, having 2 NVMe in an Intel Desktop only makes partial sense tbh. YOu wont feel it but I can show you moments when you see the difference, not in DCS btw. A Threadripper does this right with direct NVMe to the CPU for multiple drives.

for example: i take my gpu out and put a 4x10gbit card in it, then i copy each drive independentl y but concurrently to a fat black hole SAN for backup...I couldnt even fill the NIC, the PCH would collapse before that, tho in theory I should be able to pump 3000+ with NVMe, 1000 with my Raid-0 and 500 with the 840 and 2x200MB/sec with my HDD's...almost 5GB/sec...enough to flodd 4x10Gbit..instead, I'd flood the PCH with my NVMe alone, no other drive could send any significant amount of data...aka 1 NVMe floods your bus in burst mode.

so partly this all is true, partly the reality got so good it almost doesnt matter anymore and if you still think its a good idea, then better know to what extend bandwidth wise things make sense and from when on your bus is tilted with the correct workload.

Here’s one thing I don’t understand about running multiple drives and it’d be great if somebody could enlighten me.

Some of the games on my HDD store their save files in the user folder on my HDD, others (including DCS) store save files and any user missions on my SSD in the user folder. What determines where these saved files go?

Let’s say I buy another SSD just for DCS and maybe one other flight sim. I’d have an SSD with Windows, Logitech, trackir and a few other things installed, an SSD with DCS installed and an HDD with everything else on it. Is there an issue with DCS having to pull save files off seperate SSD?

I get frustrated because I really only ever wanted the operating system on my small SSD but somehow over time more and more stuff has ended up on it. For example I don’t want Logitech gaming software on the SSD but it never gave me the option of selecting where to install it. Same goes for Nvidia files, some of which are quite large. I’m missing something I’m sure.

Here’s one thing I don’t understand about running multiple drives and it’d be great if somebody could enlighten me.

 

Some of the games on my HDD store their save files in the user folder on my HDD, others (including DCS) store save files and any user missions on my SSD in the user folder. What determines where these saved files go?

 

Let’s say I buy another SSD just for DCS and maybe one other flight sim. I’d have an SSD with Windows, Logitech, trackir and a few other things installed, an SSD with DCS installed and an HDD with everything else on it. Is there an issue with DCS having to pull save files off seperate SSD?

 

I get frustrated because I really only ever wanted the operating system on my small SSD but somehow over time more and more stuff has ended up on it. For example I don’t want Logitech gaming software on the SSD but it never gave me the option of selecting where to install it. Same goes for Nvidia files, some of which are quite large. I’m missing something I’m sure.

I don't understand that? I have a 240g SSD and a 1TB HDD. My HDD is completely empty. Nothing is ever put on it.

Here’s one thing I don’t understand about running multiple drives and it’d be great if somebody could enlighten me.

 

Some of the games on my HDD store their save files in the user folder on my HDD, others (including DCS) store save files and any user missions on my SSD in the user folder. What determines where these saved files go?

 

Let’s say I buy another SSD just for DCS and maybe one other flight sim. I’d have an SSD with Windows, Logitech, trackir and a few other things installed, an SSD with DCS installed and an HDD with everything else on it. Is there an issue with DCS having to pull save files off seperate SSD?

 

I get frustrated because I really only ever wanted the operating system on my small SSD but somehow over time more and more stuff has ended up on it. For example I don’t want Logitech gaming software on the SSD but it never gave me the option of selecting where to install it. Same goes for Nvidia files, some of which are quite large. I’m missing something I’m sure.

You make it more complicated than it actually is, luckily.

Where an App stores it's data is up to the App's developer. Some use your Personal Documents Folder by default, some have a folder somehwere else.

You have to check each program that you want to change, options tab etc.. the usual stuff.

Programs by default install always on C: drive. Very few specialized apps require custom paths and maybe even drive letters. Not applicable for the normal desktop.

When you buy a 2nd SSD, use it as you say.

My HDD's only contain Music, Videos, Utilities + App Installer files, but nothing is ever installed on those. my 2nd HDD is solely for Backup with veeam software in my case, or Acronis..etc.

Try to have only SSD's as your working drives and HDD for cold storage of files and backups.

DCS has no problem with what you want to do. Copy it's folder to the new SSD, download SkateZillas DCS Updater Tool from DCS site, and use that to start, update, repair and clean your many DCS installs. That way you dont need any link or Start Button Entry that now leads to a wrong folder. You can also edit each link and update the path, or both. DCS will always use the user's Saved Games folder under C:...or where you have told windows to put it via Control Panel. Yes, you can reroute that destination to another drive. For the sake of simplicity, only do it if you know what you are doing ;)

You dont want to sync files to /dev/null :) !!

Hi Shibbyland,

No you should not have any issues.

As BitMaster said keep HDD for storage and use SSD's for working drives

(keep the best perf ssd for DCS)

I am actually using 2 ssd( crucial ''C)'' drive+ samsung EVO 850 ''F)'' drive).

1: C) windows + other ''non DCS or related to the sim'' softwares.

2: F) DCSW + VR + all other folders/data for DCS.

And i had no issues at all, just great performances.

I kept the best ssd for DCS and it really just works fine.

I have also LOGITECH softwares( and drivers for my G940), but i do not understand why you could not install it out of C).

I all had the choice of drive at first installation.

I guess you not checked if it was installing at begin in ''C)''.

I am not a specialist but i hope it can help you to see more clearly !

Btw i will receive next week my NVME samsung 970pro and i will reinstall all in the PC and use the NVME just for DCSW.

My samsung evo 850 wilL be just for windows + other softs.

Hope perf will increase a lot. ;)

Have a nice day.