M.2 Size Question

Currently looking into doing a SFF Gaming build. DCS World will be installed using steam and currently I am wondering the size of my 2 M.2. Reason for 2 M.2 is to lessen cable clutter. Here is my build below.

Sliger SM580

Intel Core i7-10700K (ASETEK 670LS 240mm AIO)

MSI MEG Z490I Unify

Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 32GB (2x16GB)

MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio 10G

Corsair SF750 Platinum

What size M.2 for My OS and what size M.2 for my steam drive? (Remember I will be installing DCS from Stream and have a couple of other games) (Also will have most of the maps and addons from DCS)

Thanks for the help

Depending on how many modules you have, 250Gb will not be enough, so 500Gb would be the next and probably only option (or 1000Gb and more). Now if you have other games too, you need to check if 500Gb will be enough for those too.

Windows takes up roughly 61GB, so a 250 for OS only would be enough.

Would I be safe with a 1TB OS Drive and a 2TB Steam Drive?

On my OS drive I dont save music, videos pictures or anything like that. The only programs are like Drivers, Software for hardware, Discord and anti virus

This is what I currently have:

- 512GB NVMe for the O/S (and few minor apps)

- 1TB NVMe for DCS and that other sim

- 512GB NVMe currently used for the swap/pagefile

- 2TB HDD for Steam and anything I consider for the Junkyard

Thanks everyone...If anyone else has and other advice just share away

Currently looking into doing a SFF Gaming build. DCS World will be installed using steam and currently I am wondering the size of my 2 M.2. Reason for 2 M.2 is to lessen cable clutter. Here is my build below.

 

Sliger SM580

Intel Core i7-10700K (ASETEK 670LS 240mm AIO)

MSI MEG Z490I Unify

Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 32GB (2x16GB)

MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio 10G

Corsair SF750 Platinum

 

 

What size M.2 for My OS and what size M.2 for my steam drive? (Remember I will be installing DCS from Stream and have a couple of other games) (Also will have most of the maps and addons from DCS)

 

Thanks for the help

I think you'll be good to go with 1TB/2TB setup. Also, check out RockitCool's Direct-to-Die AIO cooling solution. Not a lot of money but it really helps. Even the regular delid'ing helps quite a bit.

Just curious along the lines of M.2 - with two identical M.2 drives, is it of benefit to configure 2@ 500 Mb drives in RAID for Operating system and DCS? Does anyone do it?

I'm looking at a very similar build to the OP.

Also, what are the timing specs of the Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 memory? This is an area I always have difficullty in choosing the best memory chips.

Just curious along the lines of M.2 - with two identical M.2 drives, is it of benefit to configure 2@ 500 Mb drives in RAID for Operating system and DCS? Does anyone do it?

 

I'm looking at a very similar build to the OP.

With SSD/M.2, I don't see how RAID helps you except RAID5.

Back in the days, mirroring was a cheap way to protect your data from a drive failure. And striping (raid 0) made sense if performance was your top concern - even at the risk of one drive failing causing loss of both/all drives.

But with SSD, performance isn't a bottleneck for games. You can still go with RAID5 since it will protect you from one drive (need three at a minimum) failure. Remember, when SSD's go bad, there's no warning, it just goes bad.

But with faster Internet connections, it really doesn't take that long to rebuild things from scratch. Faster if you back up your drives.

With SSD/M.2, I don't see how RAID helps you except RAID5.

 

 

Back in the days, mirroring was a cheap way to protect your data from a drive failure. And striping (raid 0) made sense if performance was your top concern - even at the risk of one drive failing causing loss of both/all drives.

 

But with SSD, performance isn't a bottleneck for games. You can still go with RAID5 since it will protect you from one drive (need three at a minimum) failure. Remember, when SSD's go bad, there's no warning, it just goes bad.

 

But with faster Internet connections, it really doesn't take that long to rebuild things from scratch. Faster if you back up your drives.

Thanks very much for the feedback on this. Always wondered about the value of going this way. Now I know.

Very much appreciated.

Cheers

I may add, I ended up getting 256GB Samsung Pro's back from customers when they bought new PC's. Instead of buying a new SSD/NVMe to overcome the 256GB limit I raided 2 x 850Pro and 1x 860Pro, all 256GB, into one 768GB logical volume. Speed increase was secondary, my main concern was ONE drive for ALL games I use and some VM's. Actually, read and write speed is linear, 1500MB/sec both ways, with 2 drives it was 1000MB/sec.....I may add 1 more LoL.

If I had to buy new, I would go ALL NVMe, at least 1TB System and 2TB Games/data..and a 8GB HDD for Backup on USB3 or Thunderbolt, so I can remove it when not in use.