New PC: Steam on SSD or HD with games?

[The Old Song]

I am upgrading to a whole new computer, and unlike my current one this new one will have a small (250 GB) SSD as well as a normal hard drive.
Naturally for space reasons I'll set steam to install my games on the HD, but should I put Steam itself on the SSD or would it be better to keep it with the games on the HD?

Secondary question: I feel like transfering my saves for all my games is going to be more complicated than just copy-paste. Am I overthinking and that's all there is, or what else will I have to worry about?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Put the OS + Apps on SSD.
As far as Saves, that depends what you have backed up.
Steam Cloud Sync only works for some games.
You can use GameSaveManager app to backup/restore saves for games it supports.

[The Old Song]

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:

Put the OS + Apps on SSD.
As far as Saves, that depends what you have backed up.
Steam Cloud Sync only works for some games.
You can use GameSaveManager app to backup/restore saves for games it supports.

Oh, trust me, I can't go putting my games on the SSD. I keep having to delete things because I'm overflowing the 2TB HD I have now.

[Rove]

Put your Steam install on the HDD, it won't make a positive difference to have it on the SSD and that way the default Steam folders and game installs all go to the HDD.

Transfering saves can be as simple as copy paste, or even Steam Cloud doing it for you. In practice though copy paste can be complicated because all different games stash their saves in dozens of different places. So you are going to have to hunt down the save directory for each game one at a time and copy and paste which is rather annoying and tedious. So Steam Cloud is the only really easy way for doing this but many games don't have it, sadly.

You'll also have to make sure you paste them to all the right places.

[dewimccar]

You can have Steam on your C/drive and in the settings have it put your downloaded games in the D/drive, and it all works just fine.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by The Song:

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:

Put the OS + Apps on SSD.
As far as Saves, that depends what you have backed up.
Steam Cloud Sync only works for some games.
You can use GameSaveManager app to backup/restore saves for games it supports.

Oh, trust me, I can't go putting my games on the SSD. I keep having to delete things because I'm overflowing the 2TB HD I have now.

I said "OS + Apps" ~ Not Games.
Put all your Game Clients on the SSD.
Games on HDD.

You can dictate where mostly everything goes, when you install it.
Some stuff must go to the OS drive though.

[SoldierScar]

Put your Steam on HDD and if you want a game on SSD then create a separate folder there when installing..trust me do it this way...because when you start downloading a game, it first goes to a folder where steam is installed, that means every game you download would first write the data on the ssd and then move it to hdd so the ssd would wear much quicker in a long run, especially if you download lots of big games often.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by SoldierScar:

Put your Steam on HDD and if you want a game on SSD then create a separate folder there when installing..trust me do it this way...because when you start downloading a game, it first goes to a folder where steam is installed, that means every game you download would first write the data on the ssd and then move it to hdd so the ssd would wear much quicker in a long run, especially if you download lots of big games often.

No that's all wrong. You can install Steam Client to OS Drive, go in and setup the Steam Library Folder to Secondary HDD; the game downloads to there if that's where you choose to install it.

You want the Client installed to OS Drive, otherwise if the Client is on HDD, it too will be slow.

[SoldierScar]

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:

Originally posted by SoldierScar:

Put your Steam on HDD and if you want a game on SSD then create a separate folder there when installing..trust me do it this way...because when you start downloading a game, it first goes to a folder where steam is installed, that means every game you download would first write the data on the ssd and then move it to hdd so the ssd would wear much quicker in a long run, especially if you download lots of big games often.

No that's all wrong. You can install Steam Client to OS Drive, go in and setup the Steam Library Folder to Secondary HDD; the game downloads to there if that's where you choose to install it.

It will still download the game first in a folder where steam is installed, when completed it will move it to hdd.
btw: how can steam be slow on hdd? It's just a little app, putting on ssd doesn't affect downloading speed or framerate in games...steam runs fast even in laptops or any ♥♥♥♥

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Steam has a web browser and all those features; so you want that housed on the SSD.

Look the game doesn't download to where Steam is, if you are seeing that, then you are doing something wrong. If I tell the Game to install to D drive, that's where it goes, it never downloads to C drive first and then moves it. It will allocate that space solely on the drive you choose to install to.

[SoldierScar]

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:

Steam has a web browser and all those features; so you want that housed on the SSD.

Look the game doesn't download to where Steam is, if you are seeing that, then you are doing something wrong. If I tell the Game to install to D drive, that's where it goes, it never downloads to C drive first and then moves it. It will allocate that space solely on the drive you choose to install to.

You're actually right, sorry i always thought it goes to the "downloading" folder first where the steam is installed.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

What you might be confusing that with; is what Steam tends to consider a "default"
By this I mean (and this is just an example) lets say I install Steam Client to C and I also setup a Steam Library on D drive. Steam Games will want to install to C by default, you must actually select this when you click "Install" in Steam Client for your game. When you have multiple drive letters and/or Library Folders configure, that is an option (via a drop down box) when you click Install. Also, Steam will also want to install to the last location used, by default. So if the last place I install a game was, lets say C:\Steam; that will be where it goes if you don't change it the next time you install something in Steam.

Always look, rather then being too quick to click Install > Ok.

If say, D:\Steam was the last location you installed a Game from Steam; then that is the default location that should show up for next Game Install, and so on. You can also double check / change the default location; in Steam > Settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folders. When multiples are listed, one will be a default, to which you can designate.

Steam Library on a secondary drive (such as D:\Steam) will have it's own \Steamapps sub structure; such as; Common, Depotcache, Downloading, Sourcemods, Temp, Workshop ...