Pros and Cons of having a single 2TB SSD one drive PC

[infestedchris]

Hello just wondering what is the pros and cons of having just one main 2TB SSD.

I am not worried about losing data. My computer is gaming / netflix chill system.

I am just want to simplify my life with just one drive that is fast.

[_I_]

pro speed
con price

if its for streaming movies/games ect.. just get a 500g ssd and optional 1-2tb hdd for movies/videos/games stored on it

[mimizukari]

that's what I do, and it's fine? what exactly are your concerns? a single 2TB Intel 660p is all you need, not too expensive, 400 TBW so you can write 220GB a day for its 5 year warranty period.

Originally posted by _I_:

pro speed
con price

if its for streaming movies/games ect.. just get a 500g ssd and optional 1-2tb hdd for movies/videos/games stored on it

games load SO much faster on an SSD than they do a HDD, no pop-in, and all around always go SSD for storing games lol

[infestedchris]

Basically I want just one storage device. I have a 240GB SSD and 2TB HDD, the 240GB SSD is only operating system and chrome/firefox, and steam/epic/bnet games all on HDD. But I am just wondering if I can have it all on one big drive and get better performance.

But I am worried of longevity, like will this wear out the SSD so fast? that intel 660p with 5 year warranty sounds good. But hearing bad things about QLC and that TLC better. The Seagate BarraCuda 120 2TB is TLC same price

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by infestedchris:

Basically I want just one storage device. I have a 240GB SSD and 2TB HDD, the 240GB SSD is only operating system and chrome/firefox, and steam/epic/bnet games all on HDD. But I am just wondering if I can have it all on one big drive and get better performance.

But I am worried of longevity, like will this wear out the SSD so fast? that intel 660p with 5 year warranty sounds good. But hearing bad things about QLC and that TLC better. The Seagate BarraCuda 120 2TB is TLC same price

again, you could write 220GB a day for 5 years before it wears out, and if you do less than 220GB a day well, it'll last you until that 400TBW number... And since streaming video and stuff is done to your RAM and not written to your disc itself... well... who actually needs to write 220GB a day? great performance, cheap, and in 8 years you'll want to upgrade to a new SSD anyways.

[Kaihekoa]

There are no reasonable cons if you can afford the higher capacity SSD. QLC vs TLC vs MLC concerns do not matter for ordinary consumers like us who are going to use a desktop machine for gaming, entertainment, and lite work. Those concerns are really only applicable to people who will be doing productivity work with huge amounts of data written to the SSD. You will get better performance versus any hard drive and the slower read and write speeds of something like the Intel 660p compared to a Samsung 970 Evo/Pro is irrelevant unless you're using a computer for high-end data work. I personally use a Samsung 960 Evo 1TB SSD and Intel 660p 2TB SSD and really like the performance and value of the Intel drives. If you can afford it, using a single, high capacity SSD for storage needs is a great idea. 2TB is more than enough for a gaming machine.

[r.linder]

ADATA's SX8200 series is a great balance between Samsung and Intel. Performance and durability closer to that of Samsung, with a price tag in between. Also comes with a basic heatsink so the controller doesn't get too hot when writing.

https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-660p-NVMe-PCIe-M2-2TB-vs-Adata-XPG-SX8200-Pro-NVMe-PCIe-M2-2TB/m610546vsm892867

https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Samsung-970-Evo-Plus-NVMe-PCIe-M2-2TB-vs-Adata-XPG-SX8200-Pro-NVMe-PCIe-M2-2TB/m798635vsm892867

https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Samsung-970-Evo-NVMe-PCIe-M2-2TB-vs-Adata-XPG-SX8200-Pro-NVMe-PCIe-M2-2TB/m501128vsm892867

Originally posted by infestedchris:

Hello just wondering what is the pros and cons of having just one main 2TB SSD.

I am not worried about losing data. My computer is gaming / netflix chill system.

I am just want to simplify my life with just one drive that is fast.

You'd be right to go with at least a 1TB for performance, as there's more chips for that capacity and they're often much faster. In comparison to a 2TB drive that has 4 chips for example, a 512GB could have only 1, which is garbage.

I would recommend something from ADATA over Intel for what you're after, because it'll last a lot longer and is around the same price range with much better performance than the 660p 2TB when comparing it to the SX8200 Pro 2TB.

[L37]

Main disadvantage of having single large SSD would be decreased system performance when you write/install something big. But since you already have small SSD for OS it will not be the case.
As for actual SSD - IMO choose something that is cheap locally with relatively long warranty. For your usecase you do not need very high performance or endurance. If you do not need NVME specifically it might be even worth buying something like Samsung 860 QVO, Crucial BX500 or WD blue.
Adata SX8200pro is nice, but everything depends on local prices. Where i live it is like ~1.5x more expensive than 660p, which makes it really questionable for simple home tasks. In fact 660p is so cheap that it is cheaper than 860QVO, which is kind of funny and the main reason i bought one.

[Washell]

Originally posted by infestedchris:

But I am just wondering if I can have it all on one big drive and get better performance.

No. Because then the OS (pagefile especially) and the game will be queuing for access to the drive. Keep the 240, keep the HDD, buy a second SSD for the games.

That's what I do, OS on a small SSD, games I actively play on a big SSD, games that I'm currently not playing on the HDD. That's what gets you best performance.

[Jelly Donut]

Originally posted by infestedchris:

Hello just wondering what is the pros and cons of having just one main 2TB SSD.

I am not worried about losing data. My computer is gaming / netflix chill system.

I am just want to simplify my life with just one drive that is fast.

Pros is pretty much the speed, cons is price.

But if you just want one drive instead of multiple then yea, there isn't any specific con.

[L37]

Originally posted by Washell:

No. Because then the OS (pagefile especially) and the game will be queuing for access to the drive. Keep the 240, keep the HDD, buy a second SSD for the games.

That's what I do, OS on a small SSD, games I actively play on a big SSD, games that I'm currently not playing on the HDD. That's what gets you best performance.

Honestly there is no use in keeping HDD in system once you get large SSD (which is pretty affordable at this point). I currently have single 1TB SSD (intel 660p) for OS and games + old 256GB samsung 860pro for pagefile, os temp, steam temp, and other temporary/write intensive stuff like video recording. 256GB does not sound like much, but it is completely empty and is only used for temporary storage, so its fine. For games - i just delete them when i do not play them anymore. If i need something again i can just redownload it.
I dropped HDD(s) because i have a system that is pretty much silent when idle and HDD noise is annoying. I have them in external box which i turn on every now and then when i want to archieve something etc.

[Washell]

Originally posted by L37:

Honestly there is no use in keeping HDD in system once you get large SSD

I have it. It's fairly new. Its noise doesn't bother me, especially since it's turned off by Windows after 5 minutes anyway. It won't really give me any cash if I try to sell it. It'll save me a download on any game that's on it.

It's not a critical use and I certainly wouldn't advise buying one for this purpose but if you already have it, why not?

[emoticorpse]

Originally posted by Washell:

Originally posted by L37:

Honestly there is no use in keeping HDD in system once you get large SSD

I have it. It's fairly new. It's noise doesn't bother me, especially since it's turned off by Windows after 5 minutes anyway. It won't really give me any cash if I try to sell it. It'll save me a download on any game that's on it. It's not a critical use and I certainly wouldn't advise buying one for this purpose but if you already have it, why not?

Also he can treat it as a place for storing working files also so he doesn't have to beat his ssd up so much. Share the workload.

[Lord Flashheart]

Originally posted by infestedchris:

Hello just wondering what is the pros and cons of having just one main 2TB SSD.

I am not worried about losing data. My computer is gaming / netflix chill system.

I am just want to simplify my life with just one drive that is fast.

Seems just fine for your needs. Potentially an issue if you go nuts on a steam sale and fill it up.

If you have a modern ryzen system then storeMI is an option with a 240GB + NVMe + 2TB SSD.

[UserNotFound]

I like to 'keep 'em separated' myself, I have a Sabrent NVMe M.2 Gen3 256GB SSD for my OS (and related programs, like MSI SB, AMD Ryzen Master, etc) while I keep my games in a 4TB SATA SSD, 2TB SATA SSD, and 2x 1TB SATA SSD's (for games that I play more often). I also have a 6TB HDD (two equal partitions) for games that I play from time to time, and a 2TB HDD for downloads, music files, movies, etc.

[𝓡𝓮𝓽𝓻𝓸𝓒𝓪𝓽]

Pros: your loading times for startup and various applications will be significantly faster. It also takes up less space.

Cons: SSDs cost significantly more than their same capacity HDD counterparts. Depending on how often you write to it, it could fail more quickly and without warning.