1st Storage Drive and 1st M.2 SSD Drive?

[CraigMerrick53]

Couple of minor changes I would make:

- Change the RAM for 2x8GB rather than 1x16GB. RAM is dual-channel so, while it will work with a single stick, it is designed to operate better with 2 sticks. Only £5 more

- Remove the Bullguard anti-virus. The in-built (and free) Windows Defender is just as good and doesn't cause issues like Bullguard has a history of doing

- Up the warranty to Silver for an extra £5. Better coverage for little money

Other than that, you are looking good there Given that they will likely install Windows on the 1TB drive (unless you specifically ask them to install it on the 250 one), a 250GB storage drive seems a bit redundant to me...if it was me, I'd up it to the 500GB version as it's only £40 or so more for double the drive space which is a bargain on a drive like the Samsung

Taking everything on board you’ve said. My only come back is I put a single 16gb Ram in just incase I wanted to increase in the future... is that not that way to go?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Taking everything on board you’ve said. My only come back is I put a single 16gb Ram in just incase I wanted to increase in the future... is that not that way to go?

RAM works best in pairs as it’s dual channel, so you’d be best to fit a pair of dimms. Even if you have 2 you’d still have 2 slots free to add more if you wanted 2 in the future.

 

[CraigMerrick53]

You’ll be taking a bit of a performance hit if you proceed that way. As @Nursemorph rightly says, RAM works best dual channeling. So you’re better off buying 2x8GB now and then buying 2x16GB in future 👍

Noted. I’ll make the change! Thanks for that both

 

[CraigMerrick53]

Or just get the 2x16GB now if budget allows. I’m not sure what you’ll be using your computer for, if you can let us know we could advise what your best options are.

It’s going to be mostly gaming but I’m looking to future proof as much as possible within my budget

 

[CraigMerrick53]

Coming back to this,

Should I request the OS to be installed on the 500GB M.2 rather than the 1TB?

Wont the O/S boot time slow down as the 1TB drive fills up?

 

[CraigMerrick53]

Morning all,

I ordered my laptop last nigh after all of the great advice given to me.

I do have one quick question though.

The two M.2 SSD Drives I have are below

1st M.2 SSD Drive	1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive	500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)

When asking my initial questions it was established the OS will likely be installed on the 1st Drive (faster drive).

My question is, if this is also supposed to be my primary storage drive, wont the OS slow down as the drive fills up?

Should I request the OS to be installed on he 2nd Drive?

 

[ubuysa]

Morning all,

I ordered my laptop last nigh after all of the great advice given to me.

I do have one quick question though.

The two M.2 SSD Drives I have are below

1st M.2 SSD Drive	1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive	500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)

When asking my initial questions it was established the OS will likely be installed on the 1st Drive (faster drive).

My question is, if this is also supposed to be my primary storage drive, wont the OS slow down as the drive fills up?

Should I request the OS to be installed on he 2nd Drive?

Both drives have a read speed of 3500MB/s and that's the key figure. The write speed does have an impact on throughput but no process (thread) is ever waiting for a write operation to complete . Every process (thread) has to wait for a read operation to complete however - so read speed is much more important. Thus both those drives can be considered to be as fast as each other.

Unless that 500GB drive is for Windows and programs I can't imagine what it's there for?!

SSD access times do not slowdown as the drive fills in the same way that HDDs do. SSDs have no mechanical parts and every block can be accessed at the same speed.

 

[CraigMerrick53]

Both drives have a read speed of 3500MB/s and that's the key figure. The write speed does have an impact on throughput but no process (thread) is ever waiting for a write operation to complete . Every process (thread) has to wait for a read operation to complete however - so read speed is much more important. Thus both those drives can be considered to be as fast as each other.

Unless that 500GB drive is for Windows and programs I can't imagine what it's there for?!

SSD access times do not slowdown as the drive fills in the same way that HDDs do. SSDs have no mechanical parts and every block can be accessed at the same speed.

A Friend of mine also recently made a purchase (he got a PC build where as I've gotten a laptop).

He has his OS on a Samsung 250gb SSD and advised it would be wise to have the on a separate drive to where my main storage will be (hence the 2nd 500GB Drive) but when asking about my initial Spec, I was advised that the OS will likely be put onto the faster drive (which I was told was the 1TB.

 

[CraigMerrick53]

Sorry, trying to get my head around this (somewhat of a noob when it comes to intricacies of computer architecture).

If I'm understanding correctly. My 1TB M.2 drive will hold the OS (with the remainder being used for other files / applications) then, is the 2nd 500GB M.2 drive not just there for additional storage?

I've semi-gotten my head around the read / write speeds (as you said, I should not see a slow down in boot/load (read) speed due to them not being mechanical drive).

 

[AgentCooper]

You can contact PCS via LiveChat and request the OS to go on whichever drive you like. They will put it on the faster drive as standard but it's your choice

 

[CraigMerrick53]

You can contact PCS via LiveChat and request the OS to go on whichever drive you like. They will put it on the faster drive as standard but it's your choice

*updated - post ed while missing half the text lol

Thanks, as noted by UBUYSA though, they both have the same read speed so it shouldn't matter which drive the OS is installed to. Any storage (on either drive) left, after the OS, is just additional storage isn't it ?

 

[AgentCooper]

*updated - post ed while missing half the text lol

Thanks, as noted by UBUYSA though, they both have the same read speed so it shouldn't matter which drive the OS is installed to. Any storage (on either drive) left, after the OS, is just additional storage isn't it ?

Just seen the updated message, I’m now less confused 😆

As a gamer, it might matter when it comes to doing a clean install of your system. You’d ideally want the OS and your programs on the smaller of the two drives. And then you can direct Steam to download and store onto the larger one. This way you won’t have to download a huge amount of your library again if you’ve got to do some troubleshooting 👍

 

[ubuysa]

As a gamer, it might matter when it comes to doing a clean install of your system. You’d ideally want the OS and your programs on the smaller of the two drives. And then you can direct Steam to download and store onto the larger one. This way you won’t have to download a huge amount of your library again if you’ve got to do some troubleshooting 👍

This is just one reason for having two drives, the main reason is for performance. Windows can only have one read/write operation in progress to each drive (note; not to each partition - to each physical drive). If you only have one drive in your system then a read to a file by Windows will have to queue behind a read for a user data file (or vice-versa) and this will impact system performance - remember Windows is running everything so any delays in Windows has a big impact.

By having two drives, one for the OS and programs and one for user data, Windows can be reading from the system drive at the same time an application is reading from the user data drive - there is thus no performance hit.

Since Windows and programs occupy less drive space than user data typically does, you need a much smaller drive for Windows, but this wants to be the fastest drive you can afford.

Most user data gains some benefit from being on an SSD (high resolution images, large databases, etc. in particular) but the end user isn't going to be able to see the difference between a 5MB file read from a 5000MB/s drive and a 5MB file read from a 550MB/s drive. For most user data the difference in load times will be measured in milliseconds (it's 8ms in that typical example) and you just can't see times that short. Even for a 4K image file the difference in read times is about 300ms - less than a third of a second! (A raw 4k image at 3840 x 2160 pixels with 24 bits per pixel has a file size of about 190MB).

When speccing a system therefore, it's wise to get the fastest drive you can afford for Windows and programs, but it doesn't need to be massively large. Experience shows that 512GB is plenty, many people manage very well with 256GB. It depends not on Windows (which uses about 80GB max) but on the applications and games you intend to install.

The user data drive needs to be large, 1TB or bigger, but 550MB/s is fast enough for most user data, 1200MB/s is perfect for all user data. It's not necessary (or cost effective) to be speccing a 5000MB/s user data drive when a much cheaper 550MB/s drive will offer the same performance from the end user's viewpoint.

Note that music and videos gain no benefit at all from being loaded from an SSD. Because they are processed (played) in real time all an SSD does is load the next buffer faster, but since that's done whilst you're still playing the first buffer you don't see that time saving at all. If you have a large music or video collection then adding a 7200rpm HDD to hold those will provide the same user experience (performance-wise) at a much lower cost.

 

[CraigMerrick53]

Thanks for your input.

I’m going to drop PCS a message and ask them to install the O/S on the 500GB M.2 drive.

Is there anything else I should be asking them to put on there so that my 1TB drive is free for games?

 

[CraigMerrick53]

Everything PCS add to a hard drive (WIndows, drivers etc) will all be to the primary drive in question...they won't put anything on the second drive

In that case I need to swap my drives around.
My 1tb is my 1st drive and my 500gb is my 2nd

 

[CraigMerrick53]

It doesn't matter if you are asking them to put Windows on the 500GB one. I just meant primary drive as in the one with Windows on it as opposed to the secondary (storage) drive.

Ohhh I see... sorry, I totally misread that.

Basically, If I ask them to windows on either drive, that’s the drive they put the test of the stuff on?

 

[johtri]

The way i would do this is :
1. Install and only have windows OS on the 500GB drive or even choose 256GB as windows only takes up about 47GB of storage so this leaves plenty of storage should you need it.
2. Have a large enough storage drive to install all your games on and anything else like video files , photos etc
My reason for this is , if you use drive to which your OS is installed on as storage then if things go wrong which they will at some point maybe through windows updating to new version etc or windows being corrupted in some way, then if you had to reinstall the OS then you are going to have to reinstall everything else like game files , video files etc etc , so which means you have to constantly back up everything on that drive and it all becomes hassle , far easier to just leave OS on 1 drive and use another drive min 1TB for everything else , then if windows does mess up then you only have to reinstall windows OS .. Easy peasy to do.
This is only my opinion and its the way i do things .. so much less grief when things go wrong with OS.

 

[CraigMerrick53]

The way i would do this is :
1. Install and only have windows OS on the 500GB drive or even choose 256GB as windows only takes up about 47GB of storage so this leaves plenty of storage should you need it.
2. Have a large enough storage drive to install all your games on and anything else like video files , photos etc
My reason for this is , if you use drive to which your OS is installed on as storage then if things go wrong which they will at some point maybe through windows updating to new version etc or windows being corrupted in some way, then if you had to reinstall the OS then you are going to have to reinstall everything else like game files , video files etc etc , so which means you have to constantly back up everything on that drive and it all becomes hassle , far easier to just leave OS on 1 drive and use another drive min 1TB for everything else , then if windows does mess up then you only have to reinstall windows OS .. Easy peasy to do.
This is only my opinion and its the way i do things .. so much less grief when things go wrong with OS.

Thanks, based on everyones input I’m going to out this request through.

I need to wait until Monday however for the live chat!