PCIe Drive, SSD Drive, My Drive Your Drive ? For what use ? HDD still a thing ?

[rioyeti]

Hello,

My computer is old, and although I've updated a few parts here and there, I'm starting to look into a getting a full new PC. I started toying with the PC Builder, which is really great.
Before I come back with a full PC build question, I wanted to ask about more specific "Drives" questions.

Right now I have 3 drives :

WD Blue 3D 500GB SSD - As my System Drive + Apps
Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD - As my Workhorse (I put all my active projects inside this drive... although I'm limited by the 128GB)
WD Gold 4TB HDD - As my storage drive, which I have partitioned into 3: - "Projects" (where I backup my personal work, and sometimes still work from there because my "Workhorse" is full), "Work backup" (professional backup, and sometimes still work from there because my "Workhorse" is full) and "Data" (Pictures, music, etc...).

My first question is, if I change my whole PC, is any of these drives worth saving and transferring to the new one?

If I get a PCIe-SSD (which apparently I absolutely should). Can I partition 1TB into 2 drives. One for the "System+Apps", and one for my "Workhorse" drive? Or should I better get 2 different drives 500GB each for these 2 tasks? (is partitioning still a thing?)

I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions to the best way to optimize/organize projects/work/backups.

Thanks.
Damien

 

[Jerry James]

My first question is, if I change my whole PC, is any of these drives worth saving and transferring to the new one?

Other than the 128GB one, which seems rather small for 2022, they seem perfectly serviceable. That said, old HDDs can fail, and if you have anything valuable on there, you should probably look into running a RAID setup.

If I get a PCIe-SSD (which apparently I absolutely should). Can I partition 1TB into 2 drives. One for the "System+Apps", and one for my "Workhorse" drive?

Yep absolutely, but then you'll be using the same PCIe link for both partitioned storage spaces. So if you need to use both at the same time, you'll end up effectively halving your speed. If you want to work directly off an SSD, a separate one is always best.

 

[rioyeti]

Thanks a lot for your answer Jerry.

I've run a RAID in the past, and when it failed, and I couldn't retrieve files from either of the copied disks... it convinced me to stop bothering with RAID, and I just have 2 external HDD (different brands) where I copy (sometimes) important files... not a perfect system, I know...

Just a follow up question regarding the PCIe-SSD partition question...
Those SSDs are apparently more than 10 times as fast as SATA SSDs... So even considering that would you say it's still better to have a PCIe-SSD for system and a SATA SSD for project files rather than a single partitioned PCIe-SSD?
Or was your answer considering 2 separate PCIe-SSDs (which would clearly be the best choice, but more expensive).

Thanks again!
Damien

 

[Jerry James]

I've run a RAID in the past, and when it failed, and I couldn't retrieve files from either of the copied disks... it convinced me to stop bothering with RAID, and I just have 2 external HDD (different brands) where I copy (sometimes) important files... not a perfect system, I know...

Ah, you must've been on RAID 0, which basically turns two drives into a single faster drive. But the downside is...well, you know
You can find more details here in this post by Chris

Those SSDs are apparently more than 10 times as fast as SATA SSDs... So even considering that would you say it's still better to have a PCIe-SSD for system and a SATA SSD for project files rather than a single partitioned PCIe-SSD?

Kinda depends on how large your projects usually are and whether you were running into any slowdowns with the SATA SSDs. If project sizes aren't too big, you wouldn't really notice the difference between a partitioned setup and two discrete drives.

 

[rioyeti]

I actually think it was a Raid 1... but it was a while ago so I may be mistaken. I just remember thinking that it wasn't worth the hassle in my case, especially now with the exponential speed of the new drives!

Ok thank you for your answers, I see clearer now!

I will probably come back with questions about a build in the near future. But I will have to juggle between your great Builder tool, and also the fact that here in France some items are not as easy to find, and others are more expensive... So I will do a bit of a mix and see what I come up with.

Have a nice day!
Damien