Storage for new gaming PC

[cst1992]

Building a new gaming PC.

I have a 500GB 970 Evo Plus for my OS and Steam games. Now looking for 2TB secondary storage for older games and large file storage.
Budget is not fixed, but let's consider a max of about INR 15,000 ($200).
Options:

WD hard drive WD20EZBX 7200 RPM: INR 5,199 ($69)
Seagate hard drive ST2000DM008 7200RPM: INR 6,979 ($93)
WD Black WD2003FZEX: INR 11,200 ($150)
Seagate SSHD ST2000LX001: INR 13,139 ($175)
Samsung 870 QVO SSD: INR 16,799 ($224) - QLC NAND: cheap but with bad performance.
Crucial BX500 SSD: INR 18,500 ($247) - cheaper TLC option from Crucial
Crucial MX500 SSD: INR 19,999 ($267) - slightly more expensive option
Samsung 870 EVO SSD: INR 23,349 ($311) - MLC NAND: fast enough to saturate SATA ports, expensive
970 Evo Plus NVMe SSD: INR 27,358 ($373) - the fastest but too expensive, plus will exhaust both of my M.2 ports


As you can see, there's a large disconnect between the HDDs and even the cheaper QLC SSDs at this size.
Should I just get the HDDs or stretch a bit and get one of the SSDs? What about the hybrid Seagate SSHD?
Higher performance is good but not a necessity.

 

[skizzo]

If you're buying an 870 QVO for your OS drive or one you will write to often....then its suboptimal performance will be highlighted often.
but if all you're doing is putting games on it, which will sit there indefinitely, then that performance isn't such an issue when all you do is read from it.
It's what I use one for and it's def better in comparison to a HDD, and 1/3 cheaper than their next best SSD option the 870 EVO.

If that turns you off then get fastest HDD you can afford. I'd go with the WD Black in that case

 

[cst1992]

I have a 970 Evo Plus 500GB SSD for my Steam games and OS.

WD Black any good these days? What is its durability? In the pre-corona days I heard people push it too hard resulting in them failing earlier than Blue or Green drives.

What about the SSHD?

 

[P4-630]

I have a couple of 1tb 860 evo's for my games and some other data.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

WD black, I have had three Seagate sshhds die on me so can't recommend them plus the speed up wasn't worth it or effective in typical usage.

 

[cst1992]

I have had three Seagate sshds die on me so can't recommend them

Hmm. I've heard something similar about those. Unfortunately Seagate is the only brand doing something of this kind right now.

Fine, WD Black it is. It's not too cheap and not too expensive. Is it any faster than a plain WD Blue or similar HDD though? Otherwise I'd be spending the extra $80 for nothing.

 

[skizzo]

specs? you'll need to look at the brands respective websites for those!
I personally have avoided using SSHD's.....I say pick one or the other, never been down with the hybrids since they do not meet my use case.

looking for 2TB secondary storage for older games and large file storage.

this statement translates to you write a bunch of random files to it whether that is games or a large photo library etc, once and that is it. they aren't files you are continually writing to because your editing audio, video, photo, etc type of work. perfect candidate for 870 QVO (honestly, I'd say the ONLY way to justify purchasing that disk lol). if you think you're going to be writing to it on the regular, then get a HDD

Those prices though? I assume you're outside of the USA so these may be be irrelevant. I'm finding the 870 QVO for $180 on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-870-QVO-SATA-MZ-77Q2T0B/dp/B089C6LZ42?th=1). I got mine for $200 literally a year ago so $224 seems odd! The MX500 is going for $167 right now too on ebay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/294427977529) and on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX50...3J5JB12/dp/B0781VSXBP/ref=dp_ob_title_ce?th=1) according to the lists on SSD benchmark which is actually a very good deal I recommend if you can get that disk for that cost!

SSD UserBenchmarks - 1072 Solid State Drives Compared

check that link out and use the slider on the left hand side to slide up capacity so it is showing 2TB+ drives. Then sort by price. Do the same for HDD if you want. It's a great tool looking for best price for these components

if you're willing to spend that much on WD Black then go for a SSD!
you REALLY should shop around.... case in point, 10secs of googling I can buy that disk for $85?! Why pay double for that!?
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FJRS628?tag=userbenchmark-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1)

 

[cst1992]

specs? you'll need to look at the brands respective websites for those!

Specs of what? The disks? Assume slower->faster top->bottom.

this statement translates to you write a bunch of random files to it whether that is games or a large photo library etc, once and that is it. they aren't files you are continually writing to because your editing audio, video, photo, etc type of work. perfect candidate for 870 QVO (honestly, I'd say the ONLY way to justify purchasing that disk lol). if you think you're going to be writing to it on the regular, then get a HDD

I'd be writing large files to it, but not regularly. I just need a secondary data storage to dump all my excess data and not have to maintain it on external drives if at all possible. Also for particularly large games - the kind which might take 100GB to themselves.

Those prices though? I assume you're outside of the USA so these may be be irrelevant.

These are either Amazon prices, or on stores which have lower than Amazon prices.

 

[skizzo]

Sorry for the confusion, I meant that specs comment regarding you were asking me for spec level data (durability)....you're gonna have to look that up yourself lol
And wow for inflation or high tariffs or whatever factors are coming into play for why your region has all these components priced higher! I don't envy your situation there.
Though with what you shared, it doesn't sound like you have a use case that justifies the extra cost of WD Black......the WD Blue in my opinion is more suited towards your use case. You could get a bigger capacity even if you think you will use it.

 

[cst1992]

You could get a bigger capacity even if you think you will use it.

2TB seems enough. I have looked at WD Black. I'll look into benchmarks and such, and if the extra price is not justified I'll get the Blue.

I don't envy your situation there.

Don't quote me on this, but the primary factor for this is import tariffs, secondary is demand/supply.

 

[Chrispy_]

The 870 QVO is a shit SSD but as a solid state games library (and using a better SSD for your OS and other applications) then it'll do.

With Steam now supporting multiple libraries you can just move games you aren't actively playing to a mechanical drive. I have a 1TB games drive and rather than uninstalling a game I'll just move it to the library on my NAS now. The only penalty is having to wait a few minutes if you decide you want your slow-to-load game back on your SSD as Steam moves everything across at ~150MB/s or so...

 

[GerKNG]

don't buy samsung QVO SSDs... they are incredibly awful and worse than the cheapest QLC SSDs from Micron/Crucial.

the Sandisk 3D Ultra is fantastic (basically a 860 Evo) and they are very cheap as well.

 

[cst1992]

Sandisk 3D Ultra is fantastic and they are very cheap as well

Not here, and not the 2TB variant. Maybe a scalper, but on Amazon it's $392.

Steam moves everything across at ~150MB/s or so

If that is a limitation of the hardware then that shouldn't be an issue if say, I decide to go with the MX500. Then it should be able to manage thrice that.

 

[londiste]

I would vote for MX500. It has been the mainstay SATA SSD for a reason. It is nothing special but a decent TLC SSD without significant downsides.

BX500 is DRAMless that does show up in performance often enough to not justify the price difference.
870 QVO (and most other SATA QLC drives) are not cheap enough to justify the performance and potentially endurance hit.

There is a considerable performance gap between HDD (SSHD is mostly in HDD camp) and SSD but so far a very minor one between SATA and NVMe SSDs. For gaming what primarily gets affected is loading times, including asset streaming during gaming. Whether PS5/XBSX will bring heavier requirements for SSD speeds remains to be seen but this is not a discussion for today or probably this price range

 

[phanbuey]

I use an MX500 drive for gaming library and it gives me no trouble at all. Very solid option.

 

[cst1992]

Per this video, the only advantages of a WD Black drive over a Blue one is vibration protection and time-limited error recovery(which is used in RAID environments).

I need neither, so I think if I decide to go for a HDD then Blue would be a better option than Black.

 

[yotano211]

Only get the Samsung 870 qvo if you must. Once the SLC cache is used up, it will drop the transfer performance down to 150mb/s. I use a 870 qvo in a external case for movie/shows storage.

There is nothing wrong with getting a hard drive vs SSD if you are worried about cost. A 2tb 7200rpm HD will have transfer speeds of 150 to 180mb/s. Store your extra stuff on there and pocket the savings, or maybe get larger 4tb HD.

 

[cst1992]

The MX500 is going for $167 right now too on ebay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/294427977529) and on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX50...3J5JB12/dp/B0781VSXBP/ref=dp_ob_title_ce?th=1)

By the way, for prices I usually apply the rule of 100 meaning if the item is $x in the US then it's INR 100x here.

By that logic, it seems the 2TB variant is playing hard-to-get. Prices in the USA vs here(Amazon):

MX500 1TB: $90.81/INR 8,599
MX500 2TB: $166.99/INR 19,999

That 2TB variant is certainly more expensive than it should be.

Once the SLC cache is used up, it will drop the transfer performance down to 150mb/s.

Try 80.

 

[yotano211]

By the way, for prices I usually apply the rule of 100 meaning if the item is $x in the US then it's INR 100x here.

By that logic, it seems the 2TB variant is playing hard-to-get. Prices in the USA vs here(Amazon):

MX500 1TB: $90.81/INR 8,599
MX500 2TB: $166.99/INR 19,999

That 2TB variant is certainly more expensive than it should be.


Try 80.

My drops down to around 150mb/s when I transfer things. The 860 qvo was around 80mb/s.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

I use a crucial Mx500 for my steam library but I'm toying with the idea to have some form of dedicated steam library on my NAS either some WD black nvme gen 3 drives or WD black HDDs in raid0.

 

[kapone32]

With Direct Storage on the way NVME would be the way I go. The Crucial P1 is a good bet.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

With Direct Storage on the way NVME would be the way I go. The Crucial P1 is a good bet.

I have a spare gen 4 nvme slot on my board waiting for this but I tend to play so many games at one time.
I'll keep that for the big titles, casual and older games that don't really need improved load times can go on the NAS though this is only necessary for me because I can only fit 2x 2.5" in my case Op doesn't have that issue with a full ATX case he can store alot more I would guess.
personally I would half the ssd size to 1tb for big titles and get a 2tb HDD for the lesser games. It's also nice to have a HDD to throw junk on like temp files and downloads so your not eating up your write count on your SSD.

 

[Chrispy_]

If that is a limitation of the hardware then that shouldn't be an issue if say, I decide to go with the MX500. Then it should be able to manage thrice that.

I picked that number out of my ass as a rough representation of the transfer speed moving game files to/from a mechanical drive that has sequential speeds of ~200MB/s

NVMe to SATA SSD will probably run at close to the SATA write bottleneck as the average game file size is large enough to mean it's mostly sequential.

 

[phanbuey]

I have two cheapo SSDs - one 1tb MX500 and one Samsung 860evo - threw them in a quick and dirty raid 0 array and voila. 2tb of cheap SSD storage with 1100MB/s random reads in AIDA with smooth loads and great $/ performance. Also gives you an extra layer of caching / buffering which may help smooth things out a bit with lots of IO requests.

 

[lexluthermiester]

WD hard drive WD20EZBX 7200 RPM: INR 5,199 ($69)

For secondary storage that games will load from, this drive is all you need. It has the space you want and the performance that you will need.

Stay away from QLC based SSD's they are utter garbage for anything other than use as external backup drives. For OS or secondary games storage the lacking durability is unacceptable.