Hey everyone! I'm trying to figure out the best way to set up my SSD drives on Windows 11. I have two NVMe SSDs: a 4TB Gen 5 SSD where I installed Windows and most apps (C drive), and an 8TB Gen 4 SSD dedicated to my games (D drive). I'm wondering what the best approach is for where to install my game clients like Steam and Battle.net. Should I:
1. Install these clients directly on the D drive with my games, or
2. Install the clients on the C drive and direct them to install the games on the D drive?
I often do fresh installs of Windows every few months, so any advice on the most efficient setup would be greatly appreciated!
3 Answers
From an organization perspective, it makes sense to have your OS and apps on the C drive while keeping your games on the D drive. When you reinstall Windows, you can simply re-add the D drive to your Steam library and it'll recognize the games there without a hassle.
I've found that it's usually better to install your game clients like Steam on the C drive and then have the games installed on the D drive. It makes it easier to manage things since the launchers usually recognize your old game files and won't require a full reinstall. Plus, if you wipe your C drive, it's a quick setup process since you can just point the client to the games on the D drive without losing anything.
If you’re looking at it from a cleanliness standpoint, installing the Windows apps and game clients on C drive while keeping the actual games on D drive is a good move. Just remember that for general usage, having your drives set up correctly is key to keeping everything running smoothly!
Just a heads up, gaming bandwidth on these drives won't be an issue for a long time, so Gen5 isn't really a necessity for gaming performance. It might save you money to stick to Gen4 for a while.
That's a solid plan! Just keep your installers handy, because reinstalling the clients only takes about 30 minutes, but downloading all those games again can be a real pain if you have a slow connection.