Which SSD should I use for Windows and which for games?
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MellowCedar42
I'm planning a gaming PC with two separate SSDs and am considering PCIe 4.0 drives, or possibly using one PCIe 5.0 drive. If I buy both generations, should Windows go on the PCIe 4.0 drive and games on the PCIe 5.0 drive, or would the reverse be better? Will PCIe 5.0 make any noticeable difference in game load times or overall gaming performance?
Answers
A single large NVMe SSD is already extremely fast for both Windows and games. You could partition it into a smaller Windows and applications section—around 200–300 GB—and use the remaining space for games if you want them separated logically. That can make reinstalling Windows easier without immediately touching the game partition.
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I’d stick with PCIe 4.0 for both. Current games generally don’t show a meaningful improvement when moving from PCIe 4.0 to PCIe 5.0, so Gen 5 usually isn’t worth paying extra for in a gaming build. Choose based on price, capacity, controller, and reliability instead.
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The difference will be tiny, if you notice it at all. If you already have two drives, putting Windows on the slower one and games on the faster one is reasonable, since games are more likely to benefit from extra storage bandwidth—but neither choice will have a major impact.
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For normal use, the difference is likely to be only a few seconds in certain loading situations, and often less. If the PCIe 5.0 drive costs about the same, using it is fine, but otherwise a cheaper or larger PCIe 4.0 TLC drive is the better value. If both drives have similar performance, it really doesn’t matter which one gets Windows.
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MellowCedar42: That was my initial thought too. Thanks for confirming.