I'm not very experienced with newer PC hardware and could use some straightforward advice. My current system has a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, an RTX 3060, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 256GB ADATA SU800 SATA SSD, and a 1TB WDC hard drive. Everything runs well, but I'm running out of space and load times have started to feel slow, especially when launching games such as League of Legends and SnowRunner or starting Windows. I'm considering asking for a PC component as a birthday gift. Would adding an NVMe M.2 drive be worthwhile, and could I move my games and files from the hard drive and smaller SSD onto it? Would it make sense to use the existing SSD for games and keep the hard drive mainly for files and long-term storage?
5 Answers
Modern games generally should not be installed on a hard drive if you want smooth loading and texture streaming. Even a fast hard drive can make loading screens much longer and cause assets to appear late while moving through a game. Use the hard drive for bulk storage or an archive, and reserve the SSDs for Windows and games you play regularly.
An NVMe drive would be a good upgrade, especially because your current SSD is only 256GB. Put Windows and games you actively play on the new NVMe drive. You can keep the SATA SSD as secondary game storage and use the hard drive for documents, videos, backups, or games you are not currently playing. The biggest improvement will come from moving games off the hard drive; NVMe is faster than SATA SSD, but both are dramatically better than a mechanical hard drive.
So I could install the NVMe drive, move the games from the hard drive and old SSD onto it, then use the SSD for extra games and keep the hard drive for general storage?
A practical setup would be: new 1TB or 2TB NVMe drive for Windows and frequently played games, the 256GB SATA SSD for less demanding games or extra applications, and the 1TB hard drive for media, backups, and games you are storing but rarely launch. You can copy files manually, but moving Windows itself may require cloning the old drive or performing a fresh installation.
Your motherboard almost certainly has at least one M.2 slot, but check the exact model before buying. A reasonably priced 1TB or 2TB NVMe PCIe drive should work well; you do not need an expensive top-end model for gaming. Make sure the drive is compatible with the slot and that the motherboard has the required mounting screw or hardware.
You do not strictly need NVMe for normal PC use. A 2.5-inch SATA SSD would also load games well and is usually fine if it is cheaper. NVMe drives are easier to install because they have no data or power cables, and they are faster, so an NVMe drive is the convenient choice here. Just do not expect games to load several times faster than they do from a good SATA SSD; the major jump is from HDD to any SSD.
That makes sense. Since my current SSD is only 256GB, upgrading to a larger NVMe drive seems like the best way to get more usable game space.