Proper setup with NVMe + 2.5" ssd?

[DudeMatt]

Hey folks, I just built a PC a few weeks back and equipped it with a 500gb Samsung 860 EVO ssd and it's already nearly full with like 6 games. I haven't played a PC game since I went through Skyrim in 2011/2012. Holy crap these newer games fill up your drive quick!

I decided to buy a 1tb NVMe drive to remedy the storage issue. I do have an old 2TB spinning disk but it's loud and would ruin how quiet this machine operates. I realize it's more than I need in terms of speed but m2 form factor is sleek, small, and doesn't require any additional cables to the build.

So how should I set things up?

A.) Boot from NVMe drive and keep games on it while using the 500gb 2.5"ssd to store music/photos/videos/movies?

B.) Continue using 2.5" ssd as boot drive and simply add the nvme drive as storage for games?

If I go option A can I just clone the ssd to the nvme? I presume I may have to fiddle with some bios setting if I go this route as well.

If I go option B I guess the one downside I see is the hassle of moving installed games over to the new drive. I presume this entails uninstalling/reinstalling to new drive while taking care to preserve saved games and add them to the new folders. Is that about right or is there an easier way?

And then, lastly, aside from the mechanics involved in either situation, is one preferable over the other in terms of speed or stability?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions/replies!

Full build specs found here:
https://pcpartpicker.com/b/yKkdnQ

 

[DudeMatt]

Well, I've decided to go ahead and use the nvme as a boot drive. Might even just pull the ssd out of the build altogether and clear some cable clutter by removing sata cable/sata power cable.

 

[MaikuTech]

Well since you decided I would go with option B.
Clear out any uneeded files, programs and crap in your ssd drive.
Which is part of the problem as you mention in your post.
https://www.easeus.com/download/epmf-download.html
Set your ssd as primary let your other 1tb drive excute your steam games.
Heck you could make 2 logical 440 GB partition tables.
One for your steam games the other for document file back ups.

Just for your info the way things are now with windows 8.1 and windows 10.
500gb isn't going to do it, a 1tb for windows would be plenty and set number of programs and locals files you use daily.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9HJ3JJ4494
This drive could replace you're ssd drive most western digital blue-green hdd's I've used in 10 years.

They are pretty much quite and don't give off much heat.
Unless you are some kind of extreme sound ***** with computer components. =/
Look into mechanical drives for back up - video,music producing.
Don't use ssd drives for that as they fail more quickly then normal sata hdd's especially quality brand drives.

 

[DudeMatt]

Well since you decided I would go with option B.
Clear out any uneeded files, programs and crap in your ssd drive.
Which is part of the problem as you mention in your post.
https://www.easeus.com/download/epmf-download.html
Set your ssd as primary let your other 1tb drive excute your steam games.
Heck you could make 2 logical 440 GB partition tables.
One for your steam games the other for document file back ups.

Just for your info the way things are now with windows 8.1 and windows 10.
500gb isn't going to do it, a 1tb for windows would be plenty and set number of programs and locals files you use daily.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9HJ3JJ4494
This drive could replace you're ssd drive most western digital blue-green hdd's I've used in 10 years.

They are pretty much quite and don't give off much heat.
Unless you are some kind of extreme sound ***** with computer components. =/
Look into mechanical drives for back up - video,music producing.
Don't use ssd drives for that as they fail more quickly then normal sata hdd's especially quality brand drives.

Thanks for the reply. I have a 7200rpm 2TB spinner from my old machine so I could easily pop than in but I'm just not going be putting one of those ancient things in this new machine. Storage is really not an issue since I have a NAS on the LAN with 2 8TB reds in there (redundant). It's just these games are nuts with how big they are... I think Middle Earth SoW was over 100gigs!

Last night I put the NVMe in. First tried to clone but made rookie mistake of not accounting for the SSD being MBR. So then did a clean install on the NVMe and got everything running (drivers/os tweaks/programs/games). For some reason Win10 had it's own ideas about what programs I wanted and started installing stuff while I'm going through all this and I'm just like "what the heck is this all about?". Started giving me adobe Lightroom, candy crush, and several others and that really irked me. It's my PC. It's a fresh install. And now windows is going to interrupt me configuring my machine with this bloat?

I digress...

As it stands the SSD is unchanged but unplugged... I could theoretically go back to using that as main drive but still really have no sense of which setup is better under which scenarios. I guess I'll have to experiment if no one has any insights.

Thanks again for the reply!