New productivity PC build

[lone shooter]

About to build a new PC to replace my old one with Win10 that will no longer be supported next year. My question is, for storage, is it best to use one big (4 TB) M.2 "drive" or like one small one for OS and another one for apps and storage? Do traditional SSDs play a part in builds these days?

TIA

[70runner]

I've always preferred to use a dedicated SSD for OS and separate drive/drives for apps/storage. Can facilitate any significant OS troubleshooting.

[dC0m]

Some of the newer MBs come with a M.2 SSD slot built into the mobo (a lot of the "gaming" type Mobos). Mine came with one, but I prefer running a traditional 2.5" SSD for OS/apps, and another large 3.5" HD for downloads/junk.

In terms of servicability, it makes the swap (in case of drive failure) that much easier, rather than taking out my GPU to get to my M.2 SSD slot (which is held down screw and heatsink).

[sigfan91]

I use a Wester Digital Black M.2 drive for OS and apps. All my music, videos, photos, data, are on a separate platter drive. Access is a bit slower, but easier to duplicate. I have an external platter drive for backup. I can just plug that into another computer and have access to all my data.

This is cheaper than running 2 M.2 drives. Large capacity M.2 drives are still much more expensive than old platter drives.

[ibanezfoo]

I've always preferred to use a dedicated SSD for OS and separate drive/drives for apps/storage. Can facilitate any significant OS troubleshooting.

Same here. 512-1Tb NVMe for boot and a 1Tb+ NVMe for data. On my music production machine it has 4 NVMes tasked with different things.

Most new computers have multiple M.2 slots on the board. Hell I have an older Precision laptop that has like 6 M.2 slots in there.

[lone shooter]

Thanks for the replies.

I'll be using two NVME SSDs.

[Tahoeshooter]

Yup, half to 1 TB SSD for the system drive and multiple drives of whatever config your heart desires. The fun part for you should now be picking a processor. I went on a deep dive in Intel land last week because it had been a while and my wife was needing a new laptop. Wow, lots of choices! i7 & i 5s are up past their14th generation now with 10+ cores. Build something that will future proof you for another 5+ years processor and memory wise.

[Dan_Eastvale]

You need or just want a new pc?

Why not upgrade the current to Windows 11 and upgrade to NVME's only?

[high_revs]

You need or just want a new pc?

Why not upgrade the current to Windows 11 and upgrade to NVME's only?

could be a hardware limitation. my 2014 HP desktop and 2014 dell xps laptop cannot be upgraded due to h/w requirements.

does anyone run the 2nd nvme slot and replicate / clone the first to have a plug-n-play way if the master / c: dies? i have mine setup but don't always remember to clone though i think i can force the bios to boot off the 2nd nvme w/o physically moving the nvme drives (since thermal sticker would tear from the cover).

[Marauder2003]

1 drive? 2 drives? You beginners, you. Try this:

image001.jpg

[BrokerB]

Need alert..thats too much HD porn. Yiu are going to go blind

[arrix]

About to build a new PC to replace my old one with Win10 that will no longer be supported next year. My question is, for storage, is it best to use one big (4 TB) M.2 "drive" or like one small one for OS and another one for apps and storage? Do traditional SSDs play a part in builds these days?

TIA

Add a RAID controller and another drive identical to your boot drive. You can then mirror your boot drive automatically.

[C.G.]

Need alert..thats too much HD porn. Yiu are going to go blind

I bet he shaves his palms,😁

[ibanezfoo]

1 drive? 2 drives? You beginners, you. Try this:

image001.jpg

Meh. Our smallest SAN is bigger than that.