Finally Ran Out Of Room On My SSD

[bbain1187 118]

Hey Everyone,

I've been happily simming on P3D for the last 3 years (the last of which on v4) but I have finally come to the point where I've run out of room on my Samsung 950 Pro SSD 512GB. To this point I have used it for Windows and all P3D content and scenery. I plan on ordering the 2080TI as soon as it comes out (trying to resist the urge to get the new 9900k as well, my 6700k @4.6ghz has been doing just fine), so logically it might be a good time to get a new SSD with it. I've been eyeing the Samsung 960 1TB SSDs (or 860 and save a few bucks). But do I really need one? I still have 1.16TB free on my Seagate 2TB SSHD I use for other storage. The other issue is that I only have one m.2 slot on my MB so if I were to get another m.2 drive I would need to get an adapter to plug it into the PCI-E slots and I'm not sure if there is a drive performance loss associated with that. So, if I were to limp by for the next 8-10 months by moving some scenery over to the Seagate drive, how much of a performance loss/stutters/additional loading times am I looking at? I was figuring when P3D v5 comes out next year, I could use that as an opportunity to buy a couple big SSD's and start P3D fresh on there, while using the 950 pro as a boot drive. But I would still have the issue with not having enough m.2 slots. Any thoughts or input is welcome. Here are my motherboard specs, in case I am missing something about the SSD capability:

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII RANGER LGA 1151 Intel Z170

Expansion Slots

PCI Express 3.0 x16

2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8, gray) 
1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (max at x4 mode, black)

PCI Express x1

3 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x1 (x1 mode, black)

Storage Devices

SATA 6Gb/s

6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray, 4 ports from 2 x SATA Express

SATA Express

2 x SATA Express port, gray

M.2

1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M Key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (both SATA & PCIE mode)*1
*1 When the M.2 Socket 3 is operating in SATA mode, SATA ports 1 will be disabled.

 

Thanks,

Ben

[Guest]

I don't know what the performance hit would be by putting some scenery on a HDD. But its easy to find out. I have 3 x ssd's. when I had P3D installed I had the OS on one SSD and P3D on another and stuff like ASN on the other. When all the ORBX scenery I have eat all of the space in the P3D Drive I moved the ORBX folder to the other drive and used a program called Junction Link Magic to make P3D think the file was still where it was orignally. Junction link magic is freeware and easy to use. You could move some folders on the P3D Drive into a folder on you storage drive and used Junction link magic to make it look like they are in the P3D Drive. On a HDD performance depends on the fragmentation of the drive and where the folder being accessed is physically positioned on the drive. If I remember correctly the outside edge of the drive has the highest performance.

So you can do all of that without spending a penny and decide for yourself if there is and if you can live with any performance difference.

Junction link magic is very simple to use but be careful! if you make mistakes you can screw thing up!!!!

[stans 707]

You can try putting your scenery on that 2TB HDD, then check the performance of P3D and the scenery loading times.  I know that when the HDD that contained my installation of FSX-Accel began to fail, I replaced it with a SSD.  The load times are much faster and the pauses when loading scenery during flights was greatly reduced.  I'm not willing to go back to a HDD, but given the storage capacity and low cost of HDD's, they make great back up and storage devices.

[Ian S 214]

I am considering my options as well as I rapidly run out of space. 

I already have a 250GB SSD for Windows and P3D and a 500GB SSD for addons. I am considering a 1TB external SSD purely for Orbx. As long as I use a 3.0 USB port, would I expect any problems having the files on an external drive rather than internal? I am thinking this will future proof things as the drive can just move as other hardware gets replaced.

Edited August 19, 2018 by Ian S

[G-RFRY 1,728]

The good news is that new SSD drives are in the pipeline and the manufactures expect this to drop the price next year, and 4TB will become more available, WD are shutting down making the old SATA drives and going SSD only in future.

[ryanbatc 13,029]

Im in the same boat - 56 gb free on my 500GB 840 evo

[zmak 331]

hybrid HDD/SSD are a cheap way to store your ORBX/Photoscenery and not to expensive and relatively quick 

[bbain1187 118]

Thanks for the tips...sounds like the most painless way to get more space is to migrate my Orbx folder to the hybrid drive. I will give this a shot and report back my findings after a few flights. If I can hold out upgrading until the 2TB drives become more affordable/reliable, that sounds like the best case scenario if the future is indeed photoscenery. I don't want to get a 1TB drive only to run into the same situation a year or two from now.

Ben  

[bbain1187 118]

Just to update - I have not moved any scenery to the SSHD yet but Amazon Prime has a deal today - $170 for a 1TB Sandisk 1TB SATA drive so I just pulled the trigger. Not as fast as my boot drive but pretty good bang for your buck I think, and this way I can keep P3D stuff off the SSHD. 

Ben