Researching prior to getting MSFS. Two questions

Is anyone running MSFS on a conventional disc hard drive?

Anyone using CH Controls?

Thanks Folks

I'm running a CH USB Yoke.. 🙂

Why would you want to run on a hard drive?

Suggest a dedicated 500 GB SSD.

1 hour ago, Gary1124 said:

Researching prior to getting MSFS. Two questions

Is anyone running MSFS on a conventional disc hard drive?

Yes, cause when I bought my fist gaming PC in 2019, I was going for price, and also didn't know better really. Running on a 1 TB HD not an SSD. If getting a new PC or upgrading get a SSD at least 1 TB, as the World Updates are fairly big!

MSFS runs fine on my HD. It's just when I launch it, I have time to paint the house, got to Mickey D's and get breakfast, go to the grocery store, etc... But really it takes about 4-7 minutes to load, and I ONLY have about 20-30 items in my Community folder, which is nothing! Luckily for me when I launch it, that's when I make coffee. And if I am gonna fly a lot that day, I leave it running all day pretty much!

If you can get the fastest SSD you can afford 🙂 And CPU and GPU, etc...

I have a 256 GB SSD in my PC, not big enough for Windows other stuff, and MSFS! So MSFS goes on the 1 TB HD!

Edited May 5, 20215 yr by in2tech

With an SSD, you can load up with add-one’s in the Community folder and be flying in about 60-90 seconds. BUT…. I do think it is important (though not entirely essential) that Windows is also on an SSD for top performance. I suggest 2 SSD’s of 500GB. One for Windows and all your other apps, games etc and one for MSFS.

Check if your motherboard supports the newer NVME type (they look a little like RAM sticks) that plug directly into the board, no cables no fuss. These SSD’s leave a HDD in the dust and improve the speed of your PC like no other component can.

Windows will boot in seconds and the whole PC experience will be elevated.

Keep the HDD in the PC, for storing general stuff like documents, photos, videos etc, and for system backups if you do those.

Edited May 5, 20215 yr by RaptyrOne

Already running 

Ryzen 5 3600 32 gigabytes ran

RX 580 8 gigabyte.

240 gigabyte SSD Drive C

2 TB Disc Drive D

I want to get a 2TB SSD to replace my Drive D. A tech showed me how to get at them. Now I don't remember. They are bottom front in my case.

1 hour ago, RaptyrOne said:

Check if your motherboard supports the newer NVME type (they look a little like RAM sticks) that plug directly into the board, no cables no fuss. These SSD’s leave a HDD in the dust and improve the speed of your PC like no other component can.

This too, my 256 GB SSD is an NVME, and it is super fast. Just not big enough for MSFS, and other sim's. Of course I bought my PC in April 2019, and in June, they announced MSFS, if ONLY I had waited 🙂 Just kidding got a great price on my first gaming PC, and extremely happy with it too! And MSFS once launched run's great, I just have to keep the settings what my PC can handle, and that is not Ultra. But it run's really well for my PC.

I also had to purchase all the things for a first gaming PC coming from a laptop. One time purchases like headphones, monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse ( ones that came with it stink ), and finally a Thrustmaster HOTAS 16000m which I love! The HOTAS and joystick set!

Next time all I have to get is a new PC, thought I was gonna upgrade this one, but not happening. Next one is complete NEW desktop ONLY! Have all the other stuff now!

I run MSFS off of an old PC and off a 2TB harddrive. Yeah, it's slow, but while the sim loads I go do dishes or fold laundry.

 

2 hours ago, RaptyrOne said:

With an SSD, you can load up with add-one’s in the Community folder and be flying in about 60-90 seconds. BUT…. I do think it is important (though not entirely essential) that Windows is also on an SSD for top performance. I suggest 2 SSD’s of 500GB. One for Windows and all your other apps, games etc and one for MSFS.

Check if your motherboard supports the newer NVME type (they look a little like RAM sticks) that plug directly into the board, no cables no fuss. These SSD’s leave a HDD in the dust and improve the speed of your PC like no other component can.

Windows will boot in seconds and the whole PC experience will be elevated.

Keep the HDD in the PC, for storing general stuff like documents, photos, videos etc, and for system backups if you do those.

What kind of slot on the mobo do they plug into? How much capacity do they go up to? How much do they cost?

A 2TB SSD sata is nearly 200 bucks for a reasonable price. Really good one are more. Also, I have 32 gig of ram. Can that cut loading times? 3000mhz.

Edited May 5, 20215 yr by Gary1124

Something like this one:

https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-black-sn750-nvme-ssd#WDS500G3X0C

The motherboard slot is called M2. Most midrange and upwards motherboards from the past several years should have at least 2 slots. They are as east to plug in as installing a stick of RAM.

Dont spend a fortune on a huge SSD. Buy two 500GB ones and if you need more space for video’s and images, run a HDD for that.

9 hours ago, in2tech said:

MSFS runs fine on my HD. It's just when I launch it, I have time to paint the house, got to Mickey D's and get breakfast, go to the grocery store, etc... But really it takes about 4-7 minutes to load, and I ONLY have about 20-30 items in my Community folder, which is nothing! Luckily for me when I launch it, that's when I make coffee. And if I am gonna fly a lot that day, I leave it running all day pretty much!

I have not installed the World Updates for areas that I do not fly (yet), use the MSFS Addons Manager to positon only what Community items I need for a particular flight, and my load times are two minutes or less from a 1 TB SSD.

33 minutes ago, RaptyrOne said:

Dont spend a fortune on a huge SSD. Buy two 500GB ones and if you need more space for video’s and images, run a HDD for that.

I must be doing something wrong.  😂🙃

(Hi, my name is Rob, and I'm a data hoarder.)

 

Seriously, though, even a cheap SSD is going to be miles better than launching the sim off spinning platters.    The upgrade from SATA SSD to NVMe is a notable improvement, but it's not life-changing the way the difference between HDD and SSD is.   (My startup time decreased by about 15 to 20 seconds when I switched from a SATA SSD to an NVMe one.   Better, for sure, but not like the multiple minutes saved by just not using an HDD.)

Edited May 5, 20215 yr by kaosfere

I will use CPU-Z and get the model number of my Asus board and see if it has an M2 slot or two. If so I will search for how-to videos just to familiarize.

I'm fairly sure the front panel of my case comes off to access the hard drive. It's one of those metal units with a glass side revealing the internals. I did ram two weeks ago. Pulled my original 8 gig stick and plugged in two 16 gig sticks so now I have dual channel.

One question. If I temporarily keep MSFS on my 2TB spinny drive D would it help to create MSFS own unique partition?

Thanks.

29 minutes ago, Gary1124 said:

If I temporarily keep MSFS on my 2TB spinny drive D would it help to create MSFS own unique partition?

Perhaps a little.  If you're already installing it in some place other than your C drive you're going to be avoiding the biggest of the hassles that you might run into.   The one thing that installing it into its own partition could do would be to make it easier to move to the new disk when you get it installed, because you should in theory just be able to clone the partition to the new drive and be done with it.

But I haven't tried that with MSFS in particular and wouldn't swear to that working due to the complications potentially introduced by it being a UWP application.   Perhaps someone who's tried that can share their experience here.

8 hours ago, kaosfere said:

But I haven't tried that with MSFS in particular and wouldn't swear to that working due to the complications potentially introduced by it being a UWP application.   Perhaps someone who's tried that can share their experience here.

I have had nothing but trouble attempting to clone MSFS content.  MSFS detects that something has changed and wants to download everything from scratch..

I would spend $70 for a dedicated 500 GB SATA SSD and install MSFS on it.  That should work fine, and last a while.. 

SAMSUNG 870 EVO 500GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD

Keep your 2 TB drive for other stuff and backups..

Edited May 5, 20215 yr by Bert Pieke

7 hours ago, kaosfere said:

I must be doing something wrong.  😂🙃

(Hi, my name is Rob, and I'm a data hoarder.)

 

Seriously, though, even a cheap SSD is going to be miles better than launching the sim off spinning platters.    The upgrade from SATA SSD to NVMe is a notable improvement, but it's not life-changing the way the difference between HDD and SSD is.   (My startup time decreased by about 15 to 20 seconds when I switched from a SATA SSD to an NVMe one.   Better, for sure, but not like the multiple minutes saved by just not using an HDD.)

Doesn't the load time also depend on items in your Community Folder, that is number of items, etc...? And it is correct that you have to install SSD's inside your PC case directly to the motherboard, meaning an External SSD will not work? Also, does USB-C matter for that case. Just trying to get info in case I install a SATA SSD, or even a new PC purchase in the future.