Where should I install P3D?

[avi8tir 25]

I've got a fairly high end system but its a couple of years old. 9900K, 2080ti, etc.  I am thinking of doing a wipe and clean install of everything. I've got 2 - 2 TB samsung NVME 980 Pros. Is there an advantage anymore of installing on the system drive or the other? I want to keep all my P3D stuff on the same drive. Issue is, I've done a poor job and my C drive is now full while D is only 30%.... obviously I have lots more than P3D so P3D is not the issue but just want to clean things up.

[sonny147 579]

ive got a similar setup, 9700k and 1080ti x3 samsung 460 gb 860,SSD, x1 Adata 460 spx nvme, intel 1660p 2 TB nvmeplus 1 HSSD 1 TB for downloads , basically i would would put you new OS on your fastest drive , as this is what you will be using the most ( OS always on the fastest drive). i have the OS on the ADATA itw the fastest, P3D plus all Addons ( not airports ) on the intel because its big and quick , and all addon airports shared betwenn the the 3 samsungs , its not too bad, always but the OS on the fastest drive in my experience 

[David Vega 348]

For optimal P3D operations you need a location that:

1. Has space
2. Offers fast read/write
3. Is not bothered by Operating Systems issues, protection, etc.

[NBouc 54]

I don't think there is any advantage anymore of installing on one drive vs the other, specially since you have 2 NVMEs. If I were you, I would install Windows and your common programs on one NVME, and P3D (including sceneries and P3D related addons and utilities) on the other.

 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

I have always installed on a different drive to where the OS is installed. So never on C.

Install on D and keep the parent folder name simple. D:\P3Dv5.

[avi8tir 25]

Just getting back to this..... in reality I'd like to have a single drive dedicated to P3D to keep things clean. That becomes a challenge with 2 - 2TB as my C always overflows onto the D drive (P3D drive).... this is how I have it set up now and, honestly, I have not done a good job of keeping it organized since a did a clean install about 2 years ago. 

I was thinking about adding another 1TB and have that be the P3D drive, but I only have 2 NVME slots, which are both taken. I do have a couple 1TB SATA SSD's that I no longer use, so I could use one of those but there would be a performance drop compared to NVME, right? 

I'm guessing my total P3D space is 500GB+ as I have about 100 add ons in total, I believe.

 

The reality is that I build my computers for P3D and that is the main purpose. I do play other games, obviously which also take a substantial amount of room. I am probable sitting at about 3.2TB in total right now. 

 

Any ideas or pointers on this? 

 

thanks!!!

[jon b 2,047]

I have 3 x 2TB Samsung 980 pros ,  C for win 11, D for P3D and XP and E for Orbx libraries and add on folders.

The  initial sim  load up time, and time for loading  a new scenario is super quick now, just a matter of a few seconds rather than several minutes on my old system. However I still get the scenery popping in or black airport textures in the distance that I’ve always had so the actual inflight experience doesn’t seem to have improved, although i suspect a side by side comparison might show it has.

There’s always some components of add ons that seem to make their way onto the OS drive anyway so it’s difficult to keep P3D isolated on a single drive. 

[avi8tir 25]

27 minutes ago, jon b said:

I have 3 x 2TB Samsung 980 pros ,  C for win 11, D for P3D and XP and E for Orbx libraries and add on folders.

The  initial sim  load up time, and time for loading  a new scenario is super quick now, just a matter of a few seconds rather than several minutes on my old system. However I still get the scenery popping in or black airport textures in the distance that I’ve always had so the actual inflight experience doesn’t seem to have improved, although i suspect a side by side comparison might show it has.

There’s always some components of add ons that seem to make their way onto the OS drive anyway so it’s difficult to keep P3D isolated on a single drive. 

Is there an advantage to having ORBX on a separate drive? I was thinking of just doing Win 11 / P3D on C (with all add ons) and everything else on D (with a few exceptions). As you mentioned, trying to so it all on D... .some always makes it's way to C. 

Edited January 11, 2022 by avi8tir

[jon b 2,047]

I’m far from an expert on this side of our hobby but what I noticed on my previous system was because I have the true earth products for both XP and P3D my 2TB drive which contained both the simulators and the scenery was almost full and things seemed to slow up.

I thought that it was probably a good idea to keep a little head room spare on each drive  so on the new system have a drive just for scenery and add ons and a separate for the core sims and a 3rd for the OS.

If that produces an in sim performance benefit I’m not entirely sure but definitely things start up a lot quicker. It just feels cleaner and better organised to me.

I’d be interested to learn of any benefits either way but when researching I just learned about the advantage of keeping scenery libraries separate in case of having to reinstall the sim. They don’t particularly have to be on a separate drive of course  for that advantage. It would make sense to me that if scenery is being downloaded from one M2 drive and sim components from another M2 simultaneously there would be an advantage. However given the bandwidth and read speed of these new drives maybe there isn’t ?

I’m just a layman, I’m sure someone more informed will offer some good advice