PCI-E Sata expansion cards for additional SDD

[Fatalmasterpiece]

My MOBO is out of SATA ports (I have a lot of HDDs) but I would like to add an SDD for a fresh Skyrim install. Can I buy a PCI or PCI-E to SATA card to connect more (such as this)? Will this diminish the transfer rate from the SDD?

Maybe I would be better of putting one of the HDDs on the PCI-E card and the SDD directly connected to the MOBO? IIRC sometimes BIOS will have a fit if you swap around HDDs like that on boot...

 

Thanks.

[FMod]

You can do it, but it's not an awesome idea. You can use that same space to get a PCI-E SSD (or a M.2 with a PCI-E adaptor included). It will cost more than what you have in mind, but not all that much more, and you'll buy something useful vs something you'll junk on your next upgrade.

 

BIOS won't have a fit either way.

 

Also, consider just transferring your oldest HDD (any 250 GB pieces there?) to cold storage.

[Fatalmasterpiece]

Something like this? What kind of adapter would I need? Seems like a good deal for under $200. It's only for games since I use my HDDs for audio editing etc.

 

I need a LOT of HDD space, but maybe I can transfer from the Raptor and shelve it since it's not really big enough for much storage...

http://i.imgur.com/MB8cXpc.png

[TheMastersSon]

In case you missed it, 512GB and 1TB options are available, at about the same $0.50/GB cost. Great deals imo for great drives. If you've never used SSDs before you'll be stunned at the difference they make in OS booting times and in apps, especially disk-intensive apps like video/audio editing.

[Fatalmasterpiece]

Unfortunately my mobo doesn't have a PCI-Express 3.0 port :confused:

[FMod]

Oh. So you have a bunch of junk drives, not special storage needs. All of your drives - the whole 3 TB worth - can be absorbed into a single modern lower-mainstream level HDD (3-5TB is the current bottom $/GB).

 

Start getting rid of the drives. They're not just small, these old drives are slow. Unless you got them in an alternate way, don't pay your own money for drives below market average capacity.

 

Any mobo w/o PCI-E 3.0 is clearly old. Unlikely that you have a M.2 slot, but great if you do.

Right now, drop a drive and get a low price/GB SSD. Crucial MX300, usually. 480 GB or larger. M.2 if you have the slot.

 

If you want to buy a controller, at least get one with M.2: https://www.amazon.com/IO-Crest-Controller-Components-SI-PEX50069/dp/B00O1AEKFQ

You don't need more SATA slots (though it adds one). The next HDD you buy will obsolete all but one of your current ones simultaneously.

[Erik005]

You do have PCI-e 3.0 if you have that Xeon processor.

 

https://ark.intel.com/products/82765/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1650-v3-15M-Cache-3_50-GHz

 

A single 3-5TB HDD would be faster and more secure than your current setup, Things with moving parts eventually fail and a 75GB raptor is pretty old by now.

Edited April 9, 2017 by Erik005

[Fatalmasterpiece]

Thanks, I got this MOBO second hand (free) so I'm not that familiar with it. It's a Dell (cringe) and the arrangement and features have been hard to figure out, even when looking at it and taking it apart. Typically I would just consult the MOBO manual but alas...

 

On replacing my drives, isn't having separate drives safer in case one fails? Not putting all of one's eggs in one basket? Currently I use a drive for music production, another for photography etc.

 

It does look like 3TB HDDs are cheap right now.

[TheMastersSon]

Thanks, I got this MOBO second hand (free) so I'm not that familiar with it. It's a Dell (cringe) and the arrangement and features have been hard to figure out, even when looking at it and taking it apart. Typically I would just consult the MOBO manual but alas...

 

On replacing my drives, isn't having separate drives safer in case one fails? Not putting all of one's eggs in one basket? Currently I use a drive for music production, another for photography etc.

 

It does look like 3TB HDDs are cheap right now.

How much of your storage needs to be accessed on a regular basis? If the answer is not much, consider offloading what you don't immediately use or need to good quality memory sticks or other USB-based storage. Look for memory with lifetime warranties, not the 2, 3 or 5-year products. From what I've read the machines used to manufacture this memory fall into only two categories, really good and really bad.

 

My point is that SSD's practicality increases as one's active storage requirements decrease, and imo you'll stop even considering mechanical drives as soon as you start using SSDs. Performance-wise there's really no comparison, also storage on any device with moving parts is inherently (exponentially in this case) less secure, especially long-term than storage on devices with no moving parts.

[Fatalmasterpiece]

 

Thanks, I got this MOBO second hand (free) so I'm not that familiar with it. It's a Dell (cringe) and the arrangement and features have been hard to figure out, even when looking at it and taking it apart. Typically I would just consult the MOBO manual but alas...

 

On replacing my drives, isn't having separate drives safer in case one fails? Not putting all of one's eggs in one basket? Currently I use a drive for music production, another for photography etc.

 

It does look like 3TB HDDs are cheap right now.

How much of your storage needs to be accessed on a regular basis? If the answer is not much, consider offloading what you don't immediately use or need to good quality memory sticks or other USB-based storage. Look for memory with lifetime warranties, not the 2, 3 or 5-year products. From what I've read the machines used to manufacture this memory fall into only two categories, really good and really bad.

 

My point is that SSD's practicality increases as one's active storage requirements decrease, and imo you'll stop even considering mechanical drives as soon as you start using SSDs. Performance-wise there's really no comparison, also storage on any device with moving parts is inherently (exponentially in this case) less secure, especially long-term than storage on devices with no moving parts.

 

That's tricky. I'm a semi-professional photographer and musician. My memory needs tend to fluctuate month to month but are higher than most consumers.

A SSD is mostly for quality of living on gaming while a modern HDD would be great for my pro work on AV.

 

My concern about SSDs are with rewrite degradation. Is this still a concern or have modern SSDs overcome this limitation? For example, could I run my entire Win7 install, modded gaming and apps off a single 250gb SDD?

 

I do think a 250-500gb SSD and 3-5tb HDD with a 2-3gb cloud/usb backup ( I would need to access 3-5 times a year) could fit my needs. I think Win7, modded Skyrim + Fallout 4 and other apps would fall around 200gbs.

 

Anyhow, this is my MOBO HHV7N

http://www.ascendtech.us/mmImages/b_0/HHV7N-02.jpg

 

I got it from a small server so it's kind of pieced together.