Adding Storage

[Locarno1]

Hi Everyone,

I am still loving my PC setup and it's working really nicely with MSFS 2020. I'm just thinking about storage however, because I would like to add some more drives to the PC and I'm just wondering how I can go about doing this with my PC. I have managed to add an SSD to the PC, but this was very fiddly and tricky to do with a big 4070 GPU in the way. Installing storage is something that I have done, but I am still new to it as well.

Currently on my PC, I have three drives:
- 1 x 500GB for the Operating System
- 1 x 2TB for MSFS 2020
- 1 x 1TB SSD for Documents, Photos etc.

I would like to add a few more bigger storage drives so that I can move things about as required, but I am unsure:
A) How many drives I can add; and
B) Where to mount these within the PC.

My MOBO is the ASUS® ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING WIFI II. Ideally, I also want the drives to be fairly fast-reading as well. I also believe I have another M.2 slot on the MOBO as well.

When I installed the SSD into the PC, I fitted it to the storage tray. Is there only one drive that can go here at any one time?

I would just like to have some advice of how best to setup storage on a PC as I use it primarily for Flight Sim (Need storage for scenery, aircraft etc.), Photography editing and general use, but I want the ability to move things around as required.

Many thanks,

 

[Bhuna50]

Be good if you could post your full spec here please so people can see the full set up and then be able to advise accordingly.

Thanks.

 

[Bhuna50]

how best to setup storage on a PC

Not sure if this will help you and even if its a good way of having things set up, but I just posted my file set up as a diagram here:

Photo library / processing and a little gaming perhaps...

Thats good then as I was getting confused so now I know its not just me. I also looked at the printed manual that came with it and got confused - pics you had above etc. I have chosen to edit my RMA with an additional request for a quote for 2 x - if it will take them - then they can let me...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

I do a lot of photos as well using a Lightroom catalogue and Photoshop etc and I play the odd game

I'm looking at adding a new SSD to move the games off of my Adobe apps / photos drive to their own drive

Andy.

 

[Locarno1]

Not sure if this will help you and even if its a good way of having things set up, but I just posted my file set up as a diagram here:

Photo library / processing and a little gaming perhaps...

Thats good then as I was getting confused so now I know its not just me. I also looked at the printed manual that came with it and got confused - pics you had above etc. I have chosen to edit my RMA with an additional request for a quote for 2 x - if it will take them - then they can let me...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

I do a lot of photos as well using a Lightroom catalogue and Photoshop etc and I play the odd game

I'm looking at adding a new SSD to move the games off of my Adobe apps / photos drive to their own drive

Andy.

Ah perfect! Because at some point I NEED to re-organise ALL my photos and start using Lightroom properly rather than have everything organised in the 'Folder's' structure, and use 'Collections' as I'm currently not using them. Also, I need to setup a good backup system as well, so if you don't mind I may message you to ask further...

Essentially I just want to know how many drives I can add to my current PC.

How do I add my spec to my profile, is this just done through the Signature option?

Thanks,

 

[SpyderTracks]

How do I add my spec to my profile, is this just done through the Signature option?

Just copy and paste from your order on your main PCS account

 

[Locarno1]

Be good if you could post your full spec here please so people can see the full set up and then be able to advise accordingly.

Thanks.

Have just added these, thanks and apologies these weren't there already.

 

[AgentCooper]

Have just added these, thanks and apologies these weren't there already.

Doesn’t look like the full spec is up, all I’m seeing is the motherboard and some drives. Is this a system you’ve purchased from PC Specialist or an extraneous build that you’re looking for some advice on?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Doesn’t look like the full spec is up, all I’m seeing is the motherboard and some drives. Is this a system you’ve purchased from PC Specialist or an extraneous build that you’re looking for some advice on?

Think it's been added to the signature rather than the thread.

 

[AgentCooper]

Think it's been added to the signature rather than the thread.

Downside of viewing in portrait orientation on my phone, you don’t see the sigs!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Downside of viewing in portrait orientation on my phone, you don’t see the sigs!

I know, I always forget about signatures on mobile, that's why it's always better if people can post details in the thread

 

[Scott]

So with your build you only have 2 M2 slots. With what you have currently I would definitely shuffle things around. There's no point in having a 2TB drive for MSFS, I would swap the usage of the 2TB and 1TB drives. Having MSFS on the SSD will give a tiny bit less performance on load, but it shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience.

With the 2TB drive, I would want to use this for more than just general storage though. Have it as the lightroom cache and use it as the working drive for any photos, projects that are on-going. It should help quite a bit.

 

[Locarno1]

So with your build you only have 2 M2 slots. With what you have currently I would definitely shuffle things around. There's no point in having a 2TB drive for MSFS, I would swap the usage of the 2TB and 1TB drives. Having MSFS on the SSD will give a tiny bit less performance on load, but it shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience.

With the 2TB drive, I would want to use this for more than just general storage though. Have it as the lightroom cache and use it as the working drive for any photos, projects that are on-going. It should help quite a bit.

Perfect, thanks for this. Just in the middle of moving things over now.

One question I do have though is, if I wanted more drives added to the PC, where do I actually store these within the PC itself, as the SSD tray is taken up by one SSD but unsure where I can put others within the case.

 

[Martinr36]

Normally several trays for SSD depending on the case, and then you'll have a cat for the traditional hard drives, which you can get adapter trays for SSD for, the other option is to have external drives

 

[TonyCarter]

You've got 2 x m.2 slots filled, and the SSD slot on the back of the motherboard plate filled with another...so you should have 2 drive slots available in the HDD bay/cage.

 

[Locarno1]

You've got 2 x m.2 slots filled, and the SSD slot on the back of the motherboard plate filled with another...so you should have 2 drive slots available in the HDD bay/cage.

View attachment 39295

Thanks. I've just opened the back of my PC up and see the following. I've got the SSD connected into the tray, but it seems quite a big area for one small SSD... Just wondering where, if I added more drives, these can go. Here are some pics:

 

[TonyCarter]

I believe these are also 2.5" mounting points...and is probably where that SSD in the HDD bay should go...but looks like there's space for 3 more SATA SSDs.

Off topic, but where does that fan pull/push air from/to? As that back panel would be closed!

 

[Locarno1]

I believe these are also 2.5" mounting points...and is probably where that SSD in the HDD bay should go...but looks like there's space for 3 more SATA SSDs.



Off topic, but where does that fan pull/push air from/to? As that back panel would be closed!

Room for 3 more? Do you mean 2 more? As I've already got one connected in the tray towards the bottom left..

Answering your second question, I have taken the back cover off to get. this shot. But i think it's drawing air in from the front and then through the PC towards the back and out of the back. I have drawn a diagram to my best guess/knowledge, but I can't upload it.. as it is saying the file is too large? It's just over 1mb...

 

[SpyderTracks]

Room for 3 more? Do you mean 2 more? As I've already got one connected in the tray towards the bottom left..

Answering your second question, I have taken the back cover off to get. this shot. But i think it's drawing air in from the front and then through the PC towards the back and out of the back. I have drawn a diagram to my best guess/knowledge, but I can't upload it.. as it is saying the file is too large? It's just over 1mb...

Images need to be under 1Mb

 

[Locarno1]

Images need to be under 1Mb

Thanks for clarifying. I was just a bit confused as I was able to upload the ones direct from my laptop earlier today, but the annotated one I was unable to. Probably because when I was annotated it increased the size. Noted 👍🏼

 

[TonyCarter]

Room for 3 more? Do you mean 2 more? As I've already got one connected in the tray towards the bottom left..

Looks like there are mounting holes in the cage where the current SATA SSD is, so thought you could use that in the same way as you would for the similar mounting points on the back of the motherboard tray.

But even if it isn't an official mount, there's nothing to stop you sticking/velcro-ing one in place on top of that cage (if there are enough SATA cables/connections of course).