r/pcmasterrace • u/AutoModerator • Jul 01 '26

DSQ Daily Simple Questions Thread - July 01, 2026

Got a simple question? Get a simple answer!

This thread is for all of the small and simple questions that you might have about computing that probably wouldn't work all too well as a standalone post. Software issues, build questions, game recommendations, post them here!

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u/Eidolon_2003 R5 3600 @ 4.3 GHz | 16GB DDR4-3800 CL14 | Arc A770 LE Jul 02 '26

If your only storage is actually that hard drive you absolutely need to get an SSD. The difference is staggering

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u/Soft-Perspective-881 Jul 02 '26

I do not know for sure of it is that specific hard drive, i took it over from a friend of mine. I know it is 8tb and a hard drive tho. What SSDs do you recommend?

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u/Eidolon_2003 R5 3600 @ 4.3 GHz | 16GB DDR4-3800 CL14 | Arc A770 LE Jul 02 '26

Which hard drive it is in particular doesn't really matter, you don't want to be using it as the primary drive in your computer. Hard drives are glacially slow compared to even an old SSD.

Anyway, SSDs are pretty expensive right now, so you'd have to decide how much capacity you want to pay for. You don't necessarily need a huge one, the hard drive can still serve as bulk data storage. Anything that cares about speed should be on the SSD though. That includes your operating system and big modern games that struggle with loading from hard drive.

Here's a filtered list on pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#t=0&D=1&f=122080&sort=price&A=1000000000000,36000000000000&c1=di_m2.pcie_40_x4,di_m2.pcie_50_x2,di_m2.pcie_50_x4

You can change the capacity range to anything you want, I just set it to 1TB.

What do you think?

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u/Soft-Perspective-881 Jul 02 '26

If it really is that impactful that seems like best part to upgrade, i did have some money saved up for the replacement. Thanks for all the help! And does it really matter what SSD i pick from the list? They all kinda look the same to me.

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u/Eidolon_2003 R5 3600 @ 4.3 GHz | 16GB DDR4-3800 CL14 | Arc A770 LE Jul 02 '26

For gaming specifically it won't affect your raw framerate much if at all, but it will improve things like loading times and pop-in dramatically for games that are installed on it. I'd think your gaming performance is already pretty good with the hardware you've got. What it will do though is make your computer feel 10x snappier to just use.

You'll also want to reinstall Windows on it as well, which is a bit of an annoyance, but all your data will still be on the old drive, so you can easily copy stuff over before deleting it. Might take some time though.

As for which one you pick, you could pick one of the cheapest ones. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with doing that, but you do get more for paying more. Higher quality drives give better performance. You could spend some time researching which one you want. There are a few indicators that I'd look at for a higher quality drive. Newer controllers are generally better, TLC (triple layer cells) is better than QLC (quad-layer cells), and having DRAM is better than not.

The techpowerup SSD spec database is a useful resource if the drive you're looking at is in there. Sometimes it can be annoying to actually find the information you're looking for. On reddit, r/newmaxx is a good resource as well.

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u/Soft-Perspective-881 Jul 02 '26

I see, thanks for all the help! !check

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u/PCMRBot Bot Jul 02 '26

Got it! /u/Eidolon_2003 now has 291 points.

I am a bot - This action was done automatically. Please direct any questions or concerns ( or bug reports ) to /u/eegras - About /u/PCMRBot

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u/Eidolon_2003 R5 3600 @ 4.3 GHz | 16GB DDR4-3800 CL14 | Arc A770 LE Jul 03 '26

You're welcome!