PCI-E SSD or SATA SSD?
PCI-E SSD or SATA SSD?
Everyone knows SC is going to be massive! The big question is: with my current 450mbR/400mbW SSD, is that sufficient? Should I upgrade to a PCI-E SSD, or would that be unnecessary? What do you think? I was also thinking about adding an extra drive solely for SC, leaving nothing else connected.
You don't necessarily need a PCI-E SSD. It might seem excessive, but it’s not too costly. You could opt for an M.2 instead if you want slightly improved speed. There’s a concern that M.2 devices might face compatibility issues in the future, though PCI-E will likely remain available longer. While SATA SSDs have been reliable for me, they’re sufficient for now. If the price is similar—about a 10% increase—and you still need an SSD, it makes sense. Otherwise, it’s probably not worth the investment. Replacing it isn’t worth it unless you’re upgrading significantly.
I think Sata SSD offers great performance relative to the price of PCI-E SSDs.
For PCIe, hold off until the new 750 is released. I'm grabbing some now.
For gaming purposes, a PCI-E SSD seems unnecessary unless you're on a very old system. I've seen loads on an 850 Pro and SC in under half a minute—plenty for a pre-release or alpha build. Generally, Star Citizen runs smoothly on standard HDDs; the main bottleneck is loading time. Most data stays in RAM or VRAM, so disk access is minimal during gameplay. Unless your RAM is too limited to handle everything, swapping won’t be a big issue. So, a PCI-E SSD isn't essential unless you're experiencing serious performance drops.