A single hard drive for your operating system, games, streaming software, and recordings is a recipe for bottlenecks. The optimal setup involves separating these tasks across different physical drives to maximize performance and organization.

Drive 1: The OS and Applications (NVMe SSD)

• Type: NVMe M.2 SSD
• Capacity: 500GB – 1TB
• Purpose: Host your Windows/macOS, streaming software (OBS Studio, Streamlabs), chat bots, and other essential applications.

Why an NVMe SSD? This drive is the brain of your operation. An NVMe SSD offers blistering read/write speeds, which means your system and software will boot and run incredibly fast. This leaves more system resources available for encoding and gaming, rather than being bogged down by a slow storage drive.

Drive 2: The Game Library (SATA SSD)

• Type: 2.5″ SATA SSD
• Capacity: 1TB – 2TB (or larger, depending on your game library)
• Purpose: Store and run all your games.

Why a Separate SSD for Games? Modern games load vast amounts of textures and assets from the storage drive. A SATA SSD provides excellent load times without the premium cost of a large NVMe drive. By isolating games on their own drive, you prevent them from competing for bandwidth with your operating system or your live stream recordings.

Drive 3: The Recording & Archive Vault (HDD or Large SSD)

• Type: High-Capacity HDD (7200 RPM) or a Large SATA SSD
• Capacity: 2TB and above
• Purpose: Store your live recordings, stream archives, video clips, and edited content.

HDD vs. SSD for Archives:

• HDD (Cost-Effective Choice): A 7200 RPM Hard Disk Drive is perfect for storing massive amounts of data cheaply. While slower than an SSD, it is perfectly adequate for writing high-bitrate video recordings and accessing stored files for editing.
• SSD (Performance Choice): If your budget allows, a dedicated large SATA SSD for active projects and recent recordings will drastically speed up video editing and file manipulation.

Optimizing Your Setup for Performance

1. Record to a Separate Drive

This is the golden rule. Never record your high-bitrate video files to the same drive you are running a game from. The constant writing of large video files can cause stutters and performance hits in your game. Always set OBS’s recording path to your dedicated archive drive (Drive 3).

2. Leverage Your NVMe Cache (Intel Optane / AMD StoreMI)

For streamers using a large HDD as their archive vault, technologies like Intel Optane Memory or AMD StoreMI can be used to accelerate the slower hard drive by caching frequently accessed files on a small NVMe drive, offering a nice balance of speed and capacity.

3. Implement a File Management Routine

A great storage setup is useless without organization. Create a clear folder structure on your archive drive (e.g., Recordings/2024/01-January). Regularly move finished projects to long-term cold storage (like an external HDD) to free up space on your primary archive drive.

Sample Configurations

Starter Streamer (Budget-Conscious)

• Drive 1 (OS/Apps): 500GB NVMe SSD
• Drive 2 (Games/Recordings): 1TB SATA SSD
• Rationale: A solid two-drive setup that separates the OS from games and recordings. It’s a massive upgrade over a single drive and prevents most performance issues.

Professional Streamer (Recommended)

• Drive 1 (OS/Apps): 1TB NVMe SSD
• Drive 2 (Games): 2TB SATA SSD
• Drive 3 (Recordings/Archive): 4TB+ 7200RPM HDD
• Rationale: This is the ideal trifecta. It provides top-tier speed for the system and games, while offering abundant, cost-effective storage for video archives and content creation.

Conclusion

Investing in a thoughtful, multi-drive storage solution is a non-negotiable aspect of a professional streaming setup. By dedicating specific drives to your operating system, games, and recordings, you eliminate critical bottlenecks, enhance stream stability, and create an efficient workflow for content creation. Don’t let a single, overworked hard drive be the weak link in your broadcast chain.