I don’t see an issue. Honestly the best way to check is to install the current PTR, if you can run that, you can run Shadowlands.
WoW is staying on my HDD. I have much more room there and I don’t care that the loading screen takes longer because I only wait it once per day and then the operating system caches it. Unless Blizzard forces it in software (ie: game shutdowns if it detects it’s running from an HDD) I’m not buying an SSD just for WoW.
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I don’t even wait that long to load now i don’t see a reason for them to force a shutdown if your useing a HDD instead i hope im right.
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SSDs make a huge difference in the operation of your computer, not just for WoW. There’s not really any reason to not get one with how cheap they are now, too. But to each their own 
In my country they aren’t exactly cheap, at least not one big enough to replace my current HDD.
erm…
https://i.imgur.com/FaAorE7.jpg
About that…
No need to replace! You can have multiple hard drives My SSD isn’t very big, I keep Windows and WoW on it and pretty much everything else goes on my regular HDDs.
Yeah I know, in my case i use a laptop, so i have to replace the HDD or buy one of those AM2 SSD, that is mad expensive. I’m thinking of buying an external SSD, on usb 3.0 down the line, i can get a 250gb one just for wow and a few games.
This is not really solid tech advice. An SSD on a USB 2.0 or lower port won’t really accomplish much speed wise. If you’ve got a machine that doesn’t have an ssd to begin with, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out it doesn’t have usb 3.0 ports either.
Depends on how service friendly the laptop is, but if you have ready access to the hdd, just get a usb to sata adapter, a samsung ssd, and use their free data migration software to clone your hdd onto it (just be sure the ssd is large enough to hold the old hdd worth of data).
Power down laptop when finished, swap out hdd for the cloned ssd. Bam, you’re on an ssd.
If you’re unfortunate enough to have an hp laptop that tries to be as hard as possible to service, I’m sorry for you.
i use a 250 gb one as my sole drive since 4 years now ; no issues as long as i got only wow and 1-2 side-games at a time.
aint got nothing to save locally in this streaming age.
next one will probably be 500gb for good measure but i cant say i feel like i NEED it.
I’m running the beta from a hdd, and it works fine. Load screens take way longer than retail does from my ssd, but once you’re past those it’s mostly the same.
I’ll explain it this way. And I keep using this as an example. Hook Point is a nightmare for people on an HDD because it means that the likelihood of them getting into the arena before the gate opens is slim to none. That means people cannot prep.
Expand this to other forms of content. If any type of M+, or raiding encounter has a loading screen involved, or some kind of transition, or anything of the sort, as technology becomes more and more advanced, and more things in an area must be loaded, those things will be slower.
In other words, lets say a raid encounter, or Torghast has loading times in between each floor. That means when you enter that loading screen or transition (such as going up a floor), you’ll be staring at a loading screen or a black screen for much longer which means anyone else in the group waiting on you will be waiting for you, or worse during a raid encounter, you will die due to a mechanic. That’s where the real problems lie.
Personally, here’s my take. Is it worth it? Yes, if WoW is the main game you play.
Your install is inflated, probably time to reinstall.
Mine is that with files from PTR, Beta, Classic AND retail installed, with about 100 total addons and hasn’t been reinstalled in like 4 years
That’s a fresh install.
I have PTR, no classic, no beta. Very few screenshots. I’m running a few dozen addons.
Weird, cause we had this conversation with one of our guildies and their install was only 56 gigs.
Btw, for anyone looking for an SSD, Kingston 240gig is on sale for like 28 bucks, that’s like 3 morning coffees from that place that shall not be named
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Odd.
But no, this install is less than three months old. Date is on the screen cap, think June?
I’d have to look to see what’s actually taking up the space. I don’t run an AH addon that keeps a db either.
My old install minus PTR (I kept it on a separate drice) was around 70.
Ok then i guess ill do that my pc is still a amazing for how old it is might as well go all the way then besides i found out 66 gbs is being taken from old vids i dont’ even watch anymore lol should be easy to get 100+ gbs back.
I’m not going to bother. It would cost 300 bucks for my husband and I to both upgrade to an SSD, on top of the box price and sub price for SL. I’m not spending 500 bucks to play a 15 year old game. If the HDD really can’t cut it-- then I’ll play something else. That said, my rig runs RDR2 on med-high settings just fine-- if it can’t run WoW, that means WoW is poorly optimized and I’m not shelling out for Blizzard’s crappy engine shrug
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Yeah I know that, I have a SSD for booting Windows and my work apps. I’m just saying I don’t think WoW is worth putting on my SSD. (Or any other game, I’m not hating on WoW. I won’t put Cyberpunk 2077 on SSD either if I decide to buy it.)
I don’t care that much about slower loads or popping in open world games, it’s not a big deal to me.