Does Size Matter? ME Drives which do you prefer?

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Crhymez

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Jul 29, 2019
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What size ME drives does everyone use?
Do you just max out and go full 64 for all?

for me i tend to have more drives either 4k-16k.
But i noticed a lot of people tend to max out an get the highest.
 

rdemay91

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Jul 29, 2019
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64k just allows you to hold more of the items that are already in them. 1k is great for alot of different items that you wont have many of. Bows armor and such that have different damage values. For me I use a bunch of 1ks for that then eventually make the 64k and keep the 1k. i hardly ever use the 4k or 16k.
 

MacAisling

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Apr 25, 2013
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I typically use 4k's, building up to a max of 3 drives, with DSUs for anything I expect to wind up with more than 2000 of. With the speed upgrade on the ender quarry in 1.7.10, this build I've had to bump up to 3 drives of 16k's. I also feel that pre-formatting the drives to maximize storage efficiency is more trouble than it is worth.
 
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epidemia78

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Jul 29, 2019
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1k fills up too quickly but 4k just keeps going and going. Unless you are the type of player that runs quarries and auto farms constantly then you might want at least one 16k. 64k is overkill, just make more drives.
 

asb3pe

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Jul 29, 2019
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It depends on the modpack. In Direwolf 1.7, I was able to make ten 64k drives by hand (took a while, but I did it), because the word "rare" and "raw materials" are never heard together in that modpack. But in other packs, I might use 10 of the 1k drives and feel very lucky about it if exploring and mining stuff is difficult and tedious (GregTech). And yeah, I agree, I rarely use 4k and 16k drives. I start with 1k's during early game, and usually convert them one-by-one to 64k's as needed.

For those who don't know, you can take an empty drive and shift-right-click the ground, and re-use the processor thing inside (and re-use the empty drive housing too). That's how I upgrade mine. Use the ME IO Port to remove all items from the drive first. You can re-use all the components to make a bigger drive and nothing is ever wasted.
 
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asb3pe

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I also feel that pre-formatting the drives to maximize storage efficiency is more trouble than it is worth.

Agreed, altho in Direwolf running the EnderQuarry with the silk touch upgrade, I DID finally have to dedicate one entire 64k drive just to "Stone" blocks. And I filled it completely of course!
 

namiasdf

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Jul 29, 2019
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I use 4k's exclusively. It's a good balance between item types and storage. As long as you are good about storage bus'ing high volume items (cobble/dirt/etc.), you'll be fine.
 

MacAisling

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Agreed, altho in Direwolf running the EnderQuarry with the silk touch upgrade, I DID finally have to dedicate one entire 64k drive just to "Stone" blocks. And I filled it completely of course!

Stone gets a DSU. So does coal. It should only take a week for my ore processing to catch up after running the quarry for an hour. (I'm stubborn & still using 1 pulverizer & 1 SAG mill, + a fortune pick in an autonomous activator for the things that don't have a pulverizer recipe).
 

Crhymez

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Jul 29, 2019
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Stone gets a DSU. So does coal. It should only take a week for my ore processing to catch up after running the quarry for an hour. (I'm stubborn & still using 1 pulverizer & 1 SAG mill, + a fortune pick in an autonomous activator for the things that don't have a pulverizer recipe).
I use a sag mill for Coal, Redstone, Lapis, Quartz...ect. I find it better then fortune 3 if you use the Dark iron balls
 

steve g

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Jul 29, 2019
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doesnt mfr have a machine (im thinking block smasher) that takes mob essence and ore for input and lets you break ore blocks as if you were using a fortune pickaxe? i remember doing that in 1.4.7 ultimate
 

darkeshrine

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64k just allows you to hold more of the items that are already in them. 1k is great for alot of different items that you wont have many of. Bows armor and such that have different damage values. For me I use a bunch of 1ks for that then eventually make the 64k and keep the 1k. i hardly ever use the 4k or 16k.
Basically this. I don't use 4k or 16k except for sub networks that don't need 64k but need something bigger than 1k.
 

ScottulusMaximus

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Jul 29, 2019
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Use 4k's for random crap, preformat 16k's with ingots and useful stuff or stuff I'm going to get a lot of(like beeswax), you'll struggle to fill a 16k thats preformatted. 64k's for fluids
 

malicious_bloke

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Jul 28, 2013
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I usually go with the midrange extracells drives, formatted for different sets of items.

Oh and storage buses attached to JABBA barrels for cobble, dirt and gravel.

This will fulfil my storage needs even into lategame, where I have tons of automated processes churning things out.
 

rdemay91

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Jul 29, 2019
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Basically this. I don't use 4k or 16k except for sub networks that don't need 64k but need something bigger than 1k.
Yep agreed though when I only have resources for 1 drive and just need right over the possible limit of 10 1k drives I make 1 4k or 16k so I have more room to make more drives.
 

rhn

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Nov 11, 2013
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I also feel that pre-formatting the drives to maximize storage efficiency is more trouble than it is worth.
The MAJOR benefit of preformatting drives is not maximizing storage capacity(although doubling capacity is also nice(well it is actually more as most of your drives will probably be "full" of random items and not quantity)), but being able to set up all kinds of nice automatic item handling systems using priority etc.

I usually use preformatted 1k drives for most items as 8k items is usually more than enough for everyday use. Select items then get 4k, 16k as needed. Or I just make the ME Block Container from Extra Cells to stand in for a 64k cell for the price of a 1k cell.

Whenever the preformatted disks then get full I use priority to have the items sent to whichever disposal means is relevant for that item: Recyclers, Trashcan, Biofuel production, Essentia breakdown etc.
 
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Darkone84

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Jul 29, 2019
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I typically use 3 drives with 4k's and JABBA barrels with the void upgrade for dirt, cobble, stone, gravel, coal ect.
 

netmc

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Jul 29, 2019
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I typically start off with 1k drives, then upgrade to 4k drives for the common stuff. Very rarely will I create drives larger than that. I will normally void stuff like cobble and dirt if they over fill a 4k drive as I can always produce more if needed. Most of my production and processing systems will automatically turn off when the output exceeds a certain amount, so larger drives are never necessary. Fluid cells normally get a preformated 1k or 4k drive depending on the type and the amount of fluid I would typically need. I never mix the fluids it can leave you with too much of one and not enough of another if you don't preformat.
 

ThatOneSlowking

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Jul 29, 2019
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1k fills up too quickly but 4k just keeps going and going. Unless you are the type of player that runs quarries and auto farms constantly then you might want at least one 16k. 64k is overkill, just make more drives.
64K mnit overkill for my wood farm that profits 100000KK wood an hour
 

KingTriaxx

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Jul 27, 2013
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I've used one 64k since ME came around, and that was for metals with my old quarry in Ultimate. Since then I've needed nothing more than 4k's.