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Being a gamer, having a gaming PC on your hands is a blessing. It is a luxury which is far more expensive and brilliant compared to a console. It is because the PC is considered to be the master race out of all the gaming platforms that exist. One of the key reasons is that you can customize your PC according to your liking and all the specifications can be set by you. Which is why we shall be talking about a key specification which is concerned with a gaming PC. That specification is storage. Exactly how much storage do you need for a gaming PC?
With games and other multimedia files like music, videos, movies, and more you need storage that is always there when you need it and that you don’t end up deleting the files to make room to install new files. That isn’t something you should be doing every now and then. Hence why we shall be looking at the adequate storage which you’ll need for a gaming PC but before that we shall be looking at the different types of storage.
Storage Options
As for storage options in gaming, it is quite a task to decide between a hard disk drive (HDD) and a solid-state drive (SSD) but with our quick review of both while also discussing their pros and cons, you can easily decide which one you should put into your computer.If your Hard drive is full and you want to free it by deleting some extra files then should install Ccleaner pro version it will help you to remove unessacary files and cache which are sitting idle download ccleaner from here.
Hard Disk Drives (HDD)
Many gamers are content with using HDDs as their storage option for gaming. The HDD which you choose needs to be fast enough to handle the game’s graphics and it should have enough space to store the games which you want to play. If you get a HDD whose storage space is limited then you’ll have to buy an upgrade or frequently delete games to play the new ones and the latter is something which we advised against only a few moments ago.
Pros
The advantage of HDDs is that they are affordable compared to solid-state drives. SSDs having the same size as a HDD are twice the price and if you’re gaming under a budget then for storage, HDD is the way to go. A gaming laptop for instance will be more affordable for you compared to one with a SSD. HDDs are also available in the market easily. Be it external or internal hard drives, they can be found all over the internet at very decent prices.
Cons
HDDs have a slower read-write rate than SSDs and this implies that the PCs that are equipped with HDDs take much longer to boot than those with SSDs. When an HDD operates, it makes a lot of noise while it is in use. This is due to the rotating disk and magnetic head that it has. This can cause a lot of disturbance while you game.
Solid-State Drive (SSD)
Moving on to the other variant in the storage department, these are the new-generation storage devices that make use of the integrated circuit (IC) technology to store data. They use flash memory and in the world of gaming, gamers are slowly transitioning to it. The biggest instance of SSD being integrated into gaming is when Sony decided to manufacture the PlayStation 5 console strictly with SSD storage. But right now our topic of concern involves PC so we shall be sticking to that.
Pros
The main advantage of having a solid-state drive is its speed. SSDs can be around 20 to 100 times faster than a HDD and this results in faster booting and loading as well as shorter load times. This contributes to an overall satisfying gaming experience. SSDs also allow for quicker file transfers. SSDs do not have any movable parts and this makes sure that dropping or damaging your SSD won’t result in the loss of data. This is one of the reasons why they are preferred over HDDs which get damaged rather easily.
Cons
A huge disadvantage SSDs bring with them is that they tend to have a shorter life span than HDDs because this piece of tech has a set write cycle. This means that you can only erase data from and save new data onto your SSD for a limited number of times. SSDs are also very expensive compared to HDDs making them out of reach for many gamers who operate under a strict budget. SSDs also make it quite hard to recover data because of the encrypted controllers that these drives have. If the controller fails, it is near-impossible to recover lost data.
How Much Storage Do You Need?
Moving on to the big question now is how much storage do you actually need as a gamer? Different game sizes tend to have different storage requirements. Modern blockbuster titles take up at least 25 GB of storage per game and it is also likely that a game takes up around 50 or even a 100 GB of space. The games that are being released these days, you should keep in mind that around 50 GB of your space should be reserved for a single game. This includes update files, patches, MODs (optional), and DLC. There are also certain games that exceed the 50 GB mark as well. To put this into context, the game with the biggest file size on PC is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare which has a total size of somewhere around 230 GB! Left you speechless, right?
Let us compare the most common storage capacities that gamers use these days to help you better understand which storage capacity is going to cater your needs in the best possible manner.
500 GB
This storage capacity is perfect for someone who is about to kick start gaming as a hobby. It may also work well for a casual gamer or someone who is gaming inside a budget. Such a player usually has a smaller stream library and doesn’t play too many games at a time. With their limited game library, they don’t feel the need to upgrade their storage and can usually make do with this storage. However, the games that are currently being released and the ones that are due to arrive in the coming years, it won’t be long until this number of 500 becomes obsolete in the world of storage. Only a few games on your PCs storage and bam! That is all your storage is finished. Luckily, your options of storage capacity don’t end here as we move from GB to TB!
1 TB
The obvious upgrade to the 500 GB capacity is 1 TB and that storage size is currently the most used one in terms of gaming. 1 TB is a lot of space for gamers and you can save a decent amount of games in this space to your disk. One of the biggest advantages that you have with this capacity is that since it is popular now, these drives are easily affordable in the market. You can get them for a great price. With so much space at your disposal, you’ll likely get complacent about how you would like to use your space. You’re likely to add more games onto your PC without having to remove the older ones or the ones that you’ve already played. If you’re unwilling to delete the games that you’ve already installed on your PC then you might need another upgrade in the space department. Fear not, because there’s a solution to that too. If another storage upgrade is needed then you will need to move to 2 TB!
2 TB
Many intense gamers as well as the professional ones prefer this disk size since it provides enough storage for them to store their games, multimedia files and screen recordings of different game sessions. 2 TB is a lot of storage. Massive, gargantuan, huge, whatever superlative you would like to use for this size, it would be less. This storage size is screaming and calling out the user to fill it up with as many files as they would like because no matter how much they might put in the effort, they won’t be running out of space when they have a disk of this size inserted into their PC.
Conclusion
With a variety of storage sizes to choose from, the one that is going to suit your gaming PC is completely dependent on how many games you are going to play on your PC and what your gaming routine is going to be. If you immediately delete games after completing them then you should opt for 500 GB. If you’re an online gamer and can’t delete games even if you wanted to then you should be looking at options in the terabyte section.
We hope this storage size guide was of immense help to you!
