It might have happened to you, too: you’re gaming, and suddenly, your game begins to lag. You rush to your gaming plug and upgrade your CPU and GPU, but the lag continues when you relaunch the game. If you’ve experienced that, your hard drive could be the problem and needs fixing.
The hard drive is perhaps the most overlooked component when discussing an epic gaming experience. It works hard as you play a game, ensuring that everything loads quickly with minimal lag during gameplay.
Are you looking for a great gaming hard drive to support you during those marathon gaming sessions? Here are some of the features we recommend you look for when picking a great gaming hard drive.
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Why Is Choosing the Right Gaming Hard Drive So Important?
Your hard drive plays a vital role in your gaming experience, with faster hard drives providing a better and more epic gaming experience. Faster hard drives, like solid-state drives (SSDs), means the game will take less time to launch and fetch the needed files.
Also, your hard drive affects your frames per second (fps). A fast hard drive will allow smooth game operation on your PC. On the other hand, old and low-storage hard drives will slow the game.
For those wondering what gaming hard drives provide speed and smooth game play, you can choose from SSDs or hard disk drives (HDDs). SSDs are more expensive than HDDs, but they consume less power, are great for multi-tasking, and load programs quickly.
However, if you have a lot of games, HDDs can suffice; they’ll ensure you get the suitable capacity at a wallet-friendly price. If you decide to build your gaming machine, you may install SSD and HDD for a better gaming experience.
Budget Is Always a Factor When It Comes to Choosing a Hard Drive
Price is an essential factor when finding a good gaming hard drive for your computer. You’ll want to think through the amount of money you want to spend on a hard drive because there is a broad range of pricing depending on the hard drive type, size, and speed.
The price will be directly proportional to the drive’s type, size, speed, and warranty. SSDs and high-capacity, high-speed drives will be more expensive. If you choose to buy a spinning-media hard drive, choose one that at least runs at 7,200 revolutions per minute (RPM).
For the best experience, purchase the fastest drive you can afford.
The Right Type of Hard Drive Can Make Your Gaming Sessions More Enjoyable
The platform, size, and speed are the three most critical elements of a gaming hard drive. Let’s see how each of these affects your gaming sessions:
- Platform: This means that laptops’ hard drives generally won’t fit in a desktop gaming computer and vice versa. Be sure to research the right size to fit your gaming computer.
- Size: This is the drive’s storage capacity. Typically, the larger the drive, the better the gaming experience, but the more expensive it is. For instance, a 2TB laptop hard drive will be more costly than a platter-based 1TB desktop hard drive.
- Speed: This means how fast your computer can retrieve data from the drive. SSDs are generally faster than traditional platter-based hard drives but are more expensive.
Again, the key is to set a budget and find the fastest/largest combination that will fit your machine and your budget.
Thinking Through the Size of the Hard Drive for Your Gaming Computer
The storage capacity of your hard drive affects your game’s performance and operability. Enough storage space means you’ll have an excellent gaming experience. But how much storage space is enough for your game?
Generally, your gaming laptop or computer may have a storage space of:
- 256 GB hard drive
- 512 GB hard drive
- 1 TB hard drive
- More than 1 TB
Let’s look at each of these storage spaces and whether they are good enough for gaming.
Is 256 GB of Hard Drive Storage Good Enough for Gaming?
When it comes to questions like this, it depends on what games you will be playing. The larger and more complex the game, the more hard drive space it will require.
It also depends on how many games you want to keep stored on your computer. If you are comfortable with uninstalling games that you’re no longer playing, 256 GB might be enough hard drive space.
This is precisely why padding is crucial when it comes to comfort. A good gaming session can last hours, and a less-than-optimal hard drive can take your focus off the game.
Is 512 GB of Hard Drive Storage Good Enough for Gaming?
Again, it comes down to how many games you want to retain. 512 GB is certainly large enough for any single game, but if you’re going to keep 10 different games on your hard drive, 512 GB might not be enough storage.
Is 1 TB of Hard Drive Storage Good Enough for Gaming?
Now we’re talking. With 1 TB of storage space, you should have enough room to keep multiple games on your computer and to store multiple save files within each game. Most gamers will find that 1 TB of hard drive space is enough that hard drive issues won’t disrupt your game play.
In a nutshell, you should always choose a drive that provides more space than you currently need. This means starting with a disk space of 1 TB or above for many gamers.
With such features as downloadable content (DLC), live streaming, and video recording, the disk capacity can be used up rather quickly. Buying a higher-capacity disk is a long-term investment that you should definitely consider.
Does Gaming Streaming Impact How Much Hard Drive Space I Need?
Yes, gaming streaming affects how much storage space you need. Although the gaming sessions are streamed, segments of the video files are stored on the local drive as cache or buffer before being passed to the streaming service and stored on their servers.
This means that those serious about gaming and streaming might need more computer storage space. This need is increased if you choose to store a local copy of the entire streaming session on your hard drive. In this case, you might need 2 TB to 5 TB of hard drive space for saving videos.
Keeping Your Gaming Hard Drive Cool Is Important, Too
A hot hard drive is an unhappy hard drive, and that makes for an unhappy gamer. So, don’t overlook the need for cooling.
When playing games, your hard drive can heat quickly. While the heat generated might not be as much as a graphics processor, it can cause the hard drive to underperform or even damage the drive or the computer as a whole.
Investing in a cooling system for you hard drive can protect everything stored on your hard drive as well as your investment in the drive.
Final thoughts
I hope we’ve helped you understand the key features to help you pick a good gaming hard drive. We’d love to know what you think about purchasing a hard drive. Share your best ideas and tips on choosing the best gaming hard drive in the comments section!
