How Much Storage Is Enough To You?

64K · May 21, 2023

It has become common for gamers to post a proposed build here including a 1 TB SSD and asking for advice from this community. I usually point out that 1 TB may be inadequate if you are downloading the latest games to store in your Library. It has become a common thing for around 100 GB to be the recommended storage requirement for games. One in particular, a Call Of Duty game, requires around 250 GB of storage space.

I think back to my first 1 TB HHD many years ago and thought that was massive. Now I think that my latest 4 TB HDD is somewhat puny. What are your thoughts?

Votes will be anonymous.

Vayra86 · May 21, 2023

I put 4TB... and not because I have it, but because I find myself sometimes having to delete stuff I would rather keep - games mostly. Especially when modded. This PC also still carries my entire library of music, a good 500GB of video and other My documents related shit. However, this is a luxury problem. I think 2TB is a great place to be for a gaming PC, and you can add more as demands rise.

Did clean up lately, but with 3TB total, I would definitely not mind changing up the E and X drives with 2 more 930 GB SSDs.

GerKNG · May 21, 2023

1TB boot drive + Software and 4TB for games (having around 1TB free)

chrcoluk · May 21, 2023

A lot more.

I have a lot of gaming footage archives now as well as a gradual increase of media downloads.

Also many unused games installed, but now I have gigabit internet I could clear those out and only download on demand when needed if wanted.

Why_Me · May 21, 2023

AusWolf · May 21, 2023

A lot more.

I store all my favourite games, films and TV shows locally so that I only ever depend on my crappy internet connection for Steam and GOG. Storing everything at 1080p+ obviously needs a lot of space.

ir_cow · May 21, 2023

I have a 16TB, and 4TB platter in my computer, along with 4 1TB NVMe drives. I also have 8x 3TB in a drawer that I need to sort and migrate the data off of.

tabascosauz · May 21, 2023

Vayra86 said:
I put 4TB... and not because I have it, but because I find myself sometimes having to delete stuff I would rather keep - games mostly. Especially when modded. This PC also still carries my entire library of music, a good 500GB of video and other My documents related shit. However, this is a luxury problem. I think 2TB is a great place to be for a gaming PC, and you can add more as demands rise.

Did clean up lately, but with 3TB total, I would definitely not mind changing up the E and X drives with 2 more 930 GB SSDs.

Times have really changed, couple years ago I would have been content with 2TB total......I follow the same principle, when I need to make room for stuff, it's time for an upgrade

Your OS2 drive is a good example of what triggers me to start looking at SSD prices

nomdeplume · May 21, 2023

I'll explain...

Vayra86 said:
I put 4TB... and not because I have it, but because I find myself sometimes having to delete stuff I would rather keep - games mostly.

So realistically 8-12 TB storage with a fast 2TB NVMe OS drive.

Tabascosauz appears to have the same ideas on comfort found navigating to a single storage drive.

nageme · May 21, 2023

Are you implying internal storage vs external/removable/NAS storage?

Lew Zealand · May 21, 2023

A single 2TB is good and most of the machines in the house have that but my main now has a 4TB as I was bumping up against 2TB pretty frequently. For me it's been a price target of ~$200 since the 500MB SSD days.

It's nice to have 1.8TB free. For now.

chrcoluk · May 21, 2023

nageme said:
Are you implying internal storage vs external/removable/NAS storage?

For me my answer is total storage.

natr0n · May 21, 2023

I have so many drive some people would go mad.

I like to archive games for pc and consoles mostly.... and versions of windows and installs of windows.... and experiments and ideas need lots of drives

Ruru · May 21, 2023

Modern games take 50GB+ easilly and I don't want to always redownload those if I don't play a game for a while but then I want to play it. I have ~8.8TB, yet I still need more.

wheresmycar · May 21, 2023

Voted 8TB (games, work, personal, streaming, backups, etc etc)

Its a mess... i've got a whole host of storage devices spread across 3 systems. My main gaming rig, my work+personal+secondary gaming rig and family system for everything else + a little lighter gaming stuff (kids!)

For games ive got no idea... 2 of the 3 machines hold the weighter game types. I'm guessing around ~1.5TB in use and a ton of titles not even downloaded as I end up deleting some of the older/no longer played games to make space.

Anyway ive been eyeing up SSD prices for some time and shortly will be closing in on a 2x 2TB sticks and as soon as decent 4TB SSDs are available for south of £200.... i'm jumping right in! One of these days i'm gonna slap a RIP on the clickity click spinners for some peace of ~~mind~~ ears.

Toothless · May 21, 2023

I have about 15TB of storage on my server alone, and a lot of that is real time backups for myself and my wife's desktops. A bunch of it is game server hosting, virtual machines, etc. One day the plan is to fill it with some 2TB SSD and 5TB HDDs to hopefully last me a long while as the primary desktops move to all SSD. Don't really need speed in the server when gigabit transfers can take hours overnight for all I care.

80-watt Hamster · May 21, 2023

Current daily driver (which is not the one in my specs) has a 250GB system and 1TB storage drive. Never gone more than 2TB on a storage drive, but I don't store video, only play a few games at once, and don't really do AAA. Probably going to bump to 2TB, simply because I can.

JoeTheDestroyer · May 21, 2023

A lot more....

48TB in my media server/nas (all HDD)
1TB in SSDs and 4GB HDD in my main system
~800GB in SSDs and 14TB HDD in my workshop system
2TB SSD and 14TB HDD in my soon-to-be-main-system

1-2TB is enough "active" storage for me, and that's all that needs to go an SSD. I don't see much point in cobbling together more from many small SSDs, when for "cold" storage (backups, archived/seldom-used games/programs, videos) a HDD is good enough, and far far cheaper.

A&P211 · May 22, 2023

I put down "alot more". Only because I use lots of space for editing videos, current laptop has 16tb of space, and I use it all. Plus another 8tb external SSD, and a 16tb external HD. I use the 16tb to store shows, movies to watch.

freeagent · May 22, 2023

I have 3TB installed right now. I could use some more

GreiverBlade · May 22, 2023

the correct answer is always : "YES!", when asked "how much you need?"

i do not have or operate NAS/Server but i go, for now, with :
12tb (plus the bootdrive of 256gb) in my case but i have 2 spinner 1tb each that i will replace with 2tb SSD ASAP... :laugh:

and it's all active storage, backup drives are not "permanently connected" and should not exceed 8tb iirc ... (i need to check my backup ahah :oops:

)

Ruru · May 22, 2023

GreiverBlade said:
the correct answer is always : "YES!", when asked "how much you need?"

i do not have or operate NAS/Server but i go, for now, with :
12tb (plus the bootdrive of 256gb) in my case but i have 2 spinner 1tb each that i will replace with 2tb SSD ASAP...

and it's all active storage, backup drives are not "permanently connected" and should not exceed 8tb iirc ... (i need to check my backup ahah )

I should upgrade my storage drive (a 2TB drive in an USB3.0 enclosure), I'd just copy its content to the new drive so this would have backups at least in some format. Maybe even a 7200rpm drive so it could host some games.. :rockout:

Denver · May 22, 2023

2TB SSD(OS+Games+Work) + 2TB HDD to store videos, photos and my junk

Klemc · May 22, 2023

Today i thinked about buying a 8tb NVMe PCIe gen4 to put all my SSDs in one place (and disable Sata controller in bios once done too), but idk if i can find MX500 equivalant at 500 eoros.

So, 8tb is my vote.

bonehead123 · May 22, 2023

On my work rigs, I currently have a total of 282.79TB of storage, including my internal & external setups, but not backups, which are on separate, dedicated drives.... but this is NOT because all I do is set around & download moar & moar bloated-ass gamz, pron, musak, and movies day after day after day....

It's because I do 3D/CAD/CAM work, and them files tend to get massively huge after multiple revisions and changes on their way to the final versions

Why does seemingly EVERY friggin thing here have to centered around gamz anywayz ?

However, my home/personal usage is moar modest, with only 12TB of space in use for my OS, personal files, apps etc..

Processor	i7 7700k
Motherboard	MSI Z270 SLI Plus
Cooling	CM Hyper 212 EVO
Memory	2 x 8 GB Corsair Vengeance
Video Card(s)	Temporary MSI RTX 4070 Super
Storage	Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB and WD Black 4TB
Display(s)	Temporary Viewsonic 4K 60 Hz
Case	Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Edition
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNova 850 W Gold
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Logitech G105
Software	Windows 10

System Name	Tiny the White Yeti
Processor	7800X3D
Motherboard	MSI MAG Mortar b650m wifi
Cooling	CPU: Thermalright Peerless Assassin / Case: Phanteks T30-120 x3
Memory	32GB Corsair Vengeance 30CL6000
Video Card(s)	ASRock RX7900XT Phantom Gaming
Storage	Lexar NM790 4TB + Samsung 850 EVO 1TB + Samsung 980 1TB + Crucial BX100 250GB
Display(s)	Gigabyte G34QWC (3440x1440)
Case	Lian Li A3 mATX White
Audio Device(s)	Harman Kardon AVR137 + 2.1
Power Supply	EVGA Supernova G2 750W
Mouse	Steelseries Aerox 5
Keyboard	Lenovo Thinkpad Trackpoint II
VR HMD	HD 420 - Green Edition ;)
Software	W11 IoT Enterprise LTSC
Benchmark Scores	Over 9000

Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard	ASRock B650E Steel Legend Wifi
Cooling	Arctic Liquid Freezer III 280
Memory	2x16GB Corsair Vengeance RGB 6000 CL30 (A-Die)
Video Card(s)	RTX 4090 Gaming X Trio
Storage	1TB Samsung 990 PRO, 4TB Corsair MP600 PRO XT, 1TB WD SN850X, 4x4TB Crucial MX500
Display(s)	Alienware AW2725DF, LG 27GR93U, LG 27GN950-B
Case	Streacom BC1 V2 Black
Audio Device(s)	Bose Companion Series 2 III, Sennheiser GSP600 and HD599 SE - Creative Soundblaster X4
Power Supply	bequiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1500w Titanium
Mouse	Razer Deathadder V3
Keyboard	Razer Black Widow V3 TKL
VR HMD	Oculus Rift S
Software	~2000 Video Games

System Name	Main PC
Processor	13700k
Motherboard	Asrock Z690 Steel Legend D4 - Bios 13.02
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15S
Memory	32 Gig 3200CL14
Video Card(s)	4080 RTX SUPER FE 16G
Storage	1TB 980 PRO, 2TB SN850X, 2TB DC P4600, 1TB 860 EVO, 2x 3TB WD Red, 2x 4TB WD Red
Display(s)	LG 27GL850
Case	Fractal Define R4
Audio Device(s)	Soundblaster AE-9
Power Supply	Antec HCG 750 Gold
Software	Windows 10 21H2 LTSC

Processor	Various Intel and AMD CPUs
Motherboard	Micro-ATX and mini-ITX
Cooling	Yes
Memory	Overclocking is overrated
Video Card(s)	Various Nvidia and AMD GPUs
Storage	A lot
Display(s)	Monitors and TVs
Case	The smaller the better
Audio Device(s)	Speakers and headphones
Power Supply	300 to 750 W, bronze to gold
Mouse	Wireless
Keyboard	Mechanic
VR HMD	Not yet
Software	Linux gaming master race

How Much Storage Is Enough To You?

How Much Stotage Is Enough For You?

Less Than 1 TB

1 TB

2 TB

4 TB

8 TB

A Lot More (Please Explain)

64K

Vayra86

GerKNG

chrcoluk

Why_Me

AusWolf

ir_cow

tabascosauz

Moderator

nomdeplume

nageme

Lew Zealand

chrcoluk

natr0n

Ruru

S.T.A.R.S.

wheresmycar

Toothless

Tech, Games, and TPU!

80-watt Hamster

JoeTheDestroyer

A&P211

freeagent

Moderator

GreiverBlade

Ruru

S.T.A.R.S.

Denver

Klemc

bonehead123

System Name	ab┃ob
Processor	7800X3D┃5800X3D
Motherboard	B650E PG-ITX┃X570 Impact
Cooling	NH-U12A + T30┃AXP120-x67
Memory	64GB 6400CL32┃32GB 3600CL14
Video Card(s)	RTX 4070 Ti Eagle┃RTX A2000
Storage	8TB of SSDs┃1TB SN550
Case	Caselabs S3┃Lazer3D HT5

Processor	Intel i5 8400
Motherboard	Asus Prime H370M-Plus/CSM
Cooling	Scythe Big Shuriken & Noctua NF-A15 HS-PWM chromax.black.swap
Memory	8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4-2400
Video Card(s)	ROG-STRIX-GTX1060-O6G-GAMING
Storage	1TB 980 Pro
Display(s)	Samsung UN55KU6300F
Case	Cooler Master MasterCase Pro 3
Power Supply	Super Flower Leadex III 750w
Software	W11 Pro

System Name	Gamey #1 / #3
Processor	Ryzen 7 5800X3D / Ryzen 7 5700X3D
Motherboard	Asrock B450M P4 / MSi B450 ProVDH M
Cooling	IDCool SE-226-XT / IDCool SE-224-XTS
Memory	32GB 3200 CL16 / 16GB 3200 CL16
Video Card(s)	Ventus 3060 / Challenger B580
Storage	4TB Team MP34 / 2TB WD SN570
Display(s)	LG 32GK650F 1440p 144Hz VA
Case	Corsair 4000Air / TT Versa H18
Power Supply	EVGA 650 G3 / EVGA BQ 500

System Name	natr0n-PC
Processor	Ryzen 5950x-5600x \| 9600k
Motherboard	B450 AORUS M \| Z390 UD
Cooling	EK AIO 360 - 6 fan action \| AIO
Memory	Patriot - Viper Steel DDR4 (B-Die)(4x8GB) \| Samsung DDR4 (4x8GB)
Video Card(s)	EVGA 3070ti FTW
Storage	Various
Display(s)	Pixio PX279 Prime
Case	Thermaltake Level 20 VT \| Black bench
Audio Device(s)	LOXJIE D10 + Kinter Amp + 6 Bookshelf Speakers Sony+JVC+Sony
Power Supply	Super Flower Leadex III ARGB 80+ Gold 650W \| EVGA 700 Gold
Software	XP/7/8.1/10
Benchmark Scores	http://valid.x86.fr/79kuh6

System Name	4K-gaming / console
Processor	5800X @ PBO +200 / i5-8600K @ 4.6GHz
Motherboard	ROG Crosshair VII Hero / ROG Strix Z370-F
Cooling	Alphacool Eisbaer 360 / Alphacool Eisbaer 240
Memory	32GB DDR4-3466 / 16GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	Asus RTX 3080 TUF OC / Powercolor RX 6700 XT
Storage	3.5TB of SSDs / several small SSDs
Display(s)	4K120 IPS + 4K60 IPS / 1080p60 HDTV
Case	Corsair 4000D AF White / DeepCool CC560 WH
Audio Device(s)	Sony WH-CH720N / TV speakers
Power Supply	EVGA G2 750W / Fractal ION Gold 550W
Mouse	Razer Basilisk / Logitech G400s
Keyboard	Roccat Vulcan 121 AIMO / NOS C450 Mini Pro
VR HMD	Oculus Rift CV1
Software	Windows 11 Pro / Windows 11 Pro
Benchmark Scores	They run Crysis

System Name	❶ Oooh (2024) ❷ Aaaah (2021) ❸ Ahemm (2017)
Processor	❶ 5800X3D ❷ i7-9700K ❸ i7-7700K
Motherboard	❶ X570-F ❷ Z390-E ❸ Z270-E
Cooling	❶ ALFIII 360 ❷ X62 + X72 (GPU mod) ❸ X62
Memory	❶ 32-3600/16 ❷ 32-3200/16 ❸ 16-3200/16
Video Card(s)	❶ 3080 X Trio ❷ 2080TI (AIOmod) ❸ 1080TI
Storage	❶ NVME/SSD/HDD ❷ <SAME ❸ SSD/HDD
Display(s)	❶ 1440/165/IPS ❷ 1440/144/IPS ❸ 1080/144/IPS
Case	❶ BQ Silent 601 ❷ Cors 465X ❸ Frac Mesh C
Audio Device(s)	❶ HyperX C2 ❷ HyperX C2 ❸ Logi G432
Power Supply	❶ HX1200 Plat ❷ RM750X ❸ EVGA 650W G2
Mouse	❶ Logi G Pro ❷ Razer Bas V3 ❸ Logi G502
Keyboard	❶ Logi G915 TKL ❷ Anne P2 ❸ Logi G610
Software	❶ Win 11 ❷ 10 ❸ 10
Benchmark Scores	I have wrestled bandwidths, Tussled with voltages, Handcuffed Overclocks, Thrown Gigahertz in Jail

System Name	Veral
Processor	7800x3D
Motherboard	x670e Asus Crosshair Hero
Cooling	Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO
Memory	2x24 Klevv Cras V RGB
Video Card(s)	Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage	Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s)	Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx, 2x AOC 2425W, AOC I1601FWUX
Case	Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s)	Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply	Corsair HX850
Mouse	Corsair Harpoon
Keyboard	Corsair K55
VR HMD	HP Reverb G2
Software	Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores	PEBCAK

System Name	Office
Processor	Ryzen 5600G
Motherboard	ASUS B450M-A II
Cooling	be quiet! Shadow Rock LP
Memory	16GB Patriot Viper Steel DDR4-3200
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte RX 5600 XT
Storage	PNY CS1030 250GB, Crucial MX500 2TB
Display(s)	Dell S2719DGF
Case	Fractal Define 7 Compact
Power Supply	EVGA 550 G3
Mouse	Logitech M705 Marthon
Keyboard	Logitech G410
Software	Windows 10 Pro 22H2

System Name	Lenovo slim 5 16'
Processor	AMD 8845hs
Motherboard	Lenovo motherboard
Cooling	2 fans
Memory	64gb 5600mhz cl40
Video Card(s)	4070 laptop
Storage	16tb, x2 8tb SSD
Display(s)	16in 16:10 (1920x1200) 144hz
Power Supply	270w psu

Processor	AMD R7 5800X3D
Motherboard	Asus Crosshair VIII Dark Hero
Cooling	Thermalright Frozen Edge 360, 3x TL-B12 V2, 2x TL-B12 V1
Memory	2x8 G.Skill Trident Z Royal 3200C14, 2x8GB G.Skill Trident Z Black and White 3200 C14
Video Card(s)	Zotac 4070 Ti Trinity OC
Storage	WD SN850 1TB, SN850X 2TB, SN770 1TB
Display(s)	LG 50UP7100
Case	Fractal Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s)	JBL Bar 700
Power Supply	Seasonic Vertex GX-1000, Monster HDP1800
Mouse	Logitech G502 Hero
Keyboard	Logitech G213
VR HMD	Oculus 3
Software	Yes
Benchmark Scores	Yes

System Name	main/SFFHTPCARGH!(tm)/Xiaomi Mi TV Stick/Samsung Galaxy S23/Ally
Processor	Ryzen 7 5800X3D/i7-3770/S905X/Snapdragon 8 Gen 2/Ryzen Z1 Extreme
Motherboard	MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk/HP SFF Q77 Express/uh?/uh?/Asus
Cooling	Enermax ETS-T50 Axe aRGB /basic HP HSF /errr.../oh! liqui..wait, no:sizable vapor chamber/a nice one
Memory	64gb DDR4 3600/8gb DDR3 1600/2gbLPDDR3/8gbLPDDR5x/16gb(10 sys)LPDDR5 6400
Video Card(s)	Hellhound Spectral White RX 7900 XTX 24gb/GT 730/Mali 450MP5/Adreno 740/Radeon 780M 6gb LPDDR5
Storage	250gb870EVO/500gb860EVO/2tbSandisk/NVMe2tb+1tb/4tbextreme V2/1TB Arion/500gb/8gb/256gb/4tb SN850X
Display(s)	X58222 32" 2880x1620/32"FHDTV/273E3LHSB 27" 1920x1080/6.67"/AMOLED 2X panel FHD+120hz/7" FHD 120hz
Case	Cougar Panzer Max/Elite 8300 SFF/None/Gorilla Glass Victus 2/front-stock back-JSAUX RGB transparent
Audio Device(s)	Logi Z333/SB Audigy RX/HDMI/HDMI/Dolby Atmos/KZ x HBB PR2/Moondrop Chu II + TRN BT20S
Power Supply	Chieftec Proton BDF-1000C /HP 240w/12v 1.5A/USAMS GAN PD 33w/USAMS GAN 100w
Mouse	Speedlink Sovos Vertical-Asus ROG Spatha-Logi Ergo M575/Xiaomi XMRM-006/touch/touch
Keyboard	Endorfy Thock 75%/Lofree Edge/none/touch/virtual
VR HMD	Medion Erazer
Software	Win10 64/Win8.1 64/Android TV 8.1/Android 14/Win11 64
Benchmark Scores	bench...mark? i do leave mark on bench sometime, to remember which one is the most comfortable. :o

System Name	The Little One
Processor	i5-11320H @4.4GHZ
Motherboard	AZW SEI
Cooling	Fan w/heat pipes + side & rear vents
Memory	64GB Crucial DDR4-3200 (2x 32GB)
Video Card(s)	Iris XE
Storage	WD Black SN850X 8TB m.2, Seagate 2TB SSD + SN850 8TB x2 in an external enclosure
Display(s)	2x Samsung 43" & 2x 32"
Case	Practically identical to a mac mini, just purrtier in slate blue, & with 3x usb ports on the front !
Audio Device(s)	Yamaha ATS-1060 Bluetooth Soundbar & Subwoofer
Power Supply	65w brick
Mouse	Logitech MX Master 2
Keyboard	Logitech G613 mechanical wireless
VR HMD	Whahdatiz ???
Software	Windows 10 pro, with all the unnecessary background shitzu turned OFF !
Benchmark Scores	PDQ