That means SSDs don't suffer from degraded performance due to file fragmentation (where a file gets placed in non-sequential sectors). There are no moving parts or spinning platters, making access times substantially quicker, almost instantaneous in some cases. There are multiple reasons SSDs are faster than HDDs. (Image credit: Microsoft) HDD vs SSD: Having an SSD for your boot drive is essential Given the durability and reliability of modern HDDs, they're still the single best solution for backing up your precious data. Should you need to restore from a backup, sure, it could save you several minutes, but restoring from a backup in the first place will be far more painful.
There's no need to back up your PC to high-performance SSD storage. Consider traditional backup and media storage. It's not all just fun and games, however. But if you keep a large collection of games installed, that 1TB can go fast. That's one-eighth of a 1TB SSD! The good news is that a 1TB-class SSD can be had for $100 (opens in new tab), so you're 'only' dedicating about $10-$15 of storage to even the giant games.
Where 40-60GB install sizes used to be typical, large modern games often weigh in at over 10GB currently and often climb to more following the release of patches, seasons, and updates. Games in the next generation will likely breach 150GB, and some already have.
With the PlayStation 5 (opens in new tab), Xbox Series X (opens in new tab), and Xbox Series S making a point of including fast SSD storage, the shift is likely to result in another significant spike in AAA titles' size.
(Image credit: Steam) HDD vs SSD: The growing size of games and other dataĪs anyone with a digital game library can attest, modern games storage requirements know no bounds, with new games including updates and add-ons easily pushing up to and in some cases beyond (opens in new tab) the 200GB mark-looking at you, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (opens in new tab). Hard drives (HDDs) are the old guard, having been around since the first 5MB model in the 1950s, with sizes now reaching 20TB. Solid-state drives (SSDs) have been getting pumped up over the past decade, reaching the stage where it's hard to imagine using a new PC that doesn't at least include some form of SSD storage. But that doesn't mean there isn't still a place for a good ol' fashioned spinning platter in your PC, especially with prices plummeting on 12TB hard drives and the like. The consensus is that solid-state trumps-pricing's down, speeds are up, and next-gen consoles are even sporting capacious SSDs. The best NVMe SSD (opens in new tab): this slivers of SSD goodnessīest external hard drives (opens in new tab): expand your horizonsīest external SSDs (opens in new tab): plug in upgrades for gaming laptops and consoles Best SSD for gaming (opens in new tab): the best solid state drives aroundīest PCIe 4.0 SSD for gaming (opens in new tab): the next gen has landed