2TB or 4TB M.2 storage?

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Artistic_Papaya21@reddit

Get a 4tb…no regrets. Games will eventually be 500gb

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unknownphantom@reddit (OP)

Yeah that's what I ended up doing, definitely worth it.

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I had a 2TB OS/Game drive for years (Granted, it was two 1TB SATA SSDs in RAID0 that was setup like 8+ years ago) and I still ran out of space with not even like 1/4th of my Steam library, and that was while still having a massive HDD to store other data and before it became common for games to be above 20GB, nevermind 100GB.

I got a 4TB drive for my new build that's dedicated for games only now, will be using a separate drive for my OS and apps.

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pzapxrty@reddit

So then as far as PCIe 4.0, is the SAMSUNG 990 PRO overpriced/overrated?

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Cyber_Akuma@reddit

I would say so, and I like Samsung drives. Maybe if you do some very heavy I/O tasks it's worth it, but as a game drive? Not so much IMO.

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pzapxrty@reddit

Crap… well I saw the 4TB on sale for $299 recently and picked it up, just haven’t put everything together yet. I should’ve mentioned this will be more of an all-purpose machine. Definitely will be gaming more but I like to produce music in FL Studio so plugins and other sounds will take up space fast. Besides that I’ve got movies/music/other random apps.

What 4TB did you get?

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Cyber_Akuma@reddit

I don't recall, I think it was some Crucial drive that either Micro Center or Amazon had on sale for $150 last year. It's meant to be a dedicated game drive, I got a 1TB Samsung as my OS drive.

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Business_Comment_962@reddit

Definitely go for the 4tb imo. Not only does it future proof your PC you'll be thankful once it starts filling up a bit.

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unknownphantom@reddit (OP)

Yeah ended up going with the 4tb.

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Jawnsonious_Rex@reddit

Man games have been getting larger is the argument I hear all the time. But be honest, do you only buy and play the latest AAA games AND your unable to dlightylybplan ahead to delete something and download another game? If so then 4TB is great. But 2TB is enough for most people most of the time.

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ChenzVee@reddit

I have 2x4TB and have used up 5TB just in games. I have both flatscreen and VR games though.

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Xphurrious@reddit

I have a 500gb boot drive and a 4tb sata, it's really nice to be able to install any games and just forget about it

Once nvme actually has benefits over sata(other than data transfer) I'll swap over to that, or bigger depending on how long sata holds up for

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Jump_and_Drop@reddit

I would just buy a 2tb and add storage later if needed. Nothing wrong with multiple drives.

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jasonwc@reddit

Any modern motherboard should support multiple M2 slots. I specifically bought the ASRock X670E Steel Legend as it offers four x4 M2 slots (one Gen 5 and three Gen 4) while also offering a PCI-E 5.0 16x slot, a PCI-E 3.0 4x slot for a 40 Gb NIC, a 1x slot for something like a sound card, 4 SATA ports, and tons of USB ports including front and back 20 Gb USB-C ports.

I ended up buying two high-end 2TB Gen 4 NVMe drives because there want a great 4TB option at the time and two more midrange 4TB drives, and I threw in a 2TB SATA SSD I already had. Plenty of space.

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Admirable-Mine3183@reddit

I only have 2tb and that shit is almost gone in a month I still have to cycle out games

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Jumper775-2@reddit

I bought 256gb. It wasn’t enough. I upgraded to 3 tb. Still not enough. I now have 11 tb. I’m running out of space.

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BluDYT@reddit

4tb and it's not enough. But I'm a bit special and have like 30tb that's still almost full. Like 12tb of that is SSDs for actual games.

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CockroachCommon2077@reddit

I mainly only play video games and a 2tb M.2 ssd is plenty enough. If you don't got super fast internet and switch across many games and do other things then the 4tb one would be good for you

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Specific_Ad_6522@reddit

I have a 2tb and a 1tb ssd, they both are filling up pretty quick. I def would have gotten a 4tb instead of the 2tb if I knew how much storage all these games will take up.

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fightingCookie0301@reddit

May I ask what games you play most? I assume it’s more likely AAA games?

I got 2x2TB and I can’t even fill up one of the drives. Even when I download my entire Steam library it’s „just“ 1.4TB :o

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Specific_Ad_6522@reddit

Yup a lot of AAA games, like forza, rdr2, gta5 and stuff like that.

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fightingCookie0301@reddit

Ah, ok. Thanks for confirming :)

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sukh9942@reddit

I have a 1TB SSD just for music/games/films and thats filling up a lot. I think 2TB can be filled easily with some AAA games.

I have a 4TB hard drive formatted for Xbox so I guess I’ll start putting files on there.

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unknownphantom@reddit (OP)

That's the other thing I'm realizing that these games are getting larger. I just got VR as well, so that'll take its own space.

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Horse1995@reddit

Honestly you won’t ever be playing enough games at the same time to make more than 2 TB necessary

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Sweet-Instruction914@reddit

I have 2 tb m.2 and both are filling pretty quickly because how big games are these days. I don't play all games all the time but I have to keep most games I want to play installed because downloading 100gb game takes a lot of time.

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Horse1995@reddit

That’s definitely not normal, I don’t know why you guys are just chilling with a bunch of AAA games on your drives when you play less than half of them

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Sweet-Instruction914@reddit

Because If I want to play some games that I play like once per month I don't want to first download it. Not wasting hours for that.

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Horse1995@reddit

You are simply not playing 2 TB worth of games on a consistent basis, you need to look at your steam library and make some cuts lol

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Sweet-Instruction914@reddit

Even if I play some games rarely I am still not loading those for hours when I feel like playing it. But I do play a lot of games

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Often-Inebreated@reddit

Whats frustrating for me is the time it takes to reinstall games.

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chaotic910@reddit

Exactly, between multiplayer games our group jumps between, new releases we try, and games I play solo, it's worth just having the space. Not to mention if you want to start saving videos or do something like art, 3d modeling, game dev, etc you'll eat space up quickly

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Remsster@reddit

The issue is that you don't know what you might want to be playing.

I hardly play GTA V but I always keep it installed. Even with fast internet it's a pain to jump on and see everyone playing and having to download +100GB.

Let alone modding is a situation where reinstalling can be a tone of work. The download time for mods can be hours, let alone the configuration time. I would rather have 1tb assigned to NV, Skyrim, Stalker, minecraft, ksp, Arma, etc to not worry about it vs having to spend an afternoon or more to configure them when I decide to come back.

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biker_jay@reddit

If it's over 100gb it stays installed on mine even though I can download it in 20 minutes or so.

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reddit-ate-my-face@reddit

Sure but it's nice to have all your games you do play downloaded and ready to go at a moments notice. Games are getting so big nowadays. I keep black ops 4 on my PC so we can play zombies every once and awhile and that's just 200gb the new black ops is 320gb.

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Crossedkiller@reddit

Eh, honestly all you need is basic management. Just uninstall stuff you're not playing or planning to play at the moment and you're good.

I've been rocking a 1tb m2 for OS + games, and a 1tb HDD for my downloads folder and I've never been short of storage space

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Cyber_Akuma@reddit

The problem is a lot of ISPs are starting to enforce data caps, so repeatedly re-downloading games you want to play again can be painful for those effected by that. If anything, it makes more sense to get a large HDD and move games you are currently not playing to that just as storage than to keep re-downloading things if you have a data cap with how stupidly large some games are getting.

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your_a_Fartface@reddit

I do the same I have a 2tb ssd just for games and a 2tb hdd for game launchers software and files n stuff

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lichtspieler@reddit

Downloading games like MSFS with its \~400GB over the slow MS servers and the long install duration and the even longer setup for your hardware and hotkeys and mod installation takes a few hours.

\~1TB of storage for just MSFS wouldnt even be enough, since 0.5-1TB are recommended for just the local cache size. So there are obviously exceptions where your storage capacity wont work, not even for just a single game.

Thats not the only popular game where backing it up is the recommended path even for casual gamers who frequently take a break for gaming.

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greggm2000@reddit

And MSFS 2024 out this fall ought to be much worse with this, I’d guess!

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AKAkindofadick@reddit

I've got pretty good internet, just upgraded to AM5 with a gen 4 NVME and it is crazy how fast shit downloads(not MSFS though), had no idea it was write speed to storage holding things up. Like a few min for a 50GB download 4 min tops

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Remsster@reddit

Gotta love downloading MSFS and it getting stalled at 75 percent of the way. Do I touch it, do I restart, how long do I wait!!!

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nemeranemowsnart666@reddit

Personally, I store games I expect I will play again on a secondary hard drive. It's a pain in the ass to wait for sometimes days to re-download.

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skyfishgoo@reddit

there's little reason to keep games on an nvme ... put them on an SSD.

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OfAnOldRepublic@reddit

VR takes a lot of space, yes.

If a good quality 4 is in your budget, just get it and don't look back. Even if you don't come close to filling it up, it will last longer due to wear leveling.

If your choices are a good quality 2 and a lesser quality 4, get the 2, or save up for a good quality 4. 😁

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Doogleyboogley@reddit

Trust me get the bigger drive you’ll want to try all the new things available to you and it’ll be a mission deciding what to keep and what not to.

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Chimi_Change@reddit

I'd suggest the 4TB, because besides the games, software installs and data+cache buildup over time quickly eats up whatever space is there. Although not a lot, but my 256 got eaten up super quick BEFORE games, and ia at 99 with games, so going for more storage is definitely ideal. Another benefit is that due to their compact size and speed over HDDs, long term storage is a viable option here (data security, and corruptability is a minor issue with SSDs, but still have backups just in case).

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CzarcasticX@reddit

I have a 4TB that's 90% full now... looking at 8TB but I think they're too pricey.

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mistericek1@reddit

did u fit atleast 1 cod in here

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Doogleyboogley@reddit

Just removed 90gb ready for a game. Downloaded it now I need 150gb free for it to install.🤦‍♂️ I’m quite impulsive so I hate/don’t bother playing much because I won’t feel like playing it after the 3-4 hours it takes to download/ install etc plus I can’t really say I’m going to sit and play my pc tomorrow at…

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Naerven@reddit

With m.2 slots being as limited as they are for many motherboards I would go with 4tb if the budget allows.

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Kaleidoscope991@reddit

Limited? I have 4 on mine.

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TyRoyalSmoochie@reddit

Pretty sure they meant in comparison to sata ports. My board had 6 sata ports but only 2 m.2 slots.

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Kaleidoscope991@reddit

Oh sure

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Cyber_Akuma@reddit

Limited in what way? I have a board from 2020 and it has three M.2 slots. One for my OS/Apps, one for my games, one for my emulators.

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AdWorth6475@reddit

Idk about what everyone says but I’ve worked fine with ~900gb of space just by managing my games and files well.

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Mrcod1997@reddit

You can fill them up pretty quickly, but it's not the end of the world. Is your internet fast?

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AncientPCGuy@reddit

I have 4TB and it’s almost full less than a year from building. Granted I do play a lot of different games and have many I keep permanently, but I always get the biggest that fits in the budget.

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GeovaunnaMD@reddit

4tb price per GB is low

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puttjatt@reddit

get 4tb. trust me you'll need it

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iflylikemike@reddit

had two 2tb ssd’s and filled them up pretty quick so i moved one to my other pc and picked up a 4tb ssd for my main gaming pc!

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Gramlights@reddit

4tb for sure

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Xeno_man@reddit

A 2TB drive is more than enough that you won't be limited to 2 or 3 games at a time.

However, if you can afford it and you're not trying to budget other components, get as large as a drive as you can get. If I had the option, I would say fuck it and go for the 4TB drive.

I currently have a 2TB drive with about 300 gigs used, but I also only have a hand full of games installed.

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hi9580@reddit

Sounds like you don't need more than 2TB

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B_CHEEK@reddit

You can always throw in a bunch of SSDs, which are cheaper anyway.

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SMthegamer@reddit

The drives in my PC add up to 9TB, I'm constantly having to delete stuff to make more space (going to vastly upgrade soon)

Go for the 4TB, you never know what you'll be storing in a couple years and games are getting bigger fast.

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plexguy@reddit

I went with a 4TB which was overkill, but my use case is it is video projects I can move off when space gets tight. So I am able to keep a lot more with immediate access, as opposed to moving them and worrying about cataloging them. Also the projects do have to access the data off the drive more so needs to be on the fast internal drive.

Also drive does have DRAM and I also always keep extra unused space on the drive for peak performance. So it isn't overkill, but I am not fully utilizing all of the 4TB capacity. My usecase is for it to do what I want and need requires unused capacity, one of the realities of the propriatary software I am using.

2TB wasnt enough, 4TB overkill, but the overkill made sure I don't have to constantly worry about moving big files to another drive as that adds more negative issues. Also 4TB drives in the US don't have a huge premium in cost over 2TB in cost by TB.

Storage is like RAM, never a bad thing to have too much of either if you have the cash for it, as you will find a use for it.

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Accomplished_Ad3856@reddit

Get a 4tb. I have a 4tb and almost full, only 300gb left lol

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fuzzynyanko@reddit

For a light use PC, 1 TB is fine. I did install a 4 TB SSD into my laptop, and I haven't had to worry about filling it up for a while. It would be more of "can you afford the $100 extra without it affecting you financially?" If you can spend the extra $100, I'd say get 4 TB.

Storage becomes cheaper over time, so having a 2TB one for now isn't a bad option, especially if it's not your OS drive. As a non-OS drive, cloning is pretty easy.

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ShadowDefuse@reddit

2x2tb for games is plenty for me. i do have 8tb HDD for movies/shows/music and might add another 8tb

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the3eja1@reddit

Get 8 tb ssd it will last u a ton if u don't delete a bunch of stuff

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biker_jay@reddit

With games today 8tb wouldn't be I overkill. I bought a 2tb and filled it with what I already had. Had to buy an external to put any new ones in

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Rackyack@reddit

Built a PC with 4tb storage last month and it's currently 50% full now. Go with 4tb.

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Abbazabba616@reddit

If you can justify the purchase, to yourself at least, then go for the 4tb.

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CucumberBulky8915@reddit

I'm regretting not picking up 2 more 4tb drives when prices bottomed out. These Wabbajack mod lists are enormous.

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SashaG239@reddit

I went with a 7tb u2 ssd drive. Its endurance is much higher than normal nvme consumer drives. Mostly used to encode on. Also no such thing as too much space. However, in your case 2tb should be fine for gaming if you are only leaving 1 or 2 games on it at a time.

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GlassHorns@reddit

I just upgraded one of my 2tb drives to a 4tb... these games are getting absolutely massive lol

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skyfishgoo@reddit

2TB is a lot and also the higher the density the shorter the life span and hither the heat (all things being equal).

so unless you already know you NEED 4TB, then just go with 1TB or 2TB

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Economy-Medicine5944@reddit

more storage= more fun

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PixelDrums@reddit

Honestly depends how fast your internet is imo. I have a 2TB NVME and installing/uninstalling games doesn’t really matter since I have 3gbps internet, if I had slower internet I would buy a bigger SSD.

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VisualDarkness@reddit

Flightsimming chomps TBs for me.

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closetBoi04@reddit

I've got a 4tb SSD and 2 2tb HDDs; I've got about 2 tb on my ssd and 1 hdd is filled up so yea I'd go 4 tb any day; especially because in my case it was only like 20% more vs a 2tb for a roughly equally good drive

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Rurishijimi@reddit

It depends on use case and price, currently 2TB is best deal for my choices of m.2 SSD so I just go for 2TB to fill those m.2 slots on mobo, but as soon as 4TB starts to be equal deal I will just go for 4TB no matter what as more storage does not bother.

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Max7397@reddit

If you plan to use only one storage unit, the bigger the better, imho. If you plan to buy another drive in the future, go with the smaller drive.

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DemonKingRigaldo@reddit

I bought this just for games and heavily recommend it https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CJ2N9485?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

It's pretty much just a lexar 790 with a lower branding fee

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coraltrek@reddit

Go bigger it’s better to have more than less. And that drive can be moved to new machines later.

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GakutoYo@reddit

I have a 1tb from when I first discovered them, and bought a 2tb last year. Neither are full, but I also delete things fairly often. I regret not getting a 4tb but everyone's different.

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MostHigh305@reddit

2TB wasn't enough for me

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Zanithos@reddit

Trust me, you're gonna want the 4TB.

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MyStationIsAbandoned@reddit

at some point we gotta stop putting all the blame on management. the truth is that the industry is filled with devs who can't do something as simple as compression and optimization when modders can learn to do it in like 10 minutes after watching a youtube video showing you exactly how to do it...

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protectoursummers@reddit

I got a good laugh out of that one

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LemmeTellU420@reddit

Went 4tb from a 2gb rig and it feels good to not care about storage much. If you have the money, I say go for it.

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MyStationIsAbandoned@reddit

I have:

Two 4TB NVME SSD
One 8TB Sata SSD for storage

They are not enough. One 2TB is no where near enough. unless you only play one game and never save any kind of files ever maybe.

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Neraxis@reddit

Oh my god get the 4tb. Modern games are so fucking bloated it's stupid. If you have the money, get the space.

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the_hat_madder@reddit

A SSD's performance, health and lifespan is directly linked to how full (or empty) it is.

Get the largest SSD you can afford without sacrificing performance somewhere else.

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simo402@reddit

Modern ssd arent gonna be ruined by us consumers, they have gotten better and better

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the_hat_madder@reddit

Consumers ruin technology every day. It's almost like a religion or it's their job.

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EishLekker@reddit

This was news to me. Where can I read more about it?

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the_hat_madder@reddit

Did you find what you were looking for?

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greggm2000@reddit

It’s more nuanced than that, but writes will slow a lot past a certain (used capacity) point, bc of how NAND Flash works, and how firmware attempts to mitigate that. Ideally, use only a small fraction of the SSD so it’s always in SLC mode, but that’s usually not realistic for most consumers. In practice it won’t likely matter much for gaming and the like… but if you are willing to throw a fair bit of money at the problem, it can be solved with enterprise-class SSDs (for under 1000), or even recent-gen Optane (which is still available but VERY expensive), but few home users are willing to fork out a few thousand for the latter.

The above commenter is right though: Get the largest SSD you can afford without sacrificing performance somewhere else.

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Remsster@reddit

LTT talks about it in some videos. It all depends if the drive has DRAM, cheap drives don't.

https://youtu.be/ybIXsrLCgdM?si=x_7hlSqbsXaTlUzG

If you just search SSD DRAM you can find plenty of other videos and real world testing.

Even with DRAM drives I try to keep 10% free regardless.

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TheSpaceNeedle@reddit

Why have few storage when lot do trick

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Reikix@reddit

I am using 2TB for my apps and games on my main computer, is indeed more than I need (not by a lot), and I play heavy games. 4TB would be totally overkill in my case.

I have an 8TB HDD too, but that's for backups of pictures and videos, as well to store series and movies.

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Vicious_Surrender@reddit

I always find with storage what you think you need is never enough. I started my PC with a 512gb SSD and a 2tb HDD for bulk storage of photos, im now looking at getting a 2tb SSD for the PC and putting together a Nas for even more photo storage. That being said I'd still keep windows on a separate, smaller drive from most anything important. I've had too many installs of windows fail and take programs with it on reinstall or repair. Having important documents or programs on a separate drive from windows is just really nice, even if it's tempting to make a new 4tb drive the boot drive as well.

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DBXVStan@reddit

No such thing as overkill. Get an 8TB just to really flex.

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Eaglesgomoo@reddit

I have a 4TB M.2 and a 1TB M.2 plus a 2TB Sata. They're filling up, no question. Do I have a lot of things on there I can probably delete? Yes. But it's nice to not have to delete them.

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Z3r0sama2017@reddit

2tb. If it was a year ago when nand prices were in the shitter I would have said 4tb without a second thought as it keeps a free m2 slot if you needed an upgrade.

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ComputerSoup@reddit

depends on your internet speed. if you can download a large game in less than an hour then you don’t need a huge amount of storage as you can just keep whatever you’re currently playing

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lilrow420@reddit

If you have the budget, there is no downside to just getting the 4TB imo.

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Motorpsycho6479@reddit

O own 2tb now i want 4....

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bruh-iunno@reddit

I have a 2tb for Windows and a 4tb for everything else, I only play a few games but it's nice to most of my library downloaded, and shadowplay captures are laaaarge

Both drives are about half full

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Candid_Reason2416@reddit

Honestly? 2TB is fine, but go for 4TB if you have the budget.

I don't tend to leave games installed unless I know I'm going to continue to play them. Besides that, mostly running Skyrim or Fallout 4 mod lists ranging from around 100-400GB. Also just got a VR headset as well.

If you're using Mod Organizer 2 and you're confident you won't change too much about your modlist(s), you can just delete any installed mods from your disk and it'll be fine. It's only a problem if you need to reinstall one to replace it with an update or a patch.

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LunchBoxMercenary@reddit

I got a 4TB only because one of the games I play literally almost takes up 1TB.

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NearbyPassion8427@reddit

For a gamer, 4TB isn't excessive. For my use case, 1TB internal is plenty.

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InTheBlkHoodie@reddit

I found it best to split up at orange depending on requirements.

Listening to music? Store my entire lossless library on a decent 2TB HDD

Playing a AAA game? Install it on a 2TB SSD

Editing some 4K video? Make the 4TB NVME the Scratch Disk.

Where to install the OS? 1TB NVME is more than enough.

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Ok_Switch_1205@reddit

The better question would be asking yourself why you would need 2-4 TB of storage.

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ciesum@reddit

I started with a 1tb but could see that filling quite quick. I do have 3 nvme slots so probably will add a 2tb at some point

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jerryeight@reddit

Just get the 4tb. It's annoying to need ro upgrade soon after you build it.

2tb comes out to about 1.6tb with formatting. 4tb comes out to about 3.6tb.

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dixiye@reddit

Running a total pf 3.5 tb storage and i have to say it really depends on what you play and how much, i have 1tb os nvme storage that i use for 2-3 online games that i play with friends, 2x1tb hdd that are half full with random stuff and 1 to 2 single player games that im playing atm, and 500gb ssd that i use for games that i never delete (ex:gtav), if youre a hoarder then go for 4tb, but if you have 2-3 games that you play mainly and rotate singleplayer titles youre fine with 2tb, but if you can get the 4tb, more never hurt a person.

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Hot-Property1031@reddit

I grabbed a silicon power 4 tb m.2 for about $200 on Amazon, has worked perfectly for me for a couple years now. Gen 4 as well, so it is quite fast.

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dulun18@reddit

I have 4TB and it's still not enough...

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Tjingus@reddit

The m.2 drive is great because it's fast and has no choke point when accessing data fast. I know this is obvious. But also think about the tasks you need that speed for.

Your OS, main softwares, probably a few games too. If you are a video editor keeping your current projects and footages on a high speed drive is massive.

Having said that there is a line in terms of value and use cases where things blur and it becomes a luxury. 1tb to 2tb is probably that line, and that's mainly because prices on good m.2 drives sky rocket after that point.

Another thing to consider is solid state drives struggle more once they approach 80% full and beyond. Noticeably. You never want to use them full.

A final thing to consider is an m.2 drive can be placed in an external case with a 3.2 USB C. You won't get those extreme transfer speeds that you do directly hooked up to the motherboard. But they're still blitz fast. I say that to say, getting too small is not necessarily a wasted purchase. After an upgrade you do also gain a high speed external.

For a similar price you can look at a 2tb m.2 and possibly 2x4tb 2.5drives or 2x2tb SSDs for additional internal storage. If you are good with space management this could be much more beneficial to you as the things that need quick access speed on your day to day will rarely be as much as 4tb. It's easier to maintain 2tb under 80% full when you have loads of space elsewhere to move heavy data out to. This allows you to keep your OS and fast data drive under optimal load. The added benefit is if that m.2 burns out one day, your storage like your photos, personal data etc are kept elsewhere and you don't stand to lose nearly as much.

This was my thought process. Im a video editor and have a 1tb m.2 exclusively for my OS and software, a 2tb m.2 exclusively for my current projects and cache, and an array of other drives for archives, back ups and completed projects etc. I'll probably need to upgrade an m.2 to a 4tb at some point as I reach my ceiling frequently when I'm dealing with 2 days of RAW footage, but it's a luxury I don't ever need for personal use.

TLDR: 4tb m.2 overkill? Possibly, maybe not - but more to the point is bang for buck not better put towards a lot of cheaper back up storage for easier data management?

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EishLekker@reddit

Another thing to consider is solid state drives struggle more once they approach 80% full and beyond. Noticeably. You never want to use them full.

Couldn’t a high end SSD manufacturer circumvent that by “blocking” 20% of the disk? Meaning, a 1TB disk actually has about 200GB more, the the controller uses internally.

That way one could get the full performance all the way up to 100% usage (if the 1TB), without needing to worry about disk performance. Naturally you wouldn’t want to go super close to 100% full, especially if it’s an OS drive. But the larger the drive, the closer you can get percentage wise.

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greggm2000@reddit

They do (and it’s more than 20%). This is one reason enterprise-class SSDs are as expensive as they are. If you want sustained high-speed reads and writes even when it’s nearly full, this is the way to do it.

However, nothing stops you from getting a typical consumer 4TB drive, making a 1TB partition in it, and using only that. The performance ought to be great!

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Tjingus@reddit

I suppose they could, but you could charge more for a 1.5tb drive than a 1tb drive that offers little to know speed loss at full capacity.

Nice username boet.

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corpsejelly@reddit

I went with 4TB in new rig because i kept running out of ssd room and having to add drives. With new games being so large, i would never go under 2tb again. Unless you dont game.

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UnknownSP@reddit

Really depends what you do.

I have a 4TB boot and a 4TB game drive. The game drive is constantly full, and the boot is a healthy amount for me to temporarily store project files when I need to. Never enough, and I even have a NAS too

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RevTurk@reddit

The more the merrier.

Although if we're talking a about storing files. IE: Your images, documents, videos, etc, everything that's not a program, old timey HDD are still a great option. I've heard that SSD isn't a good long term storage solution.

I have 3 SSDs and 3 HDD. I use SSDs for OS, programs, and files I'm working on in photoshop and DaVinci, the rest goes into long term storage on a HDD, which is then back up to a NAS with raid. I have 2&3tb HDDs.

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sticknotstick@reddit

I have a 2TB and a 4TB NVME (both installed). I can install way more games than I’d ever need - I have just over 4TB installed and I swear I use 100+ GB of my 1.2TB data allotment on updates alone.

My opinion is that 2TB is the magic number for gaming on NVMEs. With 2TBs, all but the most avid gamers will be able to have all games they reasonably want to play in the same period installed at any given point in time. 4TB is great if you think you’re in the 90%ile of time spent gaming and not on a single game/genre of games.

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Bright--@reddit

Depends if you want/need to have a shit ton of games installed at once or not? I bought a 1TB & 2TB. The 1TB has windows and my 2TB is almost full and I think I only have around 25-30 games?

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Xcissors280@reddit

nope There are special cases where it makes sense but in most cases 2TB is plenty And you can almost always upgrade later

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RemiX-KarmA@reddit

I have 2tb ssd and 1tb hdd. I think 2 tb is enough. Yeah, games are getting larger, but it's not Iike you're going to keep playing every game you have downloaded. Just keep 4-5.

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VersaceUpholstery@reddit

2tb is enough for me, deleting games as they kicked out of rotation

I definitely don’t have the latest CoD games installed or have heavily modded games, though. I’m sure that makes a difference

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ApothecaryAlyth@reddit

Yeah, this is my approach as well. I have a handful of small games permanently installed like Valheim, Stardew Valley, Minecraft, Disco Elysium, etc., and then maybe 2-4 large games installed at any given time. Whenever I want to install a new large game, I uninstall whichever currently installed large game I haven't played in the longest time.

I don't keep much else of substance on my SSD; I use a NAS for long term storage of larger files like game recordings and home videos. Eventually I will probably get a 2nd SSD, but I don't foresee that being a true need any time soon.

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AKAkindofadick@reddit

Get a platter for some stuff

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mimshipio@reddit

Get the 4tb. You'll thank yourself later. Even if you don't go over 2tb usage in the next year, you'll have the wiggle room for when you inevitably do

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icaredoyoutho@reddit

Glad I don't have to comment and say definitely the 4tb.

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quoole@reddit

If you can afford a 4TB and it's not impacting your CPU, GPU or RAM budget then I would get 4TB. If it's 4TB and a 4070 or 2TB and a 4080, get 2TB and a 4080.

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Metafizic@reddit

Currently I have 3.5TB across 4 M2 SSD and definitely is not enough, at least for me.

Planning to get something bigger, at least 2TB each.

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fuzzytomatohead@reddit

get two 2tb drives if you can, so you can back up stuff between them, and if one goes down, you don’t lose everything.

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Ephemeral-Echo@reddit

My vote is 2TB.

You're unlikely to use 4TB in hot storage all the time unless you're someone like a professional movie editor. 4TB is where SSD value for money begins to break down, and it's where sheer storage volume on HDDs begin to pick up. You can just throw everything that you don't quickly need into a HDD instead.

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Kaleidoscope991@reddit

Just get the 4. These drives last for years and you can keep it as a secondary drive later on.

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Dull_Information8146@reddit

I have a 2tb SSD and if it's just games ot fills up quick

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Jimbo-Bones@reddit

2tb and then a 1tb ssd for me.

I'm finding it's more than suitable. I still have over 1tb of space in the M.2 but when I'm done with games I also uninstall them after.

I don't understand what some people do when they install games that they aren't actively playing.

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_nightgoat@reddit

4TB if you like to play AAA games.

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jasped@reddit

Went from 1 to 4 because of increasing sizes of games. Reality is 1 was working fine and I would just uninstall something I wasn’t playing if I got close to filling it up. Was a minor inconvenience. But with the new build I decided to go 4 for some semblance of future proofing space. I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

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bemy_requiem@reddit

if you're playing skyrim and fallout heavily modded id go with a 4tb

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Areebob@reddit

I feel I have a stupid amount of SSD storage, mostly because I couldn’t resist the price you can get Samsung drives for from the Geek Squad eBay listings. But I do use more than 2tb on each of the 4tb drives, so…maybe it’s not THAT stupid.

The geek squad recertified drives on eBay are generally a LOT cheaper than new, and the ones I’ve gotten have had double the drive’s capacity in the TBW. That means the drive was barely used, but double secure wiped before being put up for sale. Still like 99% life left in them.

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mac_and_cheese_9951@reddit

I got 1tb and 500gb ssd and those are enough for me

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etapollo13@reddit

I have 6tb total (a 2tb and 4 tb) in my recent build, and I already have about 3tb worth of games. 2tb is workable, but is inconvenient in my experience. My last pc had a 2tb ssd, and i just got used to deleting and re-downloading games to make space.

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Dear_pan_nonbi@reddit

I originally went with 2 and then bought 4, I have about 2.5 left unused

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aCuria@reddit

On old MLC SSDs it was ok to fill it completely

However with these new SSDs (TLC and QLC) they don’t really want to be near full… ever

Your SLC cache can be as big as 1/3 of the remaining free space for TLC…

This means if your next file transfer or game install is 334GB, then you want 1TB of free space on the ssd

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d1z@reddit

Rule of thumb for both storage and RAM:

You can always upgrade later, but you should always overshoot by a bit if you can afford it.

I'm currently at 64Gig/3TB but my next build will be 64Gig/4TB to begin with.

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admajic@reddit

Yeah got new computer 2tb and started playing with Large Language models and making pictures with Stable Diffusion. Each model is around 6gb suddenly used up 750gb so had to get the old 2tb HDD and drop it in the back up those files or delete them. Install a few games they are 100gb each.... yeah should of gotten a 4tb

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farmeunit@reddit

I had two 2TB and just bought a 4TB. I normally just remove games I quit playing but they're only getting bigger. I would look into upgrading boot drive to at least a 2TB. If you have enough money, it never hurts to have 4TB.

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SanyaNut@reddit

I have 2 x 2Tb in case one of them die and 3rd m2 slot is empty for new one in future

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Hottage@reddit

Just about filling up my 2TB drive now, but that's partly because I currently have three versions of World of Warcraft installed.

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0815Username@reddit

2TB has been enough for me for some time now. It's what I have in my laptop and my PC respectively.

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looking_at_memes_@reddit

I initially bought a 2TB one, thinking it'd enough. After installing just a few games, half of the storage was already full. Fortunately I found the SN850X 4TB on a 100€ less than the original price sale, so I also bought that. I can now install a lot of games and still have plenty of storage left.

If your budget allows it, I'd say go even for both

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jdfthetech@reddit

I have 7tb and it's probably not enough

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Bkjolly@reddit

As big as software files are getting 4tb is in no way overkill.

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remerdy1@reddit

I have 2tb and its getting quite full.

If I only gamed it would probably be enough but I also have FL Studio + plugins

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NighthunterDK@reddit

I regret only getting 2TB I do some 3D work, plus my PC also has to slice things for my 3D printer. I also play VR and normal flat screen games, so I definitely regret not going for the 4TB. Luckily there's still a slot, so I'll just grab a 4TB and upgrade, but still a bit annoyed

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rp_001@reddit

If there were more options for 8 TB I’d get that!

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exterminuss@reddit

Bin selbst auf 4 gegangen und kann es nur empfehlen.

Einfach mal für die nächste Zeit Ruhe zu haben und keine Gedanken an Platz verschwenden zu müssen.

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jadeskye7@reddit

I bought a 2TB, then a 2TB and i just bought a 2TB.

Your milage may vary.

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Just_a_lil_Fish@reddit

I bought a 1tb just to get going and had to buy more within 3 months. So I got a 2tb thinking that tripling my storage would be enough, but then I downloaded some movies and TV shows and within another 3 months I was out of room again. So I said screw it, I only have one nvme slot left so I better make it count - and bought a 4tb drive. Well with all that storage I might as well setup a Plex account and fill out my media library a little bit... and I was out again within 2 months. Now I'm looking at 18tb+ enterprise HDDs like I should have started with.

So I guess the moral of this story is get as much as you can afford because there's always a way to fill it, but if you're into 4k BluRays and TV shows that have a gazillion episodes you should probably get the smaller one and put the money you save toward a big HDD.

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Guillaumex27@reddit

I have a 500GB m2 nvme for my C: storage (windows, every program, launchers). It is more than enough but you can extend to 1TB if you’re scared of missing space on it.

Than I have a 2TB M2 2,5” that I use for storing my games only. I never had to uninstall a game to install another one.

And then I have a good old 4TB HDD. I know it is an old technology for some of us but I use it to store movies, pictures, and some other shit.

If I had to redo a PC, I’d do exactly the same, except maybe for the 4TB HDD. I’d maybe go for another M2 2,5” instead of HDD depending on the price market.

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CoyoteFit7355@reddit

I tend to buy the largest storage size available that doesn't come at too much of a premium. However, I keep moving around components a lot and drives move along for a very long time. I still have hard disks from the times of PlayStation 3 in use (for low priority data of course) and my standard systems just finally dropped SATA storage altogether but I still have old 128GB SSDs in use as system drives. Although those small drives are getting phased out quickly as well now. Pretty all of my systems now have at least 1 4TB SSD, including my ROG Ally so that's generally the only ones I buy. If I need smaller drives for some reason, I still have 500GB and 1TB drives that aren't in use.

My main box currently has 1 1TB drive and 3 4TB ones.

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zarco92@reddit

Storage needs are very personal, there's no way we can know whats better for you. I have like 8TB total in ssd storage. You would say it's overkill but it's definitely not for me.

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beirch@reddit

If you have the money and can find a 4TB on sale, go for it. I bought a 1TB NVMe to supplement my old 256GB and 1TB SATA SSDs: Almost instantly bought another one.

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7rzy@reddit

I have 2tb and 1tb m.2, 4tb sata ssd, and 18tb exos hdd installed.

I install games on the 2Tb and 1tb.

Just for your information, look for m.2s with SLC cache and have high TBW for 2tb=1200TBW+ and 4TB=2400TBW+

As for what I prefer, Sabrent Rocket which has a rating of 3400 TBW for the 2TB version

TBW= tera bytes written, which means how many terabytes you can write on it till it reaches its end life and switches to read only drive.

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Zuiop2@reddit

Imo depends on your internet connection. For me it takes about three whole days to download e.g. RDR2. I only have 2 tb and they filled up within 3-4 months. Uninstalling games is just not really possible for me, which is why I'll upgrade to 4 tb in the near future. If your internet is good though, I don't see the need.

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insurrectionlst@reddit

Oh yeah, games in 2024 take TOO MUCH storage (yeah i'm mentioning you activison) and sure, you might not play a lot of games but sooner or later you might need the storage when you're going to do some productivity work on that pc

if you do work on that pc like photoshop, video editing, music making etc. then i dont really see a problem in going with 4TB

if you don't do much work other than games then you can run a 2TB

but do keep in mind that storage prices are pretty low right now too so it wouldnt cost a lot for a 4TB ssd

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EishLekker@reddit

I don’t even game, and I’ve grown out of my 1TB in my six year old system. For me, I would definitely think 2TB is pushing it.

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drayhav@reddit

Get the best 2gb and then buy second ssd if u need it and if ur mobo supports it. If it doesn’t get 4tb

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No_Relationship3328@reddit

I just build my 4th pc and I never had more than 2tb , but this one has 4 tb m.2 and 2tb hdd and it does give a reassuring feeling

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Doobiee420@reddit

I have 2 2TB SSDs and they fill up if I don’t watch it

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Gamer-C@reddit

I'd wholly recommend the 4TB.

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ImJustStealingMemes@reddit

More storage is always good

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smalltincan@reddit

Thinking about this myself as well. I only ever used an M.2 in my first ITX build 5 years ago, was used as a boot drive/program drive at 500gb.

On another note, how are temps on 4tb M.2s? Would I need to get a third party cooler for my M.2 at 4tb?

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fannyflour@reddit

Obivous if 2TB not enough for you, go for 4TB.

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2high4much@reddit

I wish I got 4tb ssd only tbh

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sousuke42@reddit

How much space you need is up to you. You are the only person who can answer that. In my rig I have a 1tb ssd, 2tb ssd, 4tb ssd and a 4tb hdd. The 3 ssds are m2s and my board has one more m2 slot (was a pain in the ass to find a board that has 4 m2 slots). Also have multiple external drives.

Here's the thing, you only have a finite amount of m2 slots on your mobo as well as sata ports. You don't want a lot of small droves eating up all your connections. Cause sooner or later you are then stuck with external ssds/hdds which means you are now stuck with USB 3 speeds which are limited to about 1000MBps.

Now you can always get a m2 expansion card later but that now relies on you to have a full ATX. Mini-it's doesn't have one and a m-atx isn't the best due to having another card so close to the gpu.

So it's up to you on how you want to tackle this problem. I suggest if you only have 2 m2 slots, at least one of them should be a larger size ssd.

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Mr_Dr_Prof_Derp@reddit

Get the 4TB and it will last longer.

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dedsmiley@reddit

I have a 2TB and a 4TB in my laptop. I use it for everything and each are half full.

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skywindrushing@reddit

I went with 1 tb + 4tb , I do not regret it , its half full and i have plenty space left if i will need it , but its for me . Just go with what feels better for you

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Gwiz84@reddit

2 TB is enough unless you need to have like 10+ games installed all at once. Don't worry about it.

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ELLavarropas@reddit

Storage it's never enought, if you have it, You will full it.. applies for al types of then Even virtual

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be_better_10x@reddit

4tb is not overkill if you have a great deal on it.

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littledogbro@reddit

i do special effects work for my old friends from back in the day, and 2x32 for 64 gb ram was barley cutting it. and had a 4 drive pcie nvme slotted quick caddy for one slot to use 4 tb drives and it filled up fast, then one of my friends that i was helping his studio work for rotoscoping saw and said oh no, got me 2x64 sticks of ram and that helped a lot, summary if you can get the max you can now ? as prices are only going up, not down due to greed-flation.do as the others advise and get that extra instead of saying i should have back then, and you will not look back..you will be slapping yourself on the back and grinning ear to ear , as you enjoy what you have. and not ranting and raving , cussing out all those greedy stores and manufactures for taking your hard earned money, and laughing all the way to their banks while not giving you any real deals for your support in their products in your time of need ..sorry to rant , just get the extra storage...

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Oonori@reddit

If you want a local library the more the merrier but it’s mainly about price when considering storage as you can always get more or swap places in case you don’t have let’s say infinite m.2 slots. Having files transfer or copied from one m.2 to another is fairly quick but sitting for a short bit to let it do it if you need to add more storage in the future shouldn’t be a problem at all. I’d just go big no chillin on base in this let’s say personal situation.

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Trypt2k@reddit

I got a 2tb and a 4tb, and had a 1tb pci3 from previous PC.

I basically use my 2tb for OS and programs and personal docs, the 1tb for downloads (since it's old already I don't mind writing to it all the time), and the 4tb for installed games and movies/shows. At first I thought it was overkill but now I'm down to like 1TB available so I'll have to start deleting lol.

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SportsNut76@reddit

Games take up so much storage now, if a 4tb is in your budget, go for it.