Gaming PC storage in 2026, what size actually makes sense?

Posted by patrikhultgren@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 28 comments

My teenage son is thinking about upgrading his gaming PC. What storage size do people think makes the most sense these days without overspending?

He uses Steam a lot, so it’s easy enough to redownload games when needed. But at the same time, it’s nice to have enough space so you don’t have to keep uninstalling things all the time.

What would you recommend for a gaming PC in 2026? And besides storage size itself, what else is worth thinking about when buying storage today?

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tjtj4444@reddit

Well 2TB is nice to have but also expensive today. 1TB will also work ok since you have good internet.

It is easy to add an extra SSD later, just make sure the motherboard have place for two NVME drives.

So choosing "only" 1TB will not be a bad choose at least in that case.

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patrikhultgren@reddit (OP)

He plays quite a lot and wants to build his own PC by buying all the parts separately. Gaming will definitely be the main use for the computer.

We could move the storage from his current PC, but that would probably make it harder to sell the old one as a complete system.

I also don’t have any network storage or NAS at home, so the PC itself would need enough space.

Maybe 2 TB would be a good choice then?

Are there other important things we should think about when buying storage? And can he just go with any brand?

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X3m9X@reddit

Ask about what type of games does he play

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patrikhultgren@reddit (OP)

He play games like Fortnite, Overwatch, Subnautica, Minecraft, Hogwarts Legacy, Trailmakers and Raft.

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patrikhultgren@reddit (OP)

2TB NVMe SSD seems to be the thing then! Should we consider heatsink? Or is it unnecessary?

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schrodingersOdderon@reddit

I would say not strictly necessary, but very nice to have if the price diff is not much (it usually isn't).

But do check your motherboard (in the manual, or online, or just write your motherboard model number here), some have built-in heatsinks for m.2 nvme slots if you install the storage there a separate heatsink is not needed.

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patrikhultgren@reddit (OP)

We haven’t decided on the motherboard yet. I know he wants an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU and an ASUS 9070 XT graphics card, so I guess that will affect the motherboard choice quite a bit.

When I was into gaming years ago, Intel was what I always preferred, but it seems like things have changed quite a lot since then.

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schrodingersOdderon@reddit

I see, maybe check what motherboards you get before getting the heatsink, a lot of them have built in

But great choices, the GPU is best price-performance right now for gaming and AMD does make better gaming CPUs, specially the x3d ones (if he's thinking about 7800x3d or 9800x3d).

I'm not from the US, but if you are microcenter often sells bundles with the 7800x3d or 9800x3d along with a motherboard and 32GB of RAM, which have a good price and its already like half your setup done

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Euphoric_Lynx_6664@reddit

If he plays a lot of big games the. 2 tb is the minimum. If he only plays 1-3 main games, tb is more than enough. Im running at 512 gb and I have two games total (175 gb). Definitely wouldn't recommend anything less than 1 tb though.

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Bentwingbandit@reddit

Get a pair of 2TB or larger hard drives and mirror together for redundancy and backups. They are dirt cheap.

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Kitchen_Canary_6387@reddit

As someone who just upgraded from a 1tb sata to a 2tb nvme, I strongly encourage the latter. The load times on the nvme disk have been noticeably faster. I was able to find a used Samsung for $210. Just make sure it’s a reputable seller who shows you the disk health info.

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number8888@reddit

2TB had the sweet spot for price vs size. Depending on the MB chosen there might not be many M2 slots for future expansion so don’t want to go too small.

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No-Possession-2685@reddit

I tend to go down the route of a smaller drive for the operating system, generally 512Gb ,with a 2Rb or more storage drive. The price of SSD's right now makes that a bit of a challenge though.

However, don't be drawn into the "It must be Pcie 5.0" trap. PCIE 4.0 is plenty fast enough, and you'll not notice the difference in speed 👍

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SnooPandas2964@reddit

2TB. Though it might be cheaper to get 1TB*2. It will use more slots so less room for expansion in the future, but ssd prices are seriously crazy right now.

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Charkletini@reddit

2tb nvme just makes most sense, a lot of games now are easily over 100gb

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UFCLulu@reddit

2 tb is enough to be comfortable. 3-4 is where you can store plenty of games videos etc without worrying a lot. 8 tb if you want to download half of a shitty call of duty game.

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Aggressive_Deer_7072@reddit

Honestly 2TB feels like the sweet spot now. 1TB fills up way faster than people expect once you have a few giant games installed lol

I’d care more about getting a decent NVMe SSD than chasing massive storage numbers.

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Anon0924@reddit

I’d call 1Tb the minimum. The most recent Call of Duty alone fills most of a 500gb drive.

Aside from capacity, the most important factor is speed. HDDs are far too slow for modern systems. They still have their place in more archival applications, but they don’t belong in a gaming PC.

The fastest drives are NVMe SSDs, but the slower SATA SSDs are still acceptable for gaming.

SSDs also come in a few form factors. M.2 is usually preferred for convenience as 2.5” drives require a bit more effort to install.

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Zesher_@reddit

I'd go with a 2TB SSD if it's in the budget. If you have super fast Internet, you can get away with 1TB because while swapping out games is inconvenient, it would be quick, and usually people only play a few games in a given week. Deleting a game on steam does not delete the save data, so they could delete the game and redownload it later without losing any of their progress.

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WooHooWarfare@reddit

2tb

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Immediate-Cloud-1771@reddit

1tb is enough for me. When i need some space, i just delete the games i dont play anymore. Only cs is permanent, others come and go.

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Hopeful_Country_7979@reddit

Most people i know have some sort of network storage these days.

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kmkm2op@reddit

1tb minimum and 2tb recommended if gaming is the primary use. 3+tb recommended if you want to store alot of stuff like media, projects and documents. There are some people who still go with 512gb but that's only if you a play few esports titles and don't store much on your pc.

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FireFalcon123@reddit

In 2026 the PC should at least be using sata ssds.

However, I have given HDDs to friends who need storage upgrades in 2020-2026 who have appreciated the size over the speed, mainly for the type of games, apps and LTS they need.

The minimum would be 256GB (this is more for friends and family who have never done PC gaming before and just need something for a month or 2 to get serious), but I tend to offer 512GB-2TB. 256GB (especially with the ram and storage-pocalypse) may be necessary.

Also make sure to keep all the old drives from the 1st PC.

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