PC Storage

An M.2 NVMe SSD plugs straight into the motherboard and is the fastest option, ideal for Windows and games. A 2.5 inch SATA SSD is slower than NVMe but still far quicker than a hard drive, and is a cheap way to add solid-state space. A hard drive (HDD) is the slowest but gives you the most capacity per pound, which suits mass storage and backups.

For most people a 1TB drive is the sensible minimum, and 2TB is the comfortable sweet spot once you have a few large games installed. Heavy libraries, video work or lots of media point to a 4TB or 8TB M.2 NVMe SSD, or a large hard drive alongside a fast SSD. A common setup is a fast NVMe drive for Windows and games, with a big HDD for everything else.

PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs are the fastest you can buy, but for gaming the real-world difference over a good PCIe 4.0 drive is small. They shine for large file transfers and professional work. For a gaming PC, a quality PCIe 4.0 2TB NVMe drive is usually the better value, and you can step up to PCIe 5.0 if your motherboard supports it and you want the headroom.

Almost all modern motherboards have at least one M.2 slot, and most drives are the standard 2280 length (80mm). Check how many M.2 slots your board has and which PCIe version they support (4.0 or 5.0) so you get the speed you are paying for. Larger 4TB and 8TB drives fit the same slot, so capacity is rarely a fitment issue.

For a gaming PC, a PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe drive of 1TB or 2TB hits the sweet spot of speed and value. For a PS5 you need a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD with a heatsink that meets Sony's speed requirement, so look for drives listed as PS5 compatible. Either way, NVMe is the format to choose for fast load times.

If you store a lot of video, photos or backups, a hard drive is still the cheapest way to get 4TB, 8TB or more. Many builds pair a fast NVMe SSD for Windows and games with a large HDD for everything else. For network storage or a home server, NAS-rated drives are designed to run reliably around the clock. An external hard drive or external SSD is handy for backups you can unplug.

You can check an SSD's health with free software that reads the drive's SMART data, showing the percentage of life remaining and the total data written. Both manufacturer tools and popular free utilities do this. It is worth a quick check now and then on an older drive, but modern SSDs are rated for years of normal use, so most people never run into trouble.