John Chad, Bachelor Degree in Computer Science & Computer Engineering.
Russel Collins
If you’re reading this article it’s probably because you want to know whether a 128GB SSD would be enough storage space to have a bunch of games in it. If so, you’ve come to the right place! We’ll help answer your questions below. First off, let me explain exactly how they work.
An HDD (or traditional hard disk) consists of one or more platters with a magnetic coating that are mounted on a spindle inside a protective casing. There may also be other parts such as read-only memory (ROM), but these aren’t used very often. SSDs (also known as flash drives) have no moving parts like these disks, which means faster access times, lower power consumption, quieter operation, etc. Instead, there are tiny microchips called NAND cells arranged into blocks of memory.
The key point here is that, unlike traditional hard drives, their storage medium is non-volatile. This allows them to be far faster while storing & moving information (such as game files) than standard hard drives are. The downside is that there is a physical limit to how small each cell can become, which means that larger drives tend to cost more.
How Much Do Game Installs Usually Take Up, On Average?
When talking about video games, the term “installation” basically refers to all the data needed to run the actual software itself. These include things like graphics drivers, fonts, sound effects, background music, textures, model meshes, animation sequences, level maps, save states, user interface elements, etc. For simplicity, let’s assume we’re only looking at the full installation files.
As a general rule of thumb, most installations will end up taking up anywhere between 2GB and 100GB of space. Obviously, this depends entirely on the type of game, its complexity, and the system requirements. However, it’s safe to say that you won’t see massive installations over 100GB unless you’re playing something really big like Grand Theft Auto V with a bunch of mods of ARK with all DLCs which can go all the way up to 250GB.
Note that while install sizes can vary wildly depending on the developer, these numbers are still pretty accurate across multiple platforms. So don’t worry too much about installing games yourself instead of using Steam and downloading everything through the cloud.
Am I Getting Any Kind of Performance Benefit From Having an SSD?
Yes, absolutely! Even though SSDs are smaller than regular hard drives, they offer so much more speed that they can easily outperform regular hard drives by several orders of magnitude. And since modern SSDs are built with higher capacities in mind, you shouldn’t ever feel bottlenecked even after adding hundreds of gigabytes worth of content to your computer.
They just happen to be significantly better for certain tasks. For example, loading large amounts of data from a local source such as a CD takes longer on an SSD than it does on a regular hard drive due to the lack of spinning media. But once you start accessing data already on the SSD itself, you’ll notice that read speeds are much quicker than those of a regular hard drive.
Most importantly, however, is that SSDs don’t suffer from mechanical failures like hard drives do. Since SSDs use extremely durable chips made out of special materials rather than fragile magnets, they can withstand thousands upon thousands of read/write cycles without breaking down. Hard drives, on the other hand, are subject to hard crashes and other damage that occur over time with usage.
So what size should I get then? What about those “bigger” sizes found in many online stores?
Nowadays, most people who own PCs tend to go with 512GB or 1TB models, mostly because they’re offered at a similar price to bigger options with less storage capacity. While bigger is definitely better, you shouldn’t try to force your budget beyond what makes sense for you. After all, you could get a 1TB external USB 3.0 hard drive for less money than a 512GB SSD.
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of buying the biggest possible option available, especially if you never had one before. In fact, some manufacturers advertise ridiculously high prices for their “largest” products simply because they don’t make sense otherwise. Don’t fall victim to these marketing gimmicks! Remember that the main thing that matters here is the amount of storage you actually need, plus whatever else fits within your budget.
And remember, you don’t necessarily have to buy directly from manufacturers either. You might find great deals on refurbished items on sites like eBay. Just search around and look for deals that match your needs. It doesn’t hurt to ask your friends or family members, either.
Is a 128GB SSD Enough For Gaming in 2022? – Verdict
In our opinion, it really isn’t, it’s good enough for installing windows 10 or so, however, it’s not enough for gaming as at best you’ll be able to hold 2 or 3 games in the SSD, we would recommend a bare minimum of 256GB instead.
Hopefully, now you have a good idea of the answer to your question.
Good luck on whichever path you choose! Hopefully, you got the answers you were looking for. Got any additional advice you think other readers might appreciate? Share with us in a comment down below!