Why 1TB of storage is no longer enough for a gaming laptop
Summary
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512 GB is not enough, as it quickly fills up with modern games and applications.
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2TB is the ideal solution for most gamers, because 1TB may not be enough and 4TB is too expensive.
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Most gaming laptops have a secondary M.2 slot that makes it easy to upgrade storage later.
If you’re buying a gaming laptop, don’t neglect storage. With games taking up more space than ever, this is one of the most important specs to consider. NVMe drives are fast but expensive, and skimping here can quickly blow your budget. So how much storage do you really need?
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512 GB is NOT enough
First of all, a 512GB SSD isn’t actually 512GB: it only has about 476GB of usable storage after formatting. This is because manufacturers use decimal units to label storage, while computers use binary units.
You probably already know this if you’re into computers, but the difference in labeling can still be confusing when you’re shopping for storage. I even forgot about it myself and was a little disappointed when my 2TB NVMe showed “only” 1.81TB.
Modern games take up a lot of space, and it doesn’t make much sense to buy a high-performance laptop and not have space to store your games.
A single AAA game can easily take up between 100 and 150 GB. Add in your operating system, a few essential programs, and a few extra files, and you only have enough space for a single game and maybe a few indie titles before you reach or exceed 80% of your capacity (which you should consider the maximum, anyway).
With constant uninstalls, downloads, and reinstalls, things get old quickly. And that’s assuming games don’t continue to grow in size, which is what all the trends suggest.
Realistically, the only time a 512GB SSD might make sense in a gaming laptop is if you only play esports and lighter titles and don’t store larger files on the laptop.
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2TB is the ideal solution right now
Whether you’re buying a gaming laptop or a desktop, your storage needs will be similar if you plan to play the latest games, and many will agree that 2TB is a very good sweet spot right now. This will give you plenty of space to install many of the latest AAA games, as well as as many indie and older titles as you want, while still giving the SSD some room to breathe.
Sure, 4TB is even better, but at that point you’re spending a lot of money on storage that you could have allocated to a better GPU, CPU, or display instead.
My colleague Monica did a great job explaining why 1TB SSDs aren’t a good deal, especially if you want to leave some free space to help the drive perform optimally. In the case of gaming PCs where you purchase the NVMe separately, I completely agree.
For laptops, 2TB is still the ideal solution, but you could argue that 1TB is enough if you only plan to play two or three games at a time, or if the laptop has expandable storage – more on that in a moment.
This is mainly because you will likely end up paying extra when you order the laptop directly from the manufacturer.
The good news is that it can also come with additional RAM at a surprisingly reasonable price, considering the recent rise in DRAM prices. You might as well buy all the RAM and storage you need now while prices are still somewhat reasonable.
Many gaming laptops feature expandable storage
If you don’t think it through and order a gaming laptop with insufficient storage, it’s not the end of the world. Unlike typical laptops and ultrabooks, the vast majority of gaming laptops feature expandable storage.
In fact, most of them have more than one M.2 slot precisely because games take up a lot of space. This means you can buy the cheapest model with 1TB of storage today, and if you find you need more space for your games in a few years, you can add another 1TB or 2TB drive in the secondary slot.
Even one of the thinnest gaming laptops on the market, the Razer Blade 16, has two M.2 slots that can each accommodate up to 4TB. The only caveat is that they have to be on one side (the chips are all on one side to allow for a thinner drive).
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a modern gaming laptop that doesn’t have expandable storage (although I’m sure you’ll find one if you look hard enough).
Some ultra-thin and convertible 2-in-1s may have expandable storage, but they only have a single M.2 slot.
This makes it harder to justify upgrading storage instead of just spending more upfront, because upgrading also means reinstalling the OS and everything else on the laptop, as well as finding a home for the old NVMe.
Examples of gaming laptops with a single M.2 slot include the smaller Razer Blade 14, the Acer Predator Triton 14 AI, and the ASUS ROG Flow Z13.
Unfortunately, even though a brand may have two or more M.2 slots in its laptops, they rarely go out of their way to inform you when a laptop only has one M.2 slot. So keep your eyes peeled and check reviews before pulling the trigger: it’s a costly mistake to make.
- Storage capacity
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2 TB
- Hardware interface
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PCIEx4
The WD_Black 2TB SSD is ideal for gaming. It offers read speeds of up to 7,300 MB/s and has an optional heatsink. The player includes wd_black dashboard software to monitor health and customize RGB lighting on compatible models.
Also, don’t forget about storage beyond games
Even though games are the main storage consumer, remember that you need space for everything else too. Your operating system, files, and productivity tools all take up space. If your workflow involves large files or you like to cut up game recordings, you’ll fill even a few terabytes in no time.
And if you’re buying a gaming laptop, there’s a non-zero chance that it’s your primary computer rather than a secondary device to a gaming computer. I’m even going to go out on a limb and guess that you probably don’t have a NAS either, which means your laptop is one of the few devices you use for storage aside from your phone.
While you can get an external SSD to store less frequently accessed files like videos, photos, and music while keeping the faster internal NVMe for gaming, it’s much more convenient to have all your files in one place. Plus, you’d be paying for that external drive anyway, so you might as well put that storage inside the laptop.
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