M.2 vs SSD vs HDD – Best Storage for Gaming

What’s the difference between a M.2 NVMe solid-state drive, a 2.5” SATA SSD and a mechanical hard drive, and which one should you choose for your next gaming PC build?

Speed, capacity, price and more – let’s explain these storage devices and how to choose the best drive.

Check out PC storage over at Ebuyer:

[JalapenoPrime]

I actually have a mix of the 3, m.2 for boot, SSD for current games and a 4tb for older games. All work great!

[JeriDro]

I feel overwhelmed with all the possibilities and choices..

[xtranathor]

This was a great video, thank you! You've quickly taught me the differences between the drives, including the speeds; very informative!

[MushroomGravy]

Found this very helpful thanks my dude.

[ethengreen]

I have a 256gb M.2 SSD for Windows and other programmes. And I have a 4tb Samsung Spinpoint HDD For my game launchers like Steam and Ubisoft Connect and all the games for those launchers. Great Video James. Well done.

[Aboleo]

I got 2 NVMe 2tb each, 2 SSD 4 and 1 TB, 2 HDD 2 TB each, and 1 external wd black 5TB hdd. I mainly keep older games from GoG on my HDD drives and use them for file backup.

[victorrtoxity]

is it a good option to get 1tb nvme and 1tb sata ssd? i will use them just for gaming

[rushgameing]

Back in 2019 I order the 1tb WD SSD blue and the 2tb WD blue hard drive 7200rpm. Both hold up great still but going to install a 2tb nvme SSD as I’ve upgraded my whole pc and now this is the last upgrade. Crazy to see the speed change from 600mbs or 0.6gb/s to 5000-7000 on average now in only 4-5 year time

[RBYW]

outta memory, what do? download to external drive right?
SSD?

[Dshx]

My case can have 2 3.5 hhds or 4 2.5 SSD I was thinking to get a m.2 for boot drive and a 24TB hhd for random stuff like pictures and videos and notes and 2 ssds for games

[DJ-Art-Morris]

Phew glad to hear i made the right call getting a second 2TB PCIe for my FPS and AAA titles and just a good ole 4TB HDD for music photos and older/simpler games. 😅

[IvanGenio]

But what about the limitations of flash memory vs the disk of a HDD? Doesn't that change anything on gamining? You read high amounts of data when launching GTA V or a battle royale, so while the SSD while launch the game faster, it also has a shorter life span, right?

[AndysEastCoastAdventures]

I use gen4 nvme for windows boot, ssd for games & programmes and external usb 3 HD's for media storage. Mainly because of price, media will eventually go on ssd drives at some point. M2 is so much faster than the rest it's beyond compare.

[jacobhawkins]

I got a 8 TB WD Black HDD and its still good for most games

[Reaper]

I have a 1TB HDD in my PC.. Our Walmart.. were I work.. We have a, either 1 or 2TB M.2 for just around $145 (-/+).. and wondered if that was worth getting to put some modern games on that say they require one.

[enjay]

Right now my local pc store has gen 3 m.2 drives for the same cost as 2.5" ssd's. as we can see m.2 is becoming the only way to go

[Phil_AKA_ThundyUK]

Definitely run some form of RAID if you're filling up a 16TB HDD... can you imagine losing that at capacity wowser.

[AlexsTheCat]

In my understanding M.2 SSD that has like 1TB is the best for gaming and i already found my answear

im just gonna use HDD for animation/artwork cuz even tho its slow it has amazing storage :D

[truth-.]

I don't know if using an NVMe over SATA SSD is worth it, the loading time of games difference is just a second or a fraction of a second.

[portman]

M.2 for sure. I'm using 2 sticks 1TB each.