Boot drives rarely get attention. The type and capacity of your C: drive greatly affects how fast your system boots, how fast your programs load, and how long you need to tap your toe before actually starting a game.
By default, this is where all programs are installed and files are downloaded. The boot drive is a potentially big bottleneck for everything you do with your operating system. So why are boot drives in most modern PCs still so small? The experience is thankfully a thing of the past.
How far have SSD prices fallen? Intel’s X25-m launched in 2008 with his 80GB model for $595. Ten years later, I bought a Crucial MX500 drive with 25 times the capacity of an Intel drive (2TB) for about a third of that price ($209). Since then, prices have continued to climb, with some of the more affordable 4TB M.2 SSDs often hitting just above the $200 mark.
But even with today’s premium laptops and gaming gear, system sellers (whether boutique builders or well-known PC makers) seem out of touch with the realities of modern pricing and storage needs. often
ever since The last time I wrote about this issue was a few years ago., things have improved a bit on the consumer and business side, where storage capacity needs are somewhat lower for many. doing. With so many of us storing stuff in the cloud it’s probably plenty of space for most office and home/school users still the first model to step up to a 1 TB drive he’s $1,349 . Sure, that extra cost quadruples the RAM of his and also gives you a high-end (Core i7) CPU.
But the retail price difference between a reasonably fast 512 GB and a 1 TB SSD is roughly $15-$30.Therefore, those who think that Might be so If you need more than 512 GB of storage in your laptop, you should strongly consider stepping up to a 1 TB boot drive. The cost should not exceed $50 to $100. at most Given the minimal cost difference between these drive capacities, there is no need to select that option. Obviously big companies like Dell buy drives in bulk and can price them much better than I can when surfing Newegg.
Then there are gaming PCs where storage is much more important. Over the last few months, I’ve seen several pre-built rigs (laptops or desktops) with 1TB SSD boot drives at prices ranging from $2,000 to $5,000. 1 TB is now definitely better than half that capacity. But many modern game installs are approaching 200GB. This does not include DLC. Unless you plan to install several games at once, you obviously want something more spacious.
There are fast 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSDs available at retailers for around $150. At the time of writing this, Samsung’s 2TB 990 Pro (best SSD According to our testing) sells for $180, and WD’s excellent SN850X was just $160. A 1 TB version of the same drive is $60-$65 cheaper. That’s a small price difference for doubling drive capacity on systems that often cost thousands of dollars.
In recent memory, the worst criminals on the front lines of mobile gaming are Razor’s Blade 16It’s a generally expensive laptop (thanks in part to the nifty dual-mode Mini-LED display). But all models of the laptop at the time of writing come with a 1 TB SSD, with the largest RTX 4090 model including a 2 TB SSD and costing as much as $4,299.99! Please provide us with reasonably spacious storage options.
These days, if you’re spending $2,000 or more on a gaming console, I think it’s reasonable to spend about 1/10th of that cost on the drive responsible for running the OS and games (i.e. at least a 2TB SSD) . No matter how fast your graphics card or CPU is, a cramped boot drive can lead to a frustrating gaming experience.
Given the continued drop in SSD prices, here are some guidelines for what to expect from PC makers in 2023. My ego isn’t exaggerated enough to think that big companies would change their plans based on my advice. But sticking to these capacities and price points for your PC’s boot drive, at least for what I’ve personally reviewed, should be beneficial to your system’s overall score. A PC that adheres to these reasonable storage rules is to provide potential buyers with a better experience.
Under 512GB: Unless you’re on a sub-$300 budget laptop, you shouldn’t consider this cramped capacity. These days, many drives start at 500 or 512GB, and decent options in that capacity range can be found for under $40, although lower capacities generally cost around $30. well worth the extra $10, even if it’s passed on to .
512GB: This should be considered an absolute minimum for mainstream systems. Especially if you don’t have a spare M.2 slot or secondary storage drive.
1TB: This is the minimum for a gaming PC. Even if it’s a budget laptop ( Best laptop under $1000., you should get a system with a 1 TB drive. Choosing the 512 can help you deal with performance issues due to space by the time you install recent AAA games, an OS, and a few major programs. best pc build pagethere are $800 builds with 1 TB drives, so it’s affordable.
2TB: Any “creator” or gaming-focused PC priced well over $2,000 should come with a 2TB SSD boot drive by now. It doesn’t have to be the best drive in its class.However, with options such as 2TB PCIe 4.0 Solidigm P41 Holds Near $100 (opens in new tab)people with serious storage needs don’t have to fiddle with bits and bytes around a cramped 1TB SSD.
These guidelines should also be considered by anyone building their own system. We recommend her NVMe drives for performance-critical systems (such as gaming and content creation devices). 2 TB drives are now the norm for most people doing more than basic productivity tasks. In fact, 4 TB drives are becoming very affordable, with some well-regarded models dropping to around $200. He’s got so many 2TB drives these days, and he would have bought one, except he owns at least five. No storage issues, but I don’t need to explain the affordability of his SSD these days.
Note: As with all editorials, the opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer, not of Tom’s Hardware as a team.
