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4 Ways To Find The Right Gaming Hard Drive

Gaming Hard Drive

By: Khalid Wani, Director – Channel Sales, India, Western Digital

Storage capacity and hard drive speed are critical considerations for PC gamers. So how do you choose the best gaming hard drive? Here are four ways that can help you make the right choice.

1. Choose the right capacity 
Always choose a drive that offers more space than you currently need. For many gamers this means starting with a disk space of 1 TB or above. With features such as downloadable content (DLC), video recording and live streaming, capacity gets used up rather quickly. Making an initial investment in a higher capacity drive can pay off in the long run.

2. Select the correct speed
Hard drive speeds impact your gaming experience. A spinning-media hard drive (HDD) that at least runs at 7200 revolutions per minute (RPM) is recommended to avoid any issues which may arise from processor-intensive games. Buy the fastest drive you can afford to be ready for the future.

3. SSD or HDD (or both)
SSDs are more expensive than HDDs but they are great for multi-tasking, consume less power and are quicker to load programs or an OS; however, if you have a lot of games, a traditional HDD drive can ensure you get the right capacity at an affordable price. You can also look at installing both drives, using a smaller capacity SSD to execute key applications and software, and a larger HDD to store games and files.

4. Know your needs
In the end, it all comes down to understanding what your gaming needs are and buying the best you can afford relative to those needs. If you’re setting up a PC rig for casual gaming then you may not need a fast HDD or more expensive SSD. If you’re a hard core gamer who demands power and performance you could look at a hybrid approach.

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can be sure you’ll be making the right choice to improve your gaming experience.

And of course, at Western Digital, we have a range of hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs) in both our WD and SanDisk brands that would be perfect additions to your gaming kit. You can get the best devices from our channel partners or online stores.

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