Looking for an ssd; 250 gb or 500gb?

[porkyzig]

I am looking to purchase a 250 or 500gb ssd to upgrade my current gaming pc, there are no Nvme ssd slots and I only want to use a sata interface and not an add-in card. I was looking at the Samsung 860 evo, and was wondering if there were any cheaper but similar performance alternatives out there? I am going to import many games onto this drive, and with windows 10 installed there should be about 200 gb on 250 gb drive and 450 gb on 500 gb drive, minus maybe ten for formatting.. Idk though. Would 200gb be enough to store a bunch of modern games, or should I step up to the 450 gbs?

 

[USAFRet]

860 EVO:
500GB - $98
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB-Internal-MZ-76E500B-AM/dp/B0781Z7Y3S

250GB - $68
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB-Internal-MZ-76E500B-AM/dp/B07864WMK8

Per GB, the 500GB is cheaper.
Games? All depends on what you play. Some games are ~100GB once you include the DLC. A 250GB won't go far.

 

[porkyzig]

860 EVO:
500GB - $98
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB-Internal-MZ-76E500B-AM/dp/B0781Z7Y3S

250GB - $68
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB-Internal-MZ-76E500B-AM/dp/B07864WMK8

Per GB, the 500GB is cheaper.
Games? All depends on what you play. Some games are ~100GB once you include the DLC. A 250GB won't go far.

So there isn't a cheaper alternative that offers similar performance then?

 

[USAFRet]

So there isn't a cheaper alternative that offers similar performance then?

The only alternatives I'd consider are the WD Blue or a Crucial MX500.
And generally zero price difference between the 3.

 

[Karadjgne]

Whatever you get, figure on @30Gb gone, right off the rip. That's going to cover pagefile and necessary windows space usage, and most probably 6-12Gb in hiberfil.sys (hibernation requirements). Count @60-80Gb just for Windows itself, and all the other OS dependent apps like Adobe and Java that really don't like being on alternate drives, depending on how much you can get rid of or not need. So that's @100Gb gone in necessary stuff.

With a 250Gb drive, you are now down to @150Gb,, ± for games. That could be as little as one, since multiple DLC add-ons can soak up a ton of space. Maybe two and you are maxed out. Or could be 100. Games themselves will determine the number available. That leaves the 500Gb looking like the better deal overall if you want the games on SSD, and not just the main Steam access/saved game files on SSD with the bulk game files on a large HDD.