Need more storage space on my PC what route to go?

[jasher11]

so basically at the moment i have a slow 500gb HDD and need to up my storage space as its only got 30gb left.

currently my options are:

SSD (max 120gb as any more is too expensive) - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120gb-sandisk-ultra-ii-7mm-slim-25-ssd-sata-iii-6gb-s-read-550mb-s-write-500mb-s-81000-iop

SSD cache with HDD 500gb - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/32gb-sandisk-readycache-25-ssd-sata-iii-6gb-s-to-use-with-existing-hard-drive-to-provide-extra-perfo + http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500gb-hgst-travelst0ar-z7k500-25-sata-6gb-s-hard-drive-7mm-7200rpm-32mb-cache

HDD 1tb - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-toshiba-dt01aca100-35-hdd-sata-iii-6gb-s-7200rpm-32mb-cache-8ms-oem

SSHD 1tb - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-seagate-st1000dx001-sshd-hybrid-hdd-35-sata-6gb-s-64mb-cache-8ms-oem-ncq

any others i cant think of then please suggest them

 

[LostAlone]

You need to think about what you actually need your storage for before we can really help you.

I'd definitely advise anyone to grab an SSD for their OS, because that's a really nice performance improvement and really helps you noticeably on a day to day basis. But if you specifically need lots of space then an SSD is a bad use of your money. You have to put what you need above what would be nice. SSD's a very expensive way to get more storage but are a pretty cheap way to make a system feel much snappier.

On a personal level, I'm something of a digital pack rat myself and I'd strongly suggest that you don't do what I did for a long time in just buying more hard drives to contain your constantly growing library of junk almost none of which you actually use on a day to day basis. So go look at how you use your hard drive at the moment. If you are storing lots of media then don't get a new hard drive. Archive stuff on DVD-Rs or just outright delete anything that you can get again with little to no worry. Uninstall games you don't play anymore too, and applications too. Just clear the out space. You'll find there's a lot more than you thought if you stop being so precious about deleting things.

If you are on a limited budget, the best thing to do is to change your behavior. You'd be shocked how little space you actually make use of if you think about it that way. It's just bad to enable yourself by expanding out archive storage that you don't make frequent use of. When you run out of room in the attic, that's the time to think about throwing stuff away, not thinking about renting a storage space.

Spend the cash on something that you'll actually really enjoy, instead of dropping it to put off the time before you have to admit you have a problem.

 

[jasher11]

You need to think about what you actually need your storage for before we can really help you.

I'd definitely advise anyone to grab an SSD for their OS, because that's a really nice performance improvement and really helps you noticeably on a day to day basis. But if you specifically need lots of space then an SSD is a bad use of your money. You have to put what you need above what would be nice. SSD's a very expensive way to get more storage but are a pretty cheap way to make a system feel much snappier.

On a personal level, I'm something of a digital pack rat myself and I'd strongly suggest that you don't do what I did for a long time in just buying more hard drives to contain your constantly growing library of junk almost none of which you actually use on a day to day basis. So go look at how you use your hard drive at the moment. If you are storing lots of media then don't get a new hard drive. Archive stuff on DVD-Rs or just outright delete anything that you can get again with little to no worry. Uninstall games you don't play anymore too, and applications too. Just clear the out space. You'll find there's a lot more than you thought if you stop being so precious about deleting things.

If you are on a limited budget, the best thing to do is to change your behavior. You'd be shocked how little space you actually make use of if you think about it that way. It's just bad to enable yourself by expanding out archive storage that you don't make frequent use of. When you run out of room in the attic, that's the time to think about throwing stuff away, not thinking about renting a storage space.

Spend the cash on something that you'll actually really enjoy, instead of dropping it to put off the time before you have to admit you have a problem.

the storage is for games primarily, the os is on the HDD at the moment and if i got an SSD i would try move it across to the SSD
i have about 80 games in my steam library and about 20 i will play within the period of a month which sorta sucks as games are so large now (especially Arma 3 + 2 with all their mods i use) my arma 3 is like 60GB cuz i have so many modpacks and with GTA V in march i will need more space for that

Thought: i will need another HDD some time it just depends if i get it now in the form of a regular HDD or one with extra trimmings to make me feel better whilst i wait for a SSD

 

[nirjhar mistry]

If want just storage then go with HDD else SSHD

 

[loren3807]

yes for sure... i purchased a Samsung 850 pro to run my OS on and then i also purchased a 2tb Hitachi hdd to store all my random files and games on

honestly if i were you i would urge you to avoid seagate drives due to the high failure rate
http://www.maclife.com/article/news/backblaze_says_hitachi_hard_drives_survive_longest_seagate_fails_most

i picked up my 2tb Hitachi for 65$ on amazon

 

[nirjhar mistry]

yes for sure... i purchased a Samsung 850 pro to run my OS on and then i also purchased a 2tb Hitachi hdd to store all my random files and games on

honestly if i were you i would urge you to avoid seagate drives due to the high failure rate
http://www.maclife.com/article/news/backblaze_says_hitachi_hard_drives_survive_longest_seagate_fails_most

i picked up my 2tb Hitachi for 65$ on amazon

That's why I ditched Seagate and moved on with WD.