What storage size is recommended for a Windows workstation that is also used for 4K gaming

[modeonoff]

Hi, the Windows 7 partition on my old computer is 500G. It is almost full. For my new Windows 10 workstation, I am considering to get 1TB. If I also use the same computer for 4K gaming, how much extra disk space is recommended? I have not played any 4K game before so I don't know the recommended stoarage requirements. I can't estimate. Maybe I store/play 5-10 4K games in the computer per year? Is NvMe M.2 better?

 

[InvalidError]

Few games have optional high-resolution textures that are exclusively for 4k, so gaming resolution has very limited bearing on storage requirement. The storage you need is whatever will fit the games you want to keep on it regardless of resolution.

1TB is enough for about a dozen modern wallet-ripping, DLC-ladden, microtransaction-plagued 'AAA' games. Depending on how many games you want to keep on the ready, 2TB may be more comfortable.

 

[modeonoff]

Thanks. I use NvME for work storage. For 4K gaming, does the speed of the SSD matter? Will I see noticable different in performance between NvME M.2 and SATA III? For example, Samsung 970 EVO 2TB vs. Samsung 860 2.5" SATA III 2TB.

 

[InvalidError]

SATA HDD vs SSD is a huge performance upgrade due to SSDs having 20-50X lower random access latency. If you have at lest 16GB of RAM though, most recently used data will be cached in RAM and you only get the "HDD penalty" the first time something gets loaded. I personally don't mind leaving my games on my 1TB WD Black HDD.

SATA vs NVMe SSD makes a much smaller difference in most everyday uses since software spends a significant amount of time processing data as it gets loaded.

 

[modeonoff]

SATA HDD vs SSD is a huge performance upgrade due to SSDs having 20-50X lower random access latency. If you have at lest 16GB of RAM though, most recently used data will be cached in RAM and you only get the "HDD penalty" the first time something gets loaded. I personally don't mind leaving my games on my 1TB WD Black HDD.

SATA vs NVMe SSD makes a much smaller difference in most everyday uses since software spends a significant amount of time processing data as it gets loaded.

Thanks. I have 64GB RAM.

 

[modeonoff]

For 2TB SSD, which is faster? 970 EVO or 970 PRO? Is the difference noticable?

 

[USAFRet]

For 2TB SSD, which is faster? 970 EVO or 970 PRO? Is the difference noticable?

In a blind test, I defy anyone to tell the difference in your stated use case.

 

[InvalidError]

For 2TB SSD, which is faster? 970 EVO or 970 PRO? Is the difference noticable?

As I have already written earlier, the difference from SATA to NVMe SSD is already small in most everyday uses. The main benefits of Pro vs EVO are higher endurance, higher IOPS and higher sustainable write speed. Typical everyday home user/gamer workloads are mostly large random reads. Unless you are running a massive database or something else of the sort that generates massive amounts of small random read-writes, you aren't going to see much benefit from it.

 

[modeonoff]

For 2TB SSD, which is faster? 970 EVO or 970 PRO? Is the difference noticable?

As I have already written earlier, the difference from SATA to NVMe SSD is already small in most everyday uses. The main benefits of Pro vs EVO are higher endurance, higher IOPS and higher sustainable write speed. Typical everyday home user/gamer workloads are mostly large random reads. Unless you are running a massive database or something else of the sort that generates massive amounts of small random read-writes, you aren't going to see much benefit from it.

Sorry. I meant the NVMe SSD version of 970 EVO and 970 PRO. I do data science also.

 

[InvalidError]

Sorry. I meant the NVMe SSD version of 970 EVO and 970 PRO. I do data science also.

I know you meant NVMe 970 since there is no such thing as an SATA version of the 970.

Unless your data science stuff is heavy on writes, you aren't going to gain much from paying the hefty premium for Pro vs EVO.