When you’re shopping for an affordable laptop, its storage space is likely to be one of the most important factors. After all, what good is a computer if it doesn’t have enough space to store your files? But how much storage do you really need?
Do you need 128GB, 256GB, or even more? And can a smaller storage capacity laptop be useful for anything other than lower-cost online shopping?
Let’s take a closer look at how much SSD space you need for your laptop.
How Much SSD Is Enough For Laptop?
How Much SSD Space Will You Need For Normal Use?
The amount of storage you need will depend on your own personal computing needs. In general, you should be able to get along with 256GB or 512GB if you’re careful with your storage use. If you’re a student or use your laptop for everyday office work that doesn’t require a lot of heavy-duty software, you’ll probably be fine with 256GB or maybe even 128GB.
If you use your laptop for image or video editing, or to manage and store large quantities of data for your job, then you’ll probably want to opt for a model with a larger SSD.
What You Can And Can’t Do With 128GB Or Less
If you’re going for a laptop with 128GB or less storage, you should be aware of the limitations this might place on your daily computing. To start with, you won’t be able to install a 32-bit version of Windows 10 on a laptop with a 128GB SSD unless you use an external storage device.
You’ll also be limited in the number of photos, videos, and music you can store on your laptop. You probably won’t be able to fit all of your media files onto a 128GB laptop, especially if you intend to store any large video files. You’ll probably also be unable to install your entire software library on a 128GB laptop.
Is 128GB Enough For Windows 10?
As we’ve seen, a 128GB laptop is a pretty cramped and limited space for a 32-bit Windows 10 installation. Any Windows 10 laptop with 128GB of storage will be a poor choice for heavy office work. A 128GB laptop will also be an uncomfortable choice if you intend to use it as a Windows 10 home theatre PC.
A home theatre PC is a great way to turn an otherwise boring TV into a smart device that you can use to view movies, TV shows, and other media. But you’ll have to be careful not to store too many large files on your home theatre PC, or you’ll risk running out of storage space and crashing your device.
How Much SSD Space Do You Need for Games?
The more storage space you have, the more games you can store on your laptop. So, if you’re a serious gamer, you should probably go for a laptop with as much storage as possible. But for casual gamers, 256GB or even 128GB should be enough. You only need enough storage space to fit your current game collection on your laptop.
You don’t need to store all your old, out-of-date games. As laptops with small storage capacities get older, the old games stored on them will inevitably become unplayable anyway.
256GB Might Be Enough If You Don’t Plan To Store Many Files
If you’re only storing a few thousand photos, a few hundred videos, and a few thousand songs, 256GB should be enough to keep your laptop running smoothly.
You might even be able to squeeze in a bit of gaming with only 256GB if you don’t plan to keep many of your old games.
500GB Or More Is Best For Windows 10 and Games
If you need to use your laptop for almost anything, you should get one with a lot of storage. If you want to install your entire software library, keep your entire photo, video, and music library on your laptop, and still have room for a few games, you’ll need a laptop with at least 500GB of storage.
If you also want to be able to install a 32-bit version of Windows 10 on your laptop and use it as a home theatre PC, you’ll probably want to go for a laptop with at least 1TB of storage.
128GB: Enough Room For The Basics
If you only have a couple of documents, a handful of photos, and a few videos on your laptop, then 128GB should be enough. If you often use your laptop for work, then you probably won’t need much more than this. Sure, you might also want to store some music, photos, and videos, but if you’re only really using your laptop for work-related purposes, 128GB should be enough.
While 128GB is enough to store the basics, it won’t allow you to keep a lot of content on your laptop. You’ll likely want to store everything on your laptop regarding music, photos, and videos.
If you’re a casual user and don’t require a huge amount of storage space on your laptop, then 128GB should be enough. What’s more, 128GB is likely to be the minimum amount of storage space you should consider for casual users.
256GB: A Decent Amount of Storage
If you’re a casual user who uses your laptop every day and wants to store a sizeable amount of media on it, then 256GB is a decent amount of storage space. If you’re not overly concerned about having everything on your laptop, then 256GB should be plenty of storage space for your needs.
If you’re a student, a casual gamer, or often travel with your laptop, you might want to consider 256GB of storage space on your new laptop.
Many users will find having 256GB of storage space on their laptops to be more than adequate. If you’re a casual user, then you’ll likely want to store a reasonable amount of videos, photos, and music on your laptop. You might also want to store documents, presentations, and spreadsheets on your laptop.
In short, if you’re a casual user who wants to store a decent amount of media on their laptop, then 256GB should be more than enough storage space.
512GB: Plenty of Storage For Most Users
If you’re a casual user who occasionally uses your laptop to store a lot of media and documents, then you’ll likely want 512GB of storage. You’ll want even more if you’re a student, an avid gamer, or travel a lot with your laptop.
Having a large amount of storage space on your laptop is always a good idea. Not only will it allow you to keep more on your laptop, but it can also make it easier to organize everything.
You might also want to consider an external hard drive in addition to your laptop’s storage space. Having a large amount of storage space on your laptop is especially useful if you’re a casual user who uses your laptop for various tasks.
1TB: More Than Enough Room For High-Res Videos and Photos
If you’re a casual user who likes to take photos and store high-quality video files on your laptop, then 1TB should be more than enough storage space. If you travel a lot with your laptop or if you’re a student who likes to take a lot of videos, then 1TB might be a bit too much storage space.
If you like to upload your photos to social media, then having 1TB of storage space on your laptop will allow you to keep more on your device.
Having so much storage space on your laptop will make it easier to organize your files and keep everything in one place. That way, you’ll always have your photos and videos stored on your laptop to access them whenever possible. Having plenty of storage space on your laptop makes it easier to store everything you want to keep on your device.
Having a large amount of storage space on your laptop makes storing high-quality video files, photos, and documents easier. Having 1TB of storage space on your laptop is more than enough for most casual users.
Conclusion
A laptop with enough storage space can do anything you need it to do. If you’re careful with your media storage, you can even use a laptop with very little storage space for many different tasks.
If you’re careful to store only the most necessary files on your laptop and you plan to use an external storage device for the rest, you can even get by with a laptop with less than 500GB of storage. As long as you go for a laptop with a large SSD, you can be as versatile as you like.