You should start your search with considering how much space you need first. 1 Tb is usually the minimum I’d recommend to anyone. It’s enough to get the job done, but if you download multiple games at once, it’ll get filled up pretty quick.
There’s something called Read / Write speeds. Typically you’ll want about 6000+ MB/s speeds for Read / Write. Write speeds will affect how fast you can save or download large files. Read speeds will affect how fast you can open files, games, load a new section (of the game or file), etc.
In the early 2000’s, we had HDD’s which were mechanical and slow. They’re still around, but mostly used for storage camera footage for security purposes. We have primarily 2 types of SSD’s. M.2’s and SATA. SATA is upgrade from HDD’s and dramatically improved SSD speeds. They used SATA ports and required cables to plug to the motherboard.
Now, we’re at the era of M.2 SSD’s where SSD’s are about the size of a thumb drive and connect directly to the motherboard. They also have dramatically improved SSD speeds compared to SATA SSD’s as well. A motherboard will typically support 1-3 M.2 SSD’s and 3-4 SATA SSD’s.
General rule of thumb:
- Get an M.2 SSD
- Get 1 TB Storage or more
- Get 3000 MB/s or about 6000+ MB/s. You’ll see a price/performance difference worth getting
- Samsung M.2’s are generally a good brand, but most SSD’s are pretty decent now a days.
Hope this helps! Good luck y’all! Let me know if I got anything wrong or missed something important.
