Space: the final frontier - or in the case of games consoles and gaming PCs, painfully finite.
Yep, with next-gen games getting ever bigger and heavier when it comes to memory demands, running out of storage space is a savagely common issue. So, what’s the answer? Well, you could stick to older, smaller titles, but where’s the fun in that? No, the answer is quite simple: you do the equivalent of tacking a warehouse extension onto your house, and invest in some form of all-powerful, all-capacious hard drive.
Now, I say “some form” as there are two main options, the first being Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and the second being Solid-State Drives (SSDs), the former utilising spinning magnetic platters with moving read and write heads, the latter avoiding moving parts by using flash memory instead. This, of course, means that HDDs are slower than SSDs, but also more affordable.
Best gaming hard drives at a glance
- Best for affordable external HDD storage: WD BLACK P10 Game Drive - £86, WD
- Best for affordable external SSD storage: Kingston XS1000 - £84, Kingston
- Best for powered-up PC performance: Kingston FURY Renegade G5 PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSD - £155, Kingston
- Best for external PlayStation SSD storage: Seagate Game Drive PS5 SSD - £150, Seagate
- Best for uncrackably secure storage: Kingston IronKey Vault Privacy 80 - £262, Kingston
- Best for internal SSD on a budget: SanDisk Extreme M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0 - £64, Amazon
- Best for internal SSD speed demon: Crucial T710 - £175, OverclockersUK
- Best for eminently affordable external SSD: Crucial X10 - £110, Crucial
- Best for internal SSD on a small budget: Biwin Black Opal NV7400 - £63, Amazon
- Best for internal SSD performance, external SSD convenience: ASUS TUF Gaming A1 SSD Enclosure - £41, ASUS
Then, out of those two types, there are also two distinct designs: internal and external. The first, obviously, slotting into the inner workings of your gaming machine of choice, and the second simply plugging in via USB and sitting outside, as if that wasn’t patently apparent to all.
Whichever variant you opt for, load times will be considerably shorter, graphics sharper and gameplay smoother, so an essential accessory for any gamer who considers themselves on the serious side.
Finally comes compatibility and size. In the case of compatibility, check the spec to ensure the hard drive you’re eyeing will play nice with your system. And when it comes to size, well, size matters, so it makes sense to invest in the largest capacity model you can comfortably afford to ensure you’re storage-rich well into the future.
To get you started, we’ve been busy amassing an array of the slickest extra storage options, covering all the elements and options explored above, from some of the biggest names in this hard-driven arena. So, follow us into this final frontier of digital depository and prepare to expand both your space and your horizons.
WD BLACK P10 Game Drive
Best for: Affordable external HDD storage
Offering compatibility across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox X and S series, the Black P10 from Western Digital is an external offering that comes in 2TB, 4TB, 5TB and 6TB flavours, the latter there offering an extended universe of storage space that, given the 36GB size of the average game, can hold up 150 of your favourites.
Eminently portable and solidly built, this high-performance HDD uses a USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface to connect to all of the above and supports transfer speeds of up to 5GB/s, while the read/write rate runs up to 130MB/s, making it a nippy little thing for an HDD.
Run in conjunction with an Xbox S Series which, as you’ll probably know, only comes with a paltry 512GB of SSD storage built-in on the entry level mode, with the option of upgrading to 1TB for an extra £50, instead of paying out that extra bullseye for 1TB in total, pay £86 and add an extra 2TB to your existing 512GB and achieve storage as (possible over-exaggeration alert) expansive as space itself!
Easy to use, too, simply plug the p10 in, head to settings to change the storage option from console to Game Drive, and you’re away.
Available in Black or Pink finishes (the 2TB in Pink oddly costing £6 less than the Black equivalent), prices run thus: 2TB: £86 (£80); 4TB: £110; 5TB: £130; 6TB: £151, all of which make the Western Digital Black P10 Game Drive a decidedly affordable and highly reliable route to achieving acres more storage space.
Specs
Buy now £86.00, WD
Kingston XS1000
Best for: Affordable external SSD storage
As stated in the rambling intro, SSD, being solid-state, makes for a much quicker hard drive system, but because of that they cost more too. So, here we have an external SSD option from one of the kings of storage, Kingston, the XS1000. Available in 1TB and 2TB sizes, here 1TB demands £84 of your wonga, almost the same price as the 2TB WD HDD covered above. However, the XS1000 also ramps up the read and write rates by a considerable clop, with a write rate of 1000MB/s and a read rate of 1050MB/s, which is even zippier than that puppet from Rainbow.
Being an external option, the XS1000 features a 3.2 Gen 2 interface, lending it extensive compatibility and seeing it work seamlessly with Windows, Mac, Chrome, Linux, Android, and other Apple operating systems, for maximum flexibility.
With a case of metal and plastic, the Kingston is robust and as an SSD rather than a HDD is more likely to survive a tumble unscathed, making it an excellent option for gamers on the go, its pocket-sized form adding to that.
A great place to stick the likes of your Steam library for quick and easy access anywhere, the Kingston XS1000 is a rapid-access gaming repository at a more than reasonable price.
Specs
Buy now £84.00, Kingston
Kingston FURY Renegade G5 PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
Best for: Powered-up PC performance
An internal SSD aimed squarely at those who require, no, who demand the ultimate in storage space and absolutely rip-snorting, break-neck read/write speeds, Kingston present the FURY Renegade G5 PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2, an absolute beast of a drive, with three capacity options that tip the scales at just over 1TB, just over 2TB and just over 4TB.
Featuring a Nonvolatile Memory Express (NVMe) storage access system, the FURY can reach read and right speeds of up to an astounding 14,200MB/s and 11,000MB/s respectively, meaning gamers can enjoy absolutely extreme performance that reduces load times to near nothing.
Obviously designed for PC/laptop players, installation can be a bit fiddly, but once you’ve turned your machine off and unplugged it, pop it open your and locate the M.2 slot, then simply align the FURY, insert it and then – the fiddly bit – secure it with the tiny M.2 screw without dropping it countless times and swearing a lot, then it’s in. No cables, no other associated faff; congratulations, you’ve almost upgraded your machine.
Now you just need to initiate and format it, so head into Windows Manager, Disc Management, and ‘Create and format hard disc partitions’, at which point a new window will pop up that details all your drives, right click on the one labelled ‘Unallocated’ and then click on ‘New Simple Volume’, click ‘Next’ on the wizard that appears, ensure that ‘Simple volume disc size’ matches ‘Maximum disc space in MB’, click ‘Next’, assign a drive letter to identify it. Further options will appear, but you can generally ignore them, unless you want to change the volume name to, say, ‘Games’, then click ‘Next’ and then ‘Finish’, and the rest is done for you. When finished, if you open ‘This PC’ you should see your shiny new drive right there.
And that’s it, a few minutes fiddling and, Robert’s your mum’s brother, you just solved your PC or laptop’s storage shortage. Clever you.
Specs
Buy now £155.00, Kingston
Seagate Game Drive PS5 SSD
Best for: External PlayStation SSD storage
Slick, slim and minimalist-matched to the aesthetics of the PS5, the Game Drive PS5 SSD from Seagate comes in 1TB and 2TB formats and, although featuring ‘PS5’ right there in its name, it also works equally well with the PS4 which is an unexpected bonus for those of us that still very much use theirs.
Featuring USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 with cables included, to get up and running, just plug it in, go to your PS ‘Settings’ on screen and select ‘Storage’ click on the drive, and from that point onwards your PlayStation automatically saves downloads and game progress to the Seagate, utterly fuss-free.
Officially licensed by Sony, the Game Drive features read/write rates of 1000MB/s, so zippy enough for most, and the review model proved to be more than capable, even as I downloaded ‘new’ game after new game onto it from PlayStation Plus, pushing it to its limitations, yet still it worked seamlessly and quickly.
Okay, at £150 for the 1TB version and £235 for the 2TB, its pricey, especially compared to the Kingston XS1000 featured earlier, which asks £156 for its 2TB model, but for PlayStation fanatics that want an external SSD drive packing firmware engineered to work specifically with the PS4 and PS5, the extra spend will seem worth it, especially when it comes to the final selling point: the Seagate has a blue LED that makes the whole slender storage package utterly and ineffably cool.
Specs
Buy now £150.00, Seagate
Kingston IronKey Vault Privacy 80
Best for: Uncrackably secure storage
Okay, something a bit different now in the shape of an external SSD that comes imbued with a little something extra that guarantees absolute security for your sacred game vault. This is the IronKey Vault Privacy 80 from Kingston, a storage facility that comes in sizes just shy of 1TB, 2TB, 4TB and 8T, featuring its own independent OS that allows it to mix with Windows, Mac, Chrome, and Linux operating systems, and which only allows access via PIN or password.
Yep, armed with FIPS 197 Certified with XTS-AES 256-bit encryption, a unique touchscreen is the only way into the Vault, and to keep all that data super-safe, if a PIN or password is entered incorrectly 15 times in a row, the driver erases itself! Now, that may seem a little over the top for gaming, but if it’s security you want, it’s security you get.
Read rates vary as per storage size, with the 960GB/s and 1920GB/s models achieving up to 250MB/s, and the 3840GB/s and 7680GB/s options coming in at up to 230MB/s, while the write rate runs at up to 250MB/s, so size, speed and security in spades.
Of course, as with all such multifaceted, advanced tech, the IronKey comes at a price, namely £262 for the 1TB and all the way up to £960 for the 8TB, but if you’re a pro-level gamer who also makes a tidy sum on the side from the likes of live streaming and YouTube, there’s no safer, more secure way to store all your valuable games, data and in-game recordings, so a solid-state investment in your future funds.
Specs
Buy now £262.00, Kingston
SanDisk Extreme M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0
Best for: Internal SSD on a budget
For those looking for an internal NVMe SSD for their PC or laptop but who can’t quite stretch to the cost of the Kingston FURY we looked at earlier, SanDisk can lop over 90 quid off the asking price of a 1TB drive with its Extreme M.2.
What? A whole £90? Well, yes, but there are sacrifices to be made, mainly in the area of read/write rates. Whereas the Kingston offers a read rate of up to14,200MB/s and a write rate of up to 11,000MB/s, the SanDisk musters a more conservative 5150MB/s read rate and a 4900MB/s write rate. But, and this is the point, if you’re not in a rush when it comes to saving or accessing your game data, you can save yourself many a penny.
Installing in exactly the same way as detailed in the Kingston FURY Renegade G5, you can be up and storing in next to no time. And, I suppose, it would be remiss of me not to mention, if you can afford to splash out but still not over £150, you can actually secure yourself a 2TB SanDisk Extreme for just £127.
Specs
Buy now £64.00, Amazon
Crucial T710
Best for: Internal SSD speed demons
If absolute speed matters absolutely when it comes to upgrading your PC or laptop’s storage, then look no further than the Crucial T710 PCle Gen 5 x4 NVMe, an internal SSD that’s faster than a bionic Usain Bolt.
Easy to install, as per the Kingston XS1000 and the SanDisk Extreme, affix it to the inside of your machine, initiate and format, then delight in read rates up to a whopping 14,900MB/s and write rates topping out at an equally astronomical 13,700MB/s.
Available in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB sizes, the T710 allows for gaming at speeds only slowed by you yourself and, of course, for you to see all the finer detail of enhanced gaming that may otherwise be lost, such as reflections and fog, giving you full immersion in the game and, of course, the tactical advantage over your opposition.
With hardware encryption to protect your data, despite the speeds the Crucial T710 also manages to be power-efficient, too, with architecture that runs cooler and consumes almost 25 per cent less power than previous Crucial drives.
So, seamless and blisteringly fast in operation, secure, and even eco-friendly on the leccy and the leccy bills, okay, it’s £175 for the 1TB, £240 for the 2TB and £450 for the 4TB, but if AAA gaming is your life and speed an absolutely crucial aspect of that, these are prices well worth paying.
Specs
Buy now £175.00, Overclockers UK
Crucial X10
Best for: Eminently affordable external SSD
How does 1TB of highly portable external SSD storage for a mere £110 grab you? Thought you’d say that. Welcome to the X10 from Crucial, a decidedly dinky drive that comes with a USB-C 3.2 Gen2 interface to let it interact with all manner of operating systems, namely Windows, Mac, Android, Linux and iOS.
Also available in 2TB, 4TB, 6TB and even 8TB options, the X10 may be small enough to slip into a jeans pocket, but it’s also absolutely mighty, coming capable of a read rate up to 2100MB/s and a write rate of up to 2000MB/s, so more than reasonably rapid, and for those who do like to venture into the great outdoors with their gaming gear, is even IP65-rated for dust and water resistance, along with being drop resistant up to 3-metres, so tougher than the old boots of Chuck Norris himself.
The perfect little take-anywhere games vault to keep you in the online action while on your travels, the Crucial X10, the 1TB represents excellent value for money, but then – and I don’t want to part you from your heard-earned – the 2TB comes in at just £149, so it might just be worth planning your game collection further afield and doubling up…
Specs
Buy now £110.00, Crucial
Biwin Black Opal NV7400
Best for: Internal SSD on a small budget
Imagine adding an extra 1TB of storage to your PC, laptop or PS5 for a shade over 60 quid. Just imagine it. Now stop your imagining, because that’s the inconceivably chips-like cost of the Black Opal NV7400.
Compatible with PC, laptop or PS5, this internal SSD comes in the familiar M.2 2280 form and installs with all the breeziness as detailed earlier in the Kingston FURY Renegade G5 review. So, why so cheap? Well, obviously, priced at well under £100, you’re going to have to sacrifice encryption and speed, certainly, in the latter case, in comparison to the other internal SSDs I’ve looked at here. But that still gives you a read rate of up to 7450MB/s and a write rate of up to 6500MB/s, so you’re still winning!
Also available in a 2TB size for an equally ludicrously low £103 and 4TB for an absolutely piffling £220, if you want to expand your storage without shrinking your bank account, the Biwin Black Opal NV7400 proves fast, efficient and incredibly affordable.
Specs
Buy now £63.00, Biwin
ASUS TUF Gaming A1 SSD Enclosure
Best for: Internal SSD performance, external SSD convenience
Got a spare internal SSD hanging around doing nothing? Or want the pure storage power of an internal without having to pop open your gaming machine of choice and potentially making a mess of its innards? Well, check this out: the Tuf Gaming A1 SSD Enclosure from ASUS; what the name didn’t give away completely, I shall expand on now.
So, military grade (MIL-STD-810H) metal armour with an IP68 water resistance rating for an SSD otherwise unsuitable for the outside world, use the included Allen key to open the case, designed to accept both PCIe NVMe and SATA interfaces, insert your up to 2TB M.2 drive and secure with the built-in M.2 Q-latch, and close up. Now your internal drive connects over USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, meaning it can be put to work with anything from mobile smart stuff to your PC, laptop, and current PlayStations and Xboxes, which is pretty damn cool.
With transfer speeds running at up to 10Gbps, it’s no slouch, either, so not only is your otherwise redundant internal SSD now the Iron Man of the hard drive world, it’s also delivering your data to and fro at a very pleasing pace.
An ingenious way to get all the benefits of an internal solid-state drive in the highly convenient form of an external, the ASUS TUF Gaming A1 SSD Enclosure is the smart way to sort your storage and keep it safe from the wear and tear of the everyday world.
Specs
Buy now £41.00, ASUS
