Laptops are great machines for convenience and are easy to carry anywhere. And they’re also great because laptops are capable of handling anything, from presentations to movies and music collections, and even fully capable of running large and complex applications.
If you plan to buy a new PC or want to upgrade it but are still confused about how much storage I Need on My Laptop. Then this blog post will help you to find out how much storage is perfect for laptops.
Why does Storage space matter?
To avoid running out of space too quickly, it’s essential that you have the right amount of storage on your laptop when purchasing it or upgrading your current one. Because, in today’s tech-savvy society, where everything is digitalized and the size of data is continuously increasing, it’s crucial to have a laptop that can accommodate all of your needs.
And, luckily, many laptop manufacturers have considered this matter and has built many laptops with lots of storage capacity. Although, not everyone’s storage needs is the same. But, they’ve created laptops that allow you to easily upgrade your current storage space or purchase an external hard drive along with your computer.
It is also important to note that because there are so many different configurations, it is always best to check with a specialist before purchasing your next laptop. This will ensure that your new laptop stays within your budget and, more importantly, fits within your storage needs.
What is the best solution, Cloud storage or laptop internal storage?
Due to the vast use of cloud storage in recent years, now people don’t pay much attention to laptops’ internal storage. Because you can use these services to store your entire data securely on 3rd party companies.
Cloud storage is a service that allows users to store data on remote servers. This data can be accessed by the user from any location using any device with an internet connection. At the same time, internal storage is the storage of data on the hard drive.
Both storage types have different pros and cons. Cloud storage provides more standard security than internal laptop storage, as it is less likely that your data will be lost or stolen if your device is damaged or lost. However, cloud storage can be expensive, especially if you can’t afford it every month. And also, in terms of the privacy policy, it is not good to use.
So Internal laptop storage is cheaper than cloud storage for most beginners like you’ve to pay just one time to purchase a hard drive. And you can store more data on a hard drive than you can in the cloud at a reasonable cost.
However, laptop storage is not very reliable and has more risk of data loss. So it can be challenging to choose between cloud and internal laptop storage. It all depends on what you need the most – security or cost. If you need a lot of space with advanced features and your data is not very confidential, cloud storage may be for you. If you need more space but can’t afford it monthly, internal hard drive storage is the way to go.
SSD VS HDD – Which one is perfect?
There are two types of storage devices that allow you to store and retrieve information. They are the Solid State Drive (SSD) and the Hard Disk Drive (HDD). SSDs use solid-state memory, which is not as common as HDD.
They are faster, lighter weight, more power-efficient, less sensitive to shock damage, and more expensive. HDDs have spinning disks made of magnetic material with a read/write head on an arm that moves over the disk’s surface when data is being accessed.
SSDs are also more expensive. It’s recommended to use an SSD for the main computer drive because it’s fast and reliable, making computing operations much faster. You can use an HDD as a secondary drive or backup solution, but not your main drive.
But keep in mind, don’t buy a cheap SSD! A cheap SSD will have poor performance and is likely to be obsolete. So, always check reviews before buying an SSD. A good choice is the Samsung EVO 850 500GB SSD, which is affordable and has excellent performance.
How Much Storage Do I Need On My Laptop
Let’s understand what is the perfect storage capacity for different needs.
What is good Storage for Video Editing?
That depends on how many videos you plan on editing and the type of storage. If you’re doing basic video editing, then a smaller amount of storage should be acceptable; even HDD with low storage space can handle it. However, if you’re doing more complex editing or working with high-resolution videos, then you’ll need a lot more storage.
I would recommend getting at least 500 GB or 1 TB of storage. At this point, you also need to make sure that the hard drive has enough speed to handle the workload with storage capacity. This also varies based on how many videos are being edited and what kind of other hardware configuration the laptop has. If a computer has basic hardware specifications and wants to edit only one video at a time, then you’ll be okay with low storage space.
However, if you want to edit multiple videos and those are high-resolution videos, I would recommend getting an ample storage hard drive with faster speed (7200 RPM). If possible, go for more than 1TB with or more space as the best option.
I would also recommend using an external hard drive with enough space for your videos if you’re looking to save money. This also gives you more flexibility by connecting the external hard drive to different computers or laptops, depending on where you are editing video.
Storage need for gaming
How much storage do you need for gaming? Like video editing, this also depends on the type of games you want to run. If you’re playing casual or older games, then a tiny amount of storage should be enough. However, if you’re into more serious gaming or want to play the latest games, you’ll need a lot more storage.
I would recommend at least a terabyte 1TB (1,000 gigabytes) if you want to do serious gaming. A terabyte storage capacity can store around 50 to 80 standard-sized video games. But 512GB storage is also more than enough for gaming.
How much storage do you need for university work?
A lot of people wonder how much storage is suitable for university work. The answer is, it depends on the students’ needs and what they’re storing in their hard drives. Some students may need to store documents like notes, assignments, data sets, or even large size videos lectures while others might not use files more extensive than a few megabytes (MB).
If you’re looking to store documents from your university work, a good rule of thumb is 1 GB per 50 MB. Let’s do some calculations; let suppose your average word document size is around 200KB or 205KB – the equivalent size to about eight pages. So, if you were storing five such files, it would take up 1 MB of space on your hard drive.
A typical university assignment length of 1500 words could equate to anywhere from one to three documents. In total, without any mathematical calculations, you’d need about 2-4 GB of storage space to store doc assignments as well as all your other documents files until you graduate.
Now let’s consider media files such as videos or images. A high-resolution photo might be around 5 MB per image. So if you have different projects (let say 10) with 50 shots, for example, each project and each photo is 5 MB in size, that would take up about 2.5 GB of storage space. So around 10-20GB of storage is needed to store university projects with pictures files.
Now, let’s think about the data sets you need to store. These could be for lab reports, research projects, or just something that requires a lot of information and storage space. Data sets can differ massively in size, but as a general rule, 1 megabyte (MB) per 100 records is a good thing to remember if your database consists of 10,000 documents. Then you’d need 100 MB of storage space.
But storing pictures, document files, and data sets is not the main concern to having big storage memory. As a student, you need a good storage capacity to store video lectures. Therefore, to handle everything related to study, 512GB is enough and if you want to store a collection of good movies and games along with study material; a 1TB size hard drive will be perfect.
But the best way to decide how much storage you should have is to get details of your files. This involves looking at the files you’ve got on your university work and seeing what each one is used for. This information can help you to decide how much storage space you need.
It might be that you don’t need as much storage as first thought, or perhaps there are files you don’t need anymore (maybe some assignments from last year). Either way, it’s always good to know what’s on your computer and why it is there.
How many GB do you need for a personal laptop?
Total storage space needed depends on different user’s requirements, for example, how much data are you going to store or what types of applications you want to run. Suppose you plan to keep large amounts of data (music, movies, etc.), then the more GB, the better way to handle data such as 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, etc.
Also, HDD hard drives are the best solution to handle such types of data. Since you need lots of storage at a cheap price and speed is not a primary concern. But If you are planning on using your laptop for applications like word processing, spreadsheets, and email, then the amount of space needed is considerably less, like 128GB and 256GB is more than enough.
Storage needs to handle Business data
How many GB do you need to run business applications? Again, this will depend on the type of business application you are looking to run or want to store data. You will likely only need a few GB for setup for basic applications, such as word processing or email.
But for business, it is not the only case; of course, you have to store a backup of the entire industry, whether it is small or large. So, the hard drive in GB size cannot handle such extensive data; the best is to go storage space with Terabytes size.
External hard drive
External hard drives are suitable for storing big data. This is especially helpful if you’re storing heavy backups of data. This can be extremely useful with several plus advantages of using it. For example, if you lose your laptop, an external drive with all of your files can be plugged into another computer to make it work like it was the original one.
They can also be plugged into other computers and be used as a flash drive. Furthermore, it is very easy to use and often comes with software that is easy to configure. You can safely store your pictures or other important documents/files on the external hard drive.
Hard drives are perfect for people who need large amounts of storage but don’t have enough space on their computer and want to keep all of their files on a backup drive at home.
However, if you want to use it as a permanent solution for storing documents and other files, you can install the hard drive on your computer and use it as a second hard drive.
Cloud storage
Cloud storage is the best option for individuals and businesses. It’s safe, reliable, and affordable. Cloud storage offers a range of features that make it the ideal solution for data backup, file sharing, and online collaboration.
Businesses can even integrate cloud storage with Salesforce or other enterprise tools to provide their employees with secure access to files from any location via internet-connected devices such as laptops, computers and even from smartphones and tablets.
Depending on the size of your business, you might need cloud storage that provides anywhere between 1TB to unlimited storage. If you’re starting and your company is still tiny, a cloud storage plan with less than 100GB will do. However, as your business grows and more employees join the company, you should use terabyte storage packages
FAQs on how much storage you neeed
Is 256GB SSD enough for a laptop?
A 256GB SSD should be enough for personal use, but you may need more storage if you plan on storing a lot of files on your device. But later, you can also use an external hard drive if you need more storage if you go with 256GB.
Is it better to have more RAM or storage?
More processing power is better than more storage space because it allows your system to handle multitasking and run multiple programs at once, so you can work on five spreadsheets, web research and email all applications simultaneously without any system performance if you have good RAM.
At the same time, the newest software programs can take up a lot of storage space because they come with many bells and whistles. Therefore, you will need more space to store the most current version of these programs, and they also tend to be more memory intensive. So, in short, RAM and storage both are important, but RAM helps to process faster data executions.
Does more storage mean a faster computer?
Does more storage mean a faster computer? The answer to this question is not as straightforward as one might think. When it comes to the actual speed of a computer, many factors come into play. This includes the type of processor, the amount of RAM, GPU, and of course, the operating system.
Also, storage can undoubtedly affect a computer’s performance in some cases, but the amount of storage space has to be weighed against how it is being used.
Many people don’t realize that their hard disk drive is prolonged compared to other components in a computer. Your hard drive might seem insanely slow when compared to your computer’s RAM, network connection, or even processor.
RAM (random access memory) is where the operating system and currently running applications reside. In contrast, the hard drive holds everything else on your computer that doesn’t need to be loaded into memory for current usage.
The reason why the hard drive seems slow is that more things need to be loaded from it. The applications and data on the hard drive need to be read from a spinning disc which can be a slow process.
When a computer needs to access something that is not in RAM, it does so by reading from the hard disk drive or HDD for short. Because of this, there will often be a marked difference in performance.
