Maintaining adequate storage space on a gaming PC is crucial for smooth performance. However, modern games have increasingly become resource-intensive and often take up too much of the space.
Managing storage efficiently is a critical task for gamers, especially for those who prefer games that are heavy due to their graphics. Without proper storage management, your gaming PC can become cluttered and will eventually decrease its initial potential to play games.
After all, owning a gaming PC is an expensive journey toward better gameplay. It would be a shame to sacrifice its performance due to lack of space.
Planning on stacking up your games and DLCs? Here are some practical solutions that will save you the necessary space for future releases and game updates:
Regularly Uninstall Unused Games, Software
Regularly clean up your gaming PC by removing files that you no longer need. This includes temporary files, installation files, and old game saves. Make it a habit to review the list of installed applications and games, and uninstall titles that you haven't opened for over a month.
Practice selective installation when downloading a game to prevent unnecessary files from eating your storage while playing. You can also reclaim some of your space by removing mods or DLCs that you're not fond of using anymore.
Before uninstalling, backup save data for games you might want to revisit. Platforms like Steam and Epic Games Store provide cloud saves for your games.
Use Disk Cleanup Tools
Utilize built-in tools like Windows Disk Cleanup. These tools easily identify temporary files, system cache, and old update files that are safe to be removed from the storage.
In addition, there is also a wide selection of third-party tools that offer more comprehensive cleanup options. Some apps allow advanced disk clean-up strategy for a price.
Invest in External Drives
Purchasing an external HDD or SDD to store your less frequent games can free up internal storage. External SDDs are reliable solutions due to their fast read/write speeds.
Moreover, there are now cloud gaming services like NVIDIA GeForce Now, Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and more that do not require games to be installed locally.
Practice Disk Compression
Your gaming PC comes with built-in file compression for files and folders that you don't access frequently. This is a good solution for keeping them safe within the local storage but at the same time, they are not consuming too much space.
Some games also offer an option to compress game files, allowing players to have the liberty to decide on how to store their games.
Move Non-Gaming Files
If you have other storage devices, you can separate non-gaming files from other external storage. This includes movies, music, and other documents that are not related to your gaming.
In addition, you can also rely on cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive to store your other files. These services provide expanded storage depending on the subscription that you will get.
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