Video games can take up a substantial amount of storage space. If you keep all of your games on your Xbox console, PlayStation console or gaming laptop or PC, you may find your machine slowing down. External gaming drives are not only great for expanding your gaming collection, but also for speeding up your gaming console’s processing efficiency.

The main differentiator between video game storage drives is whether they are SSDs (solid-state drives) or HDDs (hard disk drives). Considering whether you prefer an SSD gaming drive or an HDD gaming drive often comes down to price and performance. The solid-state drive will be lighter and slimmer with no internal moving parts, making it more portable and durable. However, a conventional hard drive will generally offer a more budget-friendly price.

Whichever you choose, an external video game drive can certainly help you optimize your gaming setup. This allows you to store more games without sacrificing console or PC performance, and you can easily swap drives between systems if needed.

When shopping for new gaming storage, you may need PS5 storage, Xbox storage or something else. You’ll want to choose between an internal drive or an external drive that can plug into different consoles or devices as needed. If you choose an Xbox external hard drive or a PS5 storage expansion drive, you will not be able to play Xbox X|S games or PS5 games directly off the drives, but for Xbox X|S, you can play directly off Xbox expansion cards.

In addition to considering compatibility and your preference for internal or external and for SSD or HDD, you will have to decide how much storage you want. Gaming drives can offer as much as 12TB of video game storage. To make the right choice, you should find out the size of the games you’ll be storing and consider future video game purchases.

If you are concerned about installation, there are a variety of video game services to ensure that your gaming storage drive will give you the performance you need.