Is a 500GB SSD big enough for a desktop computer?

by Paul | Last Updated: July 5, 2022

The size of your SSD matters in a lot of ways, and the size you choose depends on different variants, there are a number of things you could accomplish with your SSD drive, that is why it is important to consider the use before determining the right size for you and your desktop computer.

Is a 500GB SSD big enough for a desktop computer?

The 500GB is generally adequate and big enough for a desktop computer, but this could depend on quite a number of factors. If you intend to install an operating system like windows on it, then it is enough. If the main purpose of your SSD is for playing games, you will have to weigh your option in terms of the type of games you plan to install and space they’ll take up, in some cases, 500GB is more than enough for some gamers. In summary, the 500GB SSD may be big enough, depending on what you intend to use it for, and on the other hand, it could also be inadequate.

When you’re going for an SSD, the storage capacity matters a lot, 500GB is usually enough for some people, but in a lot of ways, it depends on what you intend to store on the drive and what you intend to use it for as well.

It helps if you have the 500GB SSD as a system drive, along with an HDD as a storage drive, that way you can store all your big files or games on a storage drive with more than enough capacity and you don’t have to worry about running out of space with the 500GB.

Whether or not 500GB is enough for your computer, also depends on the usage of the computer, if you have so many files, videos, photographs, and so on, you might find yourself in a tight spot due to the inadequacy, but if you barely have anything on your desktop computer, you could even make use of a 128GB, so in that same regard, a 500GB SSD could be more than enough.

As stated above, if you’re making use of a desktop computer that is basic, you could easily make use of the 500GB SSD, but on the off chance that you realize you need more space, you could also easily just get a bigger SSD.

Choosing a 500GB SSD isn’t a death sentence, if you feel like 500GB is more than enough for all your computing needs, you could keep track of the space consistently, just to make sure it’s not exceeding its limit, and if you realize it is a lot less than you originally bargained for, then an upgrade is the next best option, this time you’ll know exactly what SSD will be enough for your computer.

Reasons Why 500GB Is Big Enough For Your Desktop Computer

If your 500GB SSD is mainly for the installation of your operating system and you want to use it to boot you computer more quickly, then the 500GB is big enough for just that,  this is because Windows 10 takes up about 20GB and macOS about 35GB, so you will have enough space left over for your other files.

The 500GB could also be good for gamers, it is the least amount of space any gamer should have, so it’s almost like the starting point and it works for gamers who are more casual when it comes to the games the play and even the size of games they would want to keep or store on their computer.

The 500GB could also be sufficient for music and audio production, this relates to people who compose or mix audio tracks, a 500GB storage capacity is usually big enough for studio/music production-related tasks and you could potentially have enough space for library files with music samples, existing projects and even plugins.

Reasons Why 500GB SSD Might Not Be Big Enough

There are so many pros and cons that celebrate with the 500GB SSD, on one hand, it is usually the first step to getting an adequately sized SSD. It is sort of on the fence when it comes to SSDs because on one hand, it is more than enough for quite a number of people and on another hand, it doesn’t come close for other people.

In the end, you’ll need to decide what spectrum you fall under, and that will help you gauge whether or not the 500GB ssd will be big enough for all the things you intend to use your desktop compute for.

One of the reasons why a 500GB SSD may not be enough is if you intend to use it as a single drive for the entire system, there’s little to no chance that a 500GB SSD can take on the entire system by itself, it would run out of space sooner than later and in cases like this, it is advisable to have maybe an HDD for storage, in addition to the SSD.

If you intend to play really high-end games on your computer, you might need a bigger SSD, this doesn’t go for just gaming, you might have a lot of files, videos and pictures you intend to put on the SSD, and a 500GB might be enough,but not completely.

You might also want to think about software like photoshop,  blender, and a while list of gaming software you might have, if you’re big on software, then 500GB SSDs just aren’t going to cut it, you’ll need more than that for your SSD to be big enough.

If you intend to edit videos and photographs, a large SSD will definitely make your work a whole lot easier, as much as 500GB is a great start, you’d feel more at ease with the 1TB instead, this is because the 500GB is sufficient but with time, you might have more material stacking up and you could easily lose some lot of space.