Best HDDs for Gaming 2022

It’s a little challenging to advise using HDDs for anything other than large amounts of storage. Modern SSDs are significantly faster and now only cost about twice as much at 2TB capacities. Even if you’re on a shoestring budget, a 500 or even 250GB SSD is likely the better choice unless you need multiple terabytes of cheap storage.

With modern high-speed internet, you shouldn’t need it. Still, if you want your entire game collection installed and available at a moment’s notice, you may want a large HDD. We’d recommend getting a 2TB SSD for performance reasons and then accepting the likely rare cases of needing to uninstall one game to install another. If you want to go down the route of an HDD, you’d probably be looking at larger capacities in the realm of 8TB or more. This should be more than enough storage for essentially any gaming use case.

There are two key things to look for with HDDs. The first is SSHD. These hybrid HDDs include a small amount of flash memory that can cache frequently used data for faster access. While this can be useful, the flash cache is typically only around 8GB which isn’t much compared to game install sizes. Additionally, it takes multiple reads to properly use the cache. This means it won’t improve your loading times the first time you launch a game after turning on your computer.

The second thing to keep an eye out for is SMR. Shingled Magnetic Recording or SMR helps to increase HDDs’ storage density, reducing costs and increased capacities. Unfortunately, SMR also comes with an unavoidable write speed penalty that can significantly hamper large writes, such as when you install a game. Small writes, such as game saves, can also be significantly slower on SMR drives. Thankfully, other options are now available for high-capacity HDDs, such as HAMR and EAMR. Still, it is worth researching any HDD to check that it doesn’t use SMR.

To help you find the best options on the market, we’ve drawn up a list of the best HDDs for gaming in 2022.

The WD_BLACK 8TB Gaming Internal Hard Drive HDD is Western Digital’s gaming-oriented HDD. All capacities from 500GB to 10TB using CMR offer good write speeds and are suitable for RAID configurations. The 8TB model comes with 128MiB of DRAM cache. Though a version with a 256MiB cache should be available too. This cache helps to optimize read and write speeds. Still, it won’t provide much benefit in games as frequently used files would likely overwhelm the cache capacity.

The 238MBs transfer speed is decent for HDDs though not exceptionally top of the line. Of course, almost any SSD would blow it out of the water in terms of transfer speeds. It comes with a 5-year warranty which should provide peace of mind, though be careful to avoid OEM models as WD’s warranty does not extend to those. No SATA cables are included. While this isn’t an issue if you have some, it may mean you need to pay slightly more to use your HDD.

The Seagate IronWolf 8TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD is designed as a NAS drive but functions just as well for standard PC usage. It has a 256MB cache for an 8TB drive and spins at 7200rpm. Its 210MBs peak transfer speed is slightly slower than the more expensive WD Black. The three-year warranty is also a bit weaker.

It is designed for constant use as a NAS drive and boasts a high Load/Unload cycle rating. It’s available in up to 20TB capacities, with drives of 10TB and up being filled with helium. Drive health monitoring hardware is integrated, and software is available. As with most high-end HDDs, the 3.5-inch form factor is too significant to fit in a laptop. It also doesn’t come with SATA cables.

The Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hub External Hard Drive HDD 8TB – USB 3.2 is a large 8TB external HDD. Historically with external HDDs, you’d expect to lose some performance as the USB bandwidth was lower than what HDDs were capable of handling. USB 3.2 Gen1 has slightly less bandwidth than the SATA connector for internal drives but still has more than enough to handle an HDD. While you may be concerned that your computer might not have a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, you can rest easy.

Seagate does an incredible job of advertising the actual specs of the drive inside the enclosure. The only things actively advertised are that it’s a Seagate drive and the capacity. User reviews indicate a drive from the Barracuda range, indicating a 5400rpm speed. There are some controllable RGB lights at the front and a USB A and USB C port. The warranty is lacking, too, with Amazon only advertising a 1-year warranty. Still, this is a decent choice if you want an external HDD.

The Western Digital 8TB WD Gold Enterprise Class Internal Hard Drive is an enterprise HDD. Being an enterprise drive, it’s designed for durability in constant use. It comes with an excellent warranty for five years. It spins at 7200rpm and has a 256MB cache. Transfer speeds peak at 255MBs, making it slightly faster than the WD Black.

To help it perform optimally in constant use, it has sensors to detect and allow for vibrations. As with any 3.5-inch HDD, it won’t fit in laptops. It also doesn’t come with SATA cables. It is pretty expensive compared to other similar HDDs. But suppose you also want to use the drive to store personal files. In that case, you may be willing to accept the price for the improved reliability.

That was our roundup of the best HHDs for gaming in 2022. Have you recently bought an HDD for gaming? What sold you on it, and what has your experience been with it so far? Let us know down below.