Storage Calculator
Plan storage capacity for games, recordings and media libraries.
About Storage Calculator
Games dominate immediate usage while recordings drive growth, so the two need planning differently. SSDs also need free space for wear levelling, which is why a reserve is included rather than filling to capacity. SSD write performance degrades sharply above about 90 per cent capacity, so the last tenth of a drive is not usefully available.
Formula
Storage
Used = games + one month of recordings + a 10 per cent system reserve
- system reserve
- Space kept free for the operating system and SSD wear levelling
- months until full
- Free space divided by the monthly recording rate
Worked example
With the default values below, Storage Calculator returns Total Storage Used of 2,125.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Games installedminimum 0
- 25
- Average game sizeminimum 0 GB
- 65 GB
- Recording hours per monthminimum 0 h
- 12 h
- Recording size per hourminimum 0 GB
- 25 GB
- Drive capacityminimum 1 GB
- 2,000 GB
Results
- Total Storage Used
- 2,125.00 GB
- Storage Used by Games
- 1,625.00 GB
- Monthly Recording Storage
- 300.00 GB
- Free Space Remaining
- 0.00 GB
- Months Until the Drive Fills
- 0.00 months
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Storage
- 3Total Storage Used= 2,125.00 GB
- 4Storage Used by Games= 1,625.00 GB
- 5Monthly Recording Storage= 300.00 GB
- 6Free Space Remaining= 0.00 GB
- 7Months Until the Drive Fills= 0.00 months
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Storage calculated?
Used = games + one month of recordings + a 10 per cent system reserve Games dominate immediate usage while recordings drive growth, so the two need planning differently. SSDs also need free space for wear levelling, which is why a reserve is included rather than filling to capacity.
Why does Storage matter?
SSD write performance degrades sharply above about 90 per cent capacity, so the last tenth of a drive is not usefully available.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 5 inputs: Games installed, Average game size, Recording hours per month, Recording size per hour, Drive capacity. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.