First Build, what size HD do I need?

[BigBen]

Hi all!

I apologize in advance if this has been asked and answered elsewhere. I'm getting ready to start my first build with this FE, and I'm trying to figure out how much drive space I'll need. I'm only going to be emulating MAME and consoles up to probably PS1.  I'm not concerned about the ROMS, I know they don't take up a whole lot, but what about the art/movies, bezels, etc? is 2TB enough? 4?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Lordmonkus]

My advice is always buy the biggest drive you are willing to buy. I would buy at a minimum a 4TB drive, the price difference between a 4 and a 2TB drive is tiny but if you can do an 8TB that would be even better especially if you collect full CD or DVD based sets.

[sundogak]

2 hours ago, BigBen said:

Hi all!

I apologize in advance if this has been asked and answered elsewhere. I'm getting ready to start my first build with this FE, and I'm trying to figure out how much drive space I'll need. I'm only going to be emulating MAME and consoles up to probably PS1.  I'm not concerned about the ROMS, I know they don't take up a whole lot, but what about the art/movies, bezels, etc? is 2TB enough? 4?

 

Thanks in advance!

4TB would be smallest I would go with as run about $80.   If only going with carts and no CD based game systems (or very choosy) and no MAME CHDs then could do a 2TB.   PS1 games (just USA) run about 611 GB if doing whole set (and no JP versions).  GameCube, Dreamcast, Saturn, and Sega CD can eat up 2.5 TB alone and that isn't including all Japan games.  MAME is about 170 GB with ROMs and Software List.  With MAME CHDs it will add another 1 TB (many forgo CHDs or prune on select games to avoid full install).  LB itself isn't very large but if include directory with Manuals, Images, Videos, etc can get up to 0.5 TB for moderate systems. 

If you can spend another $50 ($130) beyond 4TB that will get you a 8 TB which will be more than enough leaving room for PS2 USA and select Wii and Wii U if decide to go that way.  The tendency once you have hang of it is to "add one more system" so reality is buy a drive you can afford but also gives plenty of headroom if decide to add more.  Once you get into CD based games space gets eaten up quickly. 

[ibleedspeed]

I started with a 6TB and I am down to 1Tb free space but most of the space is taken up by Xbox, PS3, Switch ect. So it depends if you will be emulating newer systems or not. If its only Retro then you don't need much, 4tb would be more than enough, but if you got a beefy PC and can run the PS3 type stuff it's go big or go home... I'm gonna end up upgrading to like a 12Tb before its all said and done probably. 

[Knowcontrol]

My collection is on a 4TB SSD and it's sitting at 2.5TB with (86) PS2, a Top 59 of Xbox (OG), I only have (12) PS3 currently setup, and about 62 Switch games. This also includes a measly 4.3GB (531 games) of arcade MAME, oh and another 474GB of modern PC arcade games. Here are my screenshots:

 

This tree is sorted by name so that you can quickly see the size of my ROM folders - compare that size to the # of games from the LB screenshot above.

 

As you can see, the LaunchBox folder (sorted by size) will consist mainly of your Images and Videos. The Emulators folder is that large because of the PS3 hdd0 folder.

Edited May 13 by Knowcontrol

[zugswang]

Whatever size drive you are thinking of , just add a zero to it, as once you start collecting you will never have enough space ! 😉