Whatever your needs, whatever your budget, we’ve got the right external storage for you. We’ve picked out some of the best external drives – both SSD and HDD – to cover all requirements, including desktop models, slimline portables and matchbox-sized SSDs. Even a basic USB 3.0 or 3.2 Gen 1 drive will be fast enough for most purposes, while you can pair the latest USB 3.2 Gen 2 and Thunderbolt 3 and 4 SSDs with a laptop that supports them and get enough speed for 4K video editing or gaming. They’re cheap, capacious and increasingly speedy – and all you need to do is plug them in. This isn’t just hitting PC gamers, but also the console crowd.Įxternal HDDs and SSDs are the answer. Gamers get it even harder – we’re seeing some big titles demanding more than 100GB, with some getting closer to 200GB. High-res audio files, 4K videos and 20-megapixel photos can quickly fill the average laptop’s 256GB SSD, and if you’re working on a project or holding on to your music files and photos, you’ll soon run out of space. Laptops and PCs keep getting smaller and lighter, but storage space has never seemed so tight – which is why you need the best external hard drive you can afford.
