There's no escaping it now. If you're still clinging to your beloved spinning-platter hard drive because you can't stand the transition from anachronistic digital/mechanical hybrids, you're in trouble down the road as a PC gamer. Starfield, one of the most anticipated games of the year, has made SSDs a minimum requirement.

SSDs are vital to the future of PC gaming.

The WD Black SN850X is PC Gamer's SSD of choice for gaming right now, with a 1TB version available on Newegg for just $60. Interestingly, this is the same price as the Starfield. In addition, you can get a 2TB version for just $30 more.

With 2TB, you could probably install Starfield 16 times over. Or maybe even throw in a couple of installations of Call of Duty. [If you're on the fence about buying PCIe 5.0, don't.

These drives are incredibly hot and record the highest composite transfer rates, but that means nothing in a real-world scenario unless you're migrating from one PCIe 5.0 drive to another. For Windows and general gaming use, WD Black SN850X, which is nearly as fast as a good PCIe 4.0 drive like the SN850X.

Most of us already have SSDs in our systems, perhaps as boot drives and perhaps as old hard drives that store ancient scrolls for posterity in our PCs. However, it is always possible to take advantage of more storage, and Prime Day SSD sales offer ridiculous prices.

Here they are down to 5c per GB. Crazy.

At any rate, the bottom line is that SSDs are now incredibly affordable and are an easy and essential upgrade that can make a real difference in your PC experience. Especially if you're trying to move away from hard disk drives and old SATA SSDs.