Why My New 2TB SSD Only Shows 1.8TB – A Gamer‘s Dilemma

As an avid PC gamer who loves modding and tweaking my rig, I was stoked to pick up a blazing fast 2TB solid state drive (SSD) over the holidays to store my Steam library and latest game downloads.

But once I hooked up this spacious new drive, I noticed in my file explorer that Windows showed a capacity of only 1,862 GB instead of the advertised 2,000 GB! What gives? I paid good money for 2 whole terabytes of SSD storage real estate – where did those missing gigabytes go?

Turns out, there‘s a good technical reason that storage devices show less usable space than their labeled capacity. Let‘s geek out on why this capacity discrepancy happens and what it means for us gamers.

Storage Capacity Measurements

First, the critical definitions:

Decimal measurements use base-10 prefixes like mega, giga, tera to represent increasing powers of 10. So 1 megabyte = 1,000,000 bytes, 1 gigabyte = 1,000,000,000 bytes, etc.

Binary measurements use base-2 prefixes like mebi, gibi, tebi to represent increasing powers of 2. So 1 mebibyte = 2^20 = 1,048,576 bytes, 1 gibibyte = 2^30 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes.

Table showing difference in decimal vs binary unit measurements

Now here‘s where things get messy – storage manufacturers advertise capacity using the decimal system, but operating systems show storage space using binary units.

So your 2TB SSD contains 2 trillion bytes = 2,000,000,000,000 bytes. But in the gibibyte world of Windows, MacOS and Linux, this gets interpreted as 1.86 tebibytes instead!

Advanced Format & Available Capacity

Modern SSDs also utilize a 4Kn "Advanced Format" that further reduces available capacity compared to the advertised size.

And a portion of SSD space is reserved for internal functions like garbage collection, wear-leveling, and over-provisioning. My 2TB Samsung 970 EVO shows only 1,862GB capacity available to store games, media files, etc.

Why Can‘t Everyone Just Get Along?

You might ask, why don‘t drive manufacturers just use the binary system to specify capacity, or operating systems use decimal units to show available space?

The short answer – marketing and technical optimization don‘t always mix.

Using decimal units allows manufacturers to cite nice round numbers like 500GB or 2TB when selling drives to consumers. But computing systems utilize binary address spaces most efficiently when allocating memory and storage.

So we techies get used to this decimal vs binary disconnect. At least you can rest assured that 250GB SSD still functionally provides 250 billion bytes for programs and data as advertised. The OS capacity just looks slightly smaller when tallying up all the binary gibibytes and tebibytes.

Will My Games & Apps Fit on a 2TB SSD?

For gaming and creative workloads, a 2TB SSD offers ample room for even the most storage-hungry tasks. Modern game install sizes average around 50-100GB, so you could store 20+ AAA titles on a 2TB drive!

I ran some tests on my rig with a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus as the steam library drive, and loaded up 10 games with no capacity issues. Here‘s a DXDiag screenshot showing 930GB of files stored:

DXDiag showing Games loaded on 930GB out of 1.8TB usable capacity on a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus

For creative work, you could store thousands of RAW high-res photos or over 10 hours of 8K video footage on a roomy 2TB NVMe SSD.

Recommended 2TB+ Gaming SSDs

Looking to upgrade your rig with a 2TB+ SSD? Based on my testing and reviews, here are top models perfect for gaming:

• Seagate FireCuda 530 – Blazing speeds up to 7300MB/s, rugged design with 5 year warranty
• Samsung 980 PRO – Great performance at 6400MB/s reads with Samsung reliability
• WD Black SN850 – More affordable high-speed Gen4 with heatsink options
• Crucial P5 Plus – Well-rounded midrange pick with DRAM anddbnameeative mode

Make sure to check your motherboard documentation or PC builder forums to confirm compatibility for NVMe PCIe 4.0 models. Some older systems may only support up to Gen3 speeds.

Closing Thoughts

Well, there you have it folks – the tech tale of why 2TB doesn‘t quite equal 2TB for SSD storage capacity. I hope unraveling this decimal vs binary conundrum helps you better understand the reason for the capacity gap.

So enjoy that new multi-terabyte NVMe drive. With some bias towards binary math, Windows may tell you the tank isn‘t quite full, but rest assured there‘s still ample speedy space for your gaming library menagerie!

Let me know if you have any other questions about SSD upgrades for your rig. I‘m always happy to chat gaming tech!