Board 8 > Does anyone here run PC games off external drives?

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Grand Kirby
02/11/21 5:36:34 AM
#1:


I'm running out of space on my PC for games, and I kind of don't want to uninstall and reinstall and shuffle games around since I like having a bunch of stuff on hand to play on a whim. I was thinking of just putting all the major non-game data I have on a portable drive to free up space, but I wondered if it would be possible to just use a portable drive only for games to make things simpler. Does stuff like Steam play nice with portable drives? I've heard that because of transfers it might affect load times, but apparently if it uses a USB-C connection it'll be better?

I was also thinking of buying a portable SSD like this (https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-T5-Portable-SSD-MU-PA1T0B/dp/B073H552FJ?th=1). I'd like to have as many demanding games on my SSD as possible, but the one in my PC doesn't have enough room for a lot of big games. If I could hook up something like and still have the benefits of fast load times without issues that would be fantastic. Can anyone who has tried this give advice?

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red13n
02/11/21 6:12:34 AM
#2:


games are too damn big now.

Should be fine as long as you use a USB 3 slot.

But yeah I'm thinking of buying like a non SSD and just using a good old fashioned like 8TB or so WD Black because as nice as games loading fast is, only being able to have like 10 games installed because the install sizes are like 120GB sucks.

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Grand Kirby
02/11/21 2:17:24 PM
#3:


Bump for when people are actually awake.

red13n posted...
But yeah I'm thinking of buying like a non SSD and just using a good old fashioned 8TB or so WD Black because as nice as games loading fast is, only being able to have like 10 games installed because the install sizes are like 120GB sucks.
That's also on my mind. I wonder that the true difference in speed is if they're both going to using a USB connection. I would say if it's not that much of a difference I should just get more storage in general.

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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan
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Sorozone
02/11/21 2:23:15 PM
#4:


I run a few game off an external(USB 3). I don't run into too many performance issues, I do run into frame drops here and there. Notably on fighting games, or games that are graphic intensive.

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Wanglicious
02/11/21 3:15:35 PM
#5:


if you aren't trying to do this on a currently demanding game that needs to constantly be changing what's on the screen, go for it.

external SSD will have the main hiccups only be in the transfer, whereas if you go towards HDDs best advice there is avoid SMR ones too. easy answer to that would be stick to 8TB+ drives at the moment, which are pretty ideal for a collection of games.

the reason USB-C can be better is because that port should be able to greatly surpass the standard USB 3(.1) ports when it comes to transfer speeds, which in turn means fewer bottlenecks. with that an an SSD? should be good. like i wouldn't recommend doing the latest COD or something like that on it but you'd get away just fine with like 95% of games i imagine.

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Mac Arrowny
02/11/21 3:19:07 PM
#6:


Why do you need more than 10 games installed at a time? I don't get it...
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tyder21
02/11/21 5:26:56 PM
#7:


I have no firsthand experience with this, but I think a USB 3 portable SSD should be on-par with SATA internal SSDs. You shouldn't be bottled-necked by the USB 3 transfer speed, since that's like 625 MB/s compared to the R/W of a non-NVMe SSD, which is like 550/500.

Yeah, it'll be slower than having an NVMe internal, but that's whatever.

EDIT: You don't really need to go USB-C imho. Many USB-C portables will still be using 625 MB/s transfer speeds. Even if you do find one that does the max of 1250 MB/s, there's no guarantee that your MOBO actually supports that speed and you would basically need an NVMe-based SSD in the portable to make it worthwhile. Sounds like overkill.

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Wanglicious
02/12/21 7:30:47 PM
#8:


...you know, i completely overlooked that but you're right. i always forget how fast USB 3.0 is because i only ever use it with HDDs but an SSD should absolutely be able to push to a level near that max, at which point it's totally on par with internals.

yeah, i've got nothing. that should work on everything. the only concern at that point is the durability of the USB port, wire, and case the SSD is inside.

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Leafeon13N
02/12/21 7:50:56 PM
#9:


Mac Arrowny posted...
Why do you need more than 10 games installed at a time? I don't get it...
The same reason I have 12 consoles hooked up to play on my TV. When I want to play something I want to do it immediately.

Also just in multi-player games alone I probably have at least 10 games I cycle through regularly.
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ChaosTonyV4
02/12/21 8:03:40 PM
#10:


I run games off microSD AND USB drives, as long as youre UHS-III and USB3 or higher, its great.

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