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External SSD worth for gaming ?

Maverick3110
By Maverick3110
in Storage Devices
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I am in the following situation:

- I currently game on a system where I can not build an internal ssd into, this system has an (old) HDD. But it has an Thunderbolt (1st gen) port.

- I will buy a new (most likely) gaming laptop or (unlikely) PC in the next few months.

  -Often Times, the price increase for more storage in a laptop is disproportionate to upgrading later, so I would buy storage in the 2nd situation anyway

 

Due to the system change I need a solution for both situations, so I think an external SSD would be the best solution. However I’m not sure if the external ssd will make a difference in game loading times due to there being only a very limited amount of tests and information.

My questions are:

Will the external SSD improve my loading times in the 1st situation ?

Is there an some sort of lag when gaming on it with a laptop/ can it be a bottleneck for a gaming PC

Are there other solutions/Which external SSD would you recommend 

 

I hope someone can help me out with this😬.

 

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External SSD can indeed inprove loading times. Mostly because its not on the same disk as the OS (which it needs constant HDD acces for).

 

And also, just to note, getting a notebook for gaming means you will have this problem all over again.
Desktops are way cheaper and easier to upgrade along the line. Notebook when its done you have to buy a complete new one.

 

As for the other questions, imho any external drive is not a thing i would reccomend. The troughput on the cabled connections they use for that are just to slow.
The USB or in your case thunderbolt will DEFINATLY be bottlenecking the drive.
And that is also why i cannot reccomend any external drive for gaming, its only when you want to take your files with you.

It is portability with the expense of speed.

 

There are really really fast USB SSD's but they are crazy expensive.

When i ask for more specs, don't expect me to know the answer!
I'm just helping YOU to help YOURSELF!
(The more info you give the easier it is for others to help you out!)

Not willing to capitulate to the ignorance of the masses!

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Thanks for your fast and helpful reply,

I know gaming laptops are worse in almost any way, but I need a decent Laptop for university (wanna study Computer Science) and buying a laptop and a Gaming PC is even more expensive...

 

Back to the eSSD topic, just one more question:

I read that TB has a thoughput of 10Gbps, the drive with USB 3.1 gen 2 also has 10Gbps shouldn’t that be enough or am I missing something (example Samsung Portable T5) ?

 

P.S: I know eSSDs are way more expensive, that’s why I don’t want some unpleasant surprises in the future (what my questions were referring to) or buy one at all if they come with hidden problems.

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If it isn't an NVME drive then you should be good. I haven't seen >580mbsec from my Samsung SSD 860 or 870. But if you're going external NVME then yeah.

 

Posters here are right... highly recommend a gaming desktop with a mobile laptop if you can do it. You can build a really nice gaming desktop for $1200 and get a great note taking laptop for class that'll run any compiler. Gaming on a laptop is iffy... cooling is always an issue. I gamed for half a year on an XPS 15 and ... it was horrible - had more bluescreens during that period than all the years I've used Windows (as Dell continued to update the thing it got better).

 

I've gamed on a 2015 Macbook Air with an external USB 3 SSD (Starcraft / Warcraft) - it wasn't bad but you had to have all the settings on low. 

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17 minutes ago, BigMcGuire said:

If it isn't an NVME drive then you should be good. I haven't seen >580mbsec from my Samsung SSD 860 or 870. But if you're going external NVME then yeah.

 

Posters here are right... highly recommend a gaming laptop then a mobile laptop if you can do it. You can build a really nice gaming desktop for $1200 and get a great note taking laptop for class that'll run any compiler. Gaming on a laptop is iffy... cooling is always an issue. I gamed for half a year on an XPS 15 and ... it was horrible - had more bluescreens during that period than all the years I've used Windows (as Dell continued to update the thing it got better).

 

I've gamed on a 2015 Macbook Air with an external USB 3 SSD (Starcraft / Warcraft) - it wasn't bad but you had to have all the settings on low. 

Nah, as i don’t do Video editing i only need a regular SSD.

 

As far as the future gaming Laptop is concerned, you guys convinced me to reconsider my plans.

#Stayhome and Stayhealthy

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