External Storage: SSD or HDD for Steam?

[SirCallow]

Hello ladies and gentlemen. I have been a fan of the LTT channel for awhile now, and recently decided to create an account here. I am unsure whether buying an SSD would even be necessary for an external drive, as I already have one in my laptop. It would mostly be holding Steam games such as Arkham Origins and CS:GO. If I only use it for holding games, would there be any major difference? Also, do any of you know a good brand for buying a very short usb 3.0 male to usb 3.0 male (same on both ends) cable for said external drive? I have a case planned out that matches with my laptop, but it requires a cable. The shortest thing I could find was a foot long (30.5cm).

 

I am not sure if links are allowed, but if they are I can post the stuff I have in mind. Thanks so much peeps. 

 

 

 

[scottyseng]

Hello ladies and gentlemen. I have been a fan of the LTT channel for awhile now, and recently decided to create an account here. I am unsure whether buying an SSD would even be necessary for an external drive, as I already have one in my laptop. It would mostly be holding Steam games such as Arkham Origins and CS:GO. If I only use it for holding games, would there be any major difference? Also, do any of you know a good brand for buying a very short usb 3.0 male to usb 3.0 male (same on both ends) cable for said external drive? I have a case planned out that matches with my laptop, but it requires a cable. The shortest thing I could find was a foot long (30.5cm).

 

I am not sure if links are allowed, but if they are I can post the stuff I have in mind. Thanks so much peeps. 

 

If it were me, I would take out the hard drive in the laptop and replace it with a SSD, then convert the drive in the laptop to an external one using a dock.

 

SSD as an external will only help with load times. If you're patient enough and have a decent amount of RAM in the laptop, you can live with the hard drive.

 

It'll boost your overall system performance and you can choose to install games you play more on the SSD and games you play less on the hard drive. Do keep in mind if the external drive gets unplugged while in use, you might lose data / have corruption.

 

Also keep in mind that SSDs can take more abuse (shakes / drops) than a hard drive.

[CommandMan7]

Not really any point in external SSD, my brand new HDD gets 170 MB/s reads, which is plenty enough for games over USB 3.0. 

[SirCallow]

If it were me, I would take out the hard drive in the laptop and replace it with a SSD, then convert the drive in the laptop to an external one using a dock.

 

SSD as an external will only help with load times. If you're patient enough and have a decent amount of RAM in the laptop, you can live with the hard drive.

 

It'll boost your overall system performance and you can choose to install games you play more on the SSD and games you play less on the hard drive. Do keep in mind if the external drive gets unplugged while in use, you might lose data / have corruption.

 

Also keep in mind that SSDs can take more abuse (shakes / drops) than a hard drive.

Thanks for the input. I think I may just go with an external hard drive and or upgrade the SSD in my laptop.

 

Not really any point in external SSD, my brand new HDD gets 170 MB/s reads, which is plenty enough for games over USB 3.0. 

Which one did you buy? I was looking at an HGST 2.5" 1TB 7200rpm HDD.

[scottyseng]

Thanks for the input. I think I may just go with an external hard drive and or upgrade the SSD in my laptop.

 

Which one did you buy? I was looking at an HGST 2.5" 1TB 7200rpm HDD.

 

Oh sorry, I didn't see that you already had a SSD in the laptop (I thought you only had a hard drive). In that case...external hard drive is probably worth it for you.

 

The HGST 1TB is a pretty solid drive. You might also try looking at the SHDDs. My brother has a Seagate one, and it's still alive after 3 years.

[SirCallow]

Oh sorry, I didn't see that you already had a SSD in the laptop (I thought you only had a hard drive). In that case...external hard drive is probably worth it for you.

 

The HGST 1TB is a pretty solid drive. You might also try looking at the SHDDs. My brother has a Seagate one, and it's still alive after 3 years.

Pardon my n00b-like qalities, but what is the point of an SSHD if I am not using it as a boot drive? Would it just decrease load times?

[scottyseng]

Pardon my n00b-like qalities, but what is the point of an SSHD if I am not using it as a boot drive? Would it just decrease load times?

 

Yep. It helps with small random files (Which are a part of games). They cache files that are used the most. It wouldn't decrease load times, not by much anyway, (The game still has to load the larger files from the hard drive) but should help with in game responsiveness.

 

If you were using the drive for flat out data storage (like photos / videos), then no, I would not recommend a SHDD.

[SirCallow]

Yep. It helps with small random files (Which are a part of games). They cache files that are used the most. It wouldn't decrease load times, not by much anyway, (The game still has to load the larger files from the hard drive) but should help with in game responsiveness.

 

If you were using the drive for flat out data storage (like photos / videos), then no, I would not recommend a SHDD.

Thanks a ton. I'll be getting the HDD or an SSHD instead of the SSD.

[CommandMan7]

Thanks for the input. I think I may just go with an external hard drive and or upgrade the SSD in my laptop.

 

Which one did you buy? I was looking at an HGST 2.5" 1TB 7200rpm HDD.

 

Well, mine's an 4TB seagate 3.5" drive, but it's a 5400 RPM internal drive, so I think that as long as there's a large cache any hard drive is fine.