External HDD for Gaming?

[AWayne]

Hello LTT Community,

 

Just a quick question to hear some wisdom on my next purchase. Long story short, I want a fresh install of Windows and, I currently want to upgrade from my 1TB HDD to an SSD. I plan on getting the new 860 EVO from Samsung unless the 850's go on a nice sale. My question however: Is the 250GB SSD good if I turn my existing HDD into an external HDD? I plan to keep my large games on the External HDD such as Witcher 3, Payday 2, and whatnot. Is gaming from an External HDD possible/suggested/ safe? If so, I was looking at a couple HDD enclosures. Here and Here are my two choices I was looking at. I'm also open to other suggestions.

 

I know it is a bit messy, but thanks for your time to help me out!

 

Edit: I am on a laptop. Here is the Amazon page

[Guest]

Yes you can use ext hdd for holding your games.

[lookpuppy]

Its possible yes, but wont be as fast and will underperform. I used to play paladins and brawlhalla off of a 32gb usb and a 16gb sd card and was significantly slower and lower in fps then my hard drive.

[userzero]

Why are you looking to make the original HDD an external out of interest?

[BluJay614]

4 minutes ago, AWayne said:

Hello LTT Community,

 

Just a quick question to hear some wisdom on my next purchase. Long story short, I want a fresh install of Windows and, I currently want to upgrade from my 1TB HDD to an SSD. I plan on getting the new 860 EVO from Samsung unless the 850's go on a nice sale. My question however: Is the 250GB SSD good if I turn my existing HDD into an external HDD? I plan to keep my large games on the External HDD such as Witcher 3, Payday 2, and whatnot. Is gaming from an External HDD possible/suggested/ safe? If so, I was looking at a couple HDD enclosures. Here and Here are my two choices I was looking at. I'm also open to other suggestions.

 

I know it is a bit messy, but thanks for your time to help me out!

I've been using one for..... almost a year now. It's perfectly fine.

[AWayne]

Just now, userzero said:

Why are you looking to make the original HDD an external out of interest?

The HDD is still fully functional, and it's about 3 years old. If I keep the external HDD, I will not need such a large SSD, thus saving money and I might as well have an extra Terabyte lying around if I can.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Fruitsnacc said:

Its possible yes, but wont be as fast and will underperform. I used to play paladins and brawlhalla off of a 32gb usb and a 16gb sd card and was significantly slower and lower in fps then my hard drive.

That is because sd card and usb are max 10 mb/s, while hdds are 100 mb/s. If you use usb 3.0 there is no loss in performance. Only if you use usb 2.0 you lose about half the performace, because usb 2.0 is limited to 40 mb/s.

[BluJay614]

2 minutes ago, userzero said:

Why are you looking to make the original HDD an external out of interest?

It's possible that they may only have the one spot in their laptop and are looking at saving a good bit of cash and just using hardware they already have. It's what I did. I bought a 480GB HyperX Savage bundle and swapped it out for the HDD that came in my laptop to begin with. Cause the SSD Isn't quite big enough to fit all my games, and I don't feel like filling it up, I have all my games on the hard drive in the enclosure that came with the SSD and have been using it for my Steam library ever since.

[AWayne]

3 minutes ago, BluJay614 said:

I've been using one for..... almost a year now. It's perfectly fine.

Perfect, is the heat and slower speeds noticeable while gaming?

[Murasaki]

Why would you need to go external? That makes no sense to me.

[userzero]

That's a good point.

 

PC or laptop?!

 

USB 3.0 for external connectivity will be fine. Internal SSD ftw.

[BluJay614]

Just now, AWayne said:

Perfect, is the heat and slower speeds noticeable while gaming?

Nope. Granted, I've also got other things that hinder my gaming performance (integrated grapics from an old AMD APU and only 4GB of RAM) but I haven't noticed any differences even in loading times from when it was inside and when I made mine external.

[AWayne]

1 minute ago, userzero said:

That's a good point.

 

PC or laptop?!

 

USB 3.0 for external connectivity will be fine. Internal SSD ftw.

Laptop with USB 3.0. This is my laptop. I would plan on putting my SSD internally and changing me existing HDD to External

[AWayne]

4 minutes ago, ModuleLFS said:

Why would you need to go external? That makes no sense to me.

My current, 3 year old HDD would be external, and the new SSD would be my internal boot drive. Forgot to mention I am on a laptop.

[Murasaki]

You should've mentioned you were with a laptop, I was absolutely confuzzled.

USB3.0 should be just fine to cover an HDD's speeds.

[userzero]

If there is an M.2 connector on your board you could go that route and not pull out your existing mechanical HDD.

[AWayne]

7 minutes ago, userzero said:

If there is an M.2 connector on your board you could go that route and not pull out your existing mechanical HDD.

Good point, I'm not sure if my machine has a port for it or not. That could be a viable option, as the 960 EVO is only $25 more than the 860 for the 256GB models. 

 

Edit: No M.2 Port, just some rare mSATA mini slot that ASUS claims you need to choose the option for them to install it when purchasing the machine

[Murasaki]

Considering the amazon page you linked has a "1TB HDD + 128GB SSD" variant that kinda hints at the possibility. Though I can't find any information on the laptop model if it has M.2. Lack of documentation, lack of documantation everywhere.

[AWayne]

2 minutes ago, ModuleLFS said:

Considering the amazon page you linked has a "1TB HDD + 128GB SSD" variant that kinda hints at the possibility. Though I can't find any information on the laptop model if it has M.2 not not. Lack of documentation, lack of documantation everywhere.

I found this, If you scroll to the very bottom there is a mSATA mini that I have never seen before. That is probably where the SSD variant comes from.

[userzero]

3 minutes ago, AWayne said:

Good point, I'm not sure if my machine has a port for it or not. That could be a viable option, as the 960 EVO is only $25 more than the 860 for the 256GB models. 

From what I've read on your laptop model mate you have to pre order that laptop with the SSD as it is not upgradeable later on. That's a shame.

 

I have however many times replaced unnecessary optical drives with a bay adapter and put a HDD/SSD in it instead.

 

Mmm 2 internal hard drives

 

[AWayne]

1 minute ago, userzero said:

From what I've read on your laptop model mate you have to pre order that laptop with the SSD as it is not upgradeable later on. That's a shame.

 

I have however many times replaced unnecessary optical drives with a bay adapter and put a HDD/SSD in it instead.

 

Mmm 2 internal hard drives

 

Yes! I just read about this. I never thought about converting my optical Drive! I'm assuming there is no backlash to this? I have used my optical drive about 3 times since I bought the machine, so that is a very viable option

[userzero]

13 minutes ago, AWayne said:

Yes! I just read about this. I never thought about converting my optical Drive! I'm assuming there is no backlash to this? I have used my optical drive about 3 times since I bought the machine, so that is a very viable option

Yeah man. And you can get an external USB disc drive for pittance these days. I don't know about any downsides. 

 

Usually you can carefully pop off the optical drive bezel and attatch it to the bay adapter so it all looks OEM

[AWayne]

58 minutes ago, userzero said:

Yeah man. And you can get an external USB disc drive for pittance these days. I don't know about any downsides. 

 

Usually you can carefully pop off the optical drive bezel and attatch it to the bay adapter so it all looks OEM

I think that is what I'll go with then. Thanks so much for your help bro. The bezel popping off would be ideal, but it's not the end of the world. Thanks!

[userzero]

57 minutes ago, AWayne said:

I think that is what I'll go with then. Thanks so much for your help bro. The bezel popping off would be ideal, but it's not the end of the world. Thanks!

All good mate.