PC Gaming

6641 readers

34 users here now

Rule #1: Be civil

Rule #2: No spam, memes, off-topic, or low-effort posts/comments

Rule #3: No advertisements

Rule #4: No streams, random gameplay videos, highlights, or shorts

Rule #5: No erotic games or porn

Rule #6: No facilitating piracy

Rule #7: No duplicates

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

workerONE

Using external SSD drive via USB 3.0, is it worth it? (self.pcgaming)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Adequately_Insane to c/pcgaming

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So most games today require SSD (like recently Alan Wake 2 or Hogwarts Legacy) to load assetts fast enough while also taking loads of space. And here is my current conundrum. When I bough PC 4 years ago, I was not thinking that far ahead and went only with 500 GB ssd and 2 TB hdd, thinking that 500 GB is enough for few games here and there that will really need the ssd. What I ended up with is now I have huge hdd that simply is not up to snuff in modern games and small ssd to juggle few games between.

My case layout does not allow for any more internal drives, so either I throw away the hdd and buy internal ssd or go for external.

And here comes my question, is external via usb 3 good enough, or will I suffer and end up having to buy internal ssd later down the line anyways?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] ISolox 1 points 1 year ago

I have 2 SATA SSDs I use via an USB adapter externally and have never had an issue.

Technically SATA is faster at 6 gigabyte compared to USB 3.0 at 5 gigabyte. That being said USB 3.1 or newer is faster than SATA.

How if we're talking nvme, internal drives are basically always going to be faster than a USB adapter.