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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

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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?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you have a spare pcie slot you can get a m.2 adapter and a nvme drive, or if your motherboard has a m.2 slot that would be the way to go. I got rid of all my sata and got a 2tb nvme drive and it has been good for a few years and probably good enough for a several more

[–] nezbyte 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A few additional details. M.2 requires a minimum PCIe 3.0 (or higher) x4. You’ll want to confirm in your motherboard specs that it supports the NVMe protocol and that using those PCIe lanes won’t affect the GPU lanes.

You could get a PCIe to SATA card if your motherboard doesn’t support the NVMe protocol.