Fastest external HDD - USB 3.0 or other slot?

So Im getting a warranty replacement and the computer will have 512GB SSD total. I would like more space then this to put misc stuff on. I was thinking of buying a small and compact USB 3.0 hard drive and using that. However, I read somewhere that USB 3.0 might not be the fastest option? If im looking to try to run some small games on it, what would be the fastest port I should try to use? Is it firewire? eSATA? I'm pretty sure an external HDD I saw on amazon came with a few of these adapters. I heard USB 3.0 may not be great because its very CPU intensive while others may not be.

Basically, I want to as closely resemble something like an internal 7200RPM hard drive (or better) as possible while being external (and compact).


Also, what about the possibility of having some kind of network drive elsewhere in the house? Would it even be possible to run games off that or would it need to be physically plugged in? Are network drives used for data storage only?

What would you recommend?

 

What kind of "small game" doesn't fit on a 512gb ssd?

 

Well, I have a lot of games that are big, and 512 GB fills up quick. The reason I mention small is that I figure I would only put small games on the external drive since it might not lag if the game isnt as performance intensive as other newer games.

 

It will still put unnecessary strain on the cpu to be reading off anything other than an internal drive. You should probably look into swapping out the odd with a caddy. Or going back to a hdd. I have WoW, D3, Skyrim, Fallen Earth, Jade Dynasty and that only takes up 150 gb with the the o.s.

I'm not sure which games you are playing but I think you might be doing it wrong.

Also once you hit 70-80% full on a ssd you start losing performance. They aren't meant to be filled up.

 

You can use eSATA. That's the fastest option available. You can actually run Windows or Linux directly off the eSATAp port if you had some strange reason to want to.

 

As said before, eSATA is your best bet for the fastest external interface, although any external hard drive will be maxed out far before it hits the limit of USB 3.0. (An external SSD is a different matter.)

I'm not sure about running games off a network storage drive, although if your local network speed is fast enough, I see no reason why it shouldn't work.

Alternatively, if you're getting an M18x R2 as a replacement, the drive caddy in it will fit a third drive, although it'll only fit a 7mm tall drive and runs at SATA 2 for that drive. There's also an mSATA slot which can fit an mSATA SSD, although I'm not sure how big those go. I believe none of this applies to the R1, though.

 

Do you guys think that an external hard drive that doesnt require a wallwart (powered by USB 3.0) and runs at 5400 RPM would be sufficient to run some games (like say team fortress 2) on? Wouldnt the only thing that would be affected would be the longer load time and not the FPS or anything?

Also, what do you think about just leaving a drive like that hooked up to the laptop 24/7? Is that okay?

 

Load times will suffer but framerate should be same as any other drive, SSD or otherwise. You could get a 7200RPM external drive (yes, one that doesn't require external power, a pocket drive for instance) I've seen plenty of them floating around in high capacities.

Should be fine leaving it plugged in 24/7 - it's a hard drive like any other, the same as the ones in your laptop itself (if you were still on rotational drives). As long as you don't give it a hard knock while it's running, that is. That will wreck the drive.

 

Game on external HDD just mean more loading time, but people need to wait for everyone to finish loading to start the game ne ways (online fps/moba)

It may get ugly if you run single player rpg with all the map loading though.

 

m17x and m18x have a powered e-sata port, that'd the best for a single cable solution.
Probly not much to gain from usb3 tho.
Normal e-sata will require a usb port too to get power to the hdd.