Hard Drive Selection / External gaming

Regarding hard drives, if I choose to install an SSD, then I will probably have to store some files/games on an external since affordable SSD's are low capacity.

Will using an external to game defeat the purpose of having an SSD? In other words, is using an SSD only beneficial if the files are located on the SSD, or will it also enhance accessing files on an external drive as well?

I'd appreciate any SSD users sharing their configurations - do you use an external? If so, do you leave gaming files on the internal SSD and just put docs/pics/music on the external?

 

This. You put your OS + applications + games on your SSD, and you keep your media (videos, music, pictures, ) on an external USB hard drive.

OS + apps + games actually benefit from being run off of an SSD. Media files (videos, music, etc) do not benefit one bit from SSD speeds. Keep them on cheaper slower high-capacity external storage.

You'd be surprised how far the storage on a 120GB SSD can go if you don't put videos on it. I have two computers each with OS + apps + 8 games on a 120GB SSD, and still have 30GB - 35GB on each drive.

Having an SSD will affect only the files and programs stored on the SSD. You will not magically have faster access speeds for files stored on an external drive simply by having an SSD.

It is worth noting that you absolutely do not want to load / install / run programs (OS + apps + games) over a USB connection because it will be painfully slow. USB 2.0 is limited to 30MBps transfer rate, whereas even the slowest of the slow 5400rpm hard drives can manage to squeak out 60MBps.

However, USB 2.0 speeds will be more than enough for any media. Playing a video, music file, or viewing photos will run identically well over an SSD or a USB 2.0 drive. So keep that media content off of the SSD where space is a premium, and store it on the external USB drive isntead.

 

admin - please delete this double-post.