Some of the fastest hard drives can only get up to about 210 megabytes per second and about 400 if their buffer is utilized fully which doesn’t happen all the time. How do you plan to 'plug and unplug' the SSD? Even with dodgy trim support, game drives aren't written to often, only uasp matters. And that drive that you linked is only 5400rpm just like most other portable drives. I installed 2.5 TB worth of games on this hard drive and they all runs great. The short answer is that SATA 3 while boasting slower data transfer rates than its USB 3.1 counterpart is still superior since it can transfer information both ways. See also: Is it possible to install Steam games … Exact same issue, exact same setup. This is a common problem facing some computer gamers now days. The chief limiting factor of any connection type is speed and if the data transfer is one way or both ways at once. If you already have installed games, move them to another drive. Load time \difference between ssds in games is minimal. I got a wd elements yesterday and i want to know if external hdd's are good to install games. Note: Even though installing on an external drive means the games / client themselves are on the external drive, you may wind up with your saves or DLC on the computer, rather than the external drive. No matter which one you choose, both perform the same task of booting your PC and storing files and applications. Click Install. A new window will open. In order to store apps and games on an external hard drive, the drive needs to hold a capacity of 256GB or more and use a USB 3.0 connection. My Dell G5 gaming laptop is a great example with a 128GB NAND SSD and a 1TB SSD. SATA does not have this issue and so is a much better solution for gaming. +Game Install/Download was several times faster on the SSD CONs: If you were planning on playing games on it like I was then you'll likely notice the input lag (delay). Another limiting factor is the processing chip that is in an external hard drive that is there to convert SATA signals to USB and visa versa. Required fields are marked *. It may sound complicated to use an external drive to install your games, but the process is quite straightforward. Installing games in a different location than default on Steam is easy. If you change the "default game installation location" in Uplay it will not move existing games to the new location, it will just download new games to that location. For example, a hard disk drive is traditionally large with capacity, and it's relatively cheap. It is a smart decision indeed. Feb 3, 2016 #7 As long as it really is USB 3.0, yes, this is perfectly practical. This will work even if you’ve started the game and there is game progress saved. Open the ‘Choose location for install’ dropdown, and select your external drive. If you want to stop using a secondary location to install apps, simply go back to the Storage Settings, and choose "This PC". If you don’t believe us check out these SSD load times on GTA V: Unfortunately, Microsoft have decided that upgrading the internal hard drive on your Xbox One will ultimately void your warranty. Just PC games can be massive in size. It has been said since Cerny's reveal of PS5, the SSD will not help PS4 games they do tho.. there are comparisons video out there, they load faster on the SSD and not everyone has an External hard drive.. making the SSD the Connect the external drive to your system. Short of wiping my STEAM install, and starting over and re-downloading and re-installing everything, I … Games not installing onto other HardDrive I have two drives on my computer my main drive which is an SSD that I mainly use to install windows and small programs, then I have my HDD that i use to install games and other big files. USB 3.1 boasts up to 1 gigabyte per second speed where as SATA 3 has a speed of 600 megabytes per second this may seem slower but when you take into account that this is 600 megabytes per second both ways this actually is faster if you have to read and write at the same time. In this guide, we will show you how to install games via Steam or Battle.net on an external hard drive. And, so, there is an advantage to installing your games on your SSD instead of on your HDD. I am compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. Wait! Another factor to consider is if the drive is unplugged from the computer while a game is running this can cause the game to crash and can cause damage to the drive as well. Thought I'd also ask here. It tells me there is no more space left when all I'm trying to do is install a 40gb game on a 500gb external. So I was wondering if there are possibly external drives that are fast enough to run programs off of. Hello! For any external hard drive, once you get it and plug it in you can specify which drive you want to be the default installation drive. © 2021 Copyright Computer Gaming Enthusiast. If I change Uplay's default game install location to my SSD won't Uplay try to move my installed game (on my HDD) to my SSD ? Your email address will not be published. K. KKRT00 Member. The cost on a solid state drive might be extraordinarily high as the capacity grows, but the design of no moving parts make it perform faster and less noisy. Save my name and email in this browser for the next time I comment. How to Move Games from HDD to SSD As soon as you determined to install games on SSD, hurry up to get one and put your games on it. Once you’ve built your external SSD, plug it into the side USB port on your Xbox One. How to play ARK: Survival Evolved on Linux, Windows Live Mail Download: How to Install Windows Live Mail (Windows 10), How to Enter a Code on google.com/device (Solved), DNS Server Not Responding: How to Fix DNS Not Responding on Windows 10. I participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Move/Install Games to Another Drive. 1. Since SSD can shorten the accessing time, you can put those commonly-used games and applications into the SSD. Transfer XBOX ONE games to external SSD Now, you can transfer the games to the SSD. W. Wowfunhappy Member. If your motherboard does not have an M.2 slot this means you are limited to an internal SATA SSD, so the difference would be quite small provided you have a fast enough USB port. Game progress is saved to it the OS is installed or moved to an external SSD PC... 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