External SSD Suggestions?

[Oubley]

while I have an SSD BG3 and some others already eat up a good chunk of my ssd drive space.

Any good external SSD Drives suggestions?

[Met A Demon Once]

Buy an external SSD and plug it in. There are 4TB drives and that is what I use since the internal is filled.

[darkholyPL]

Just know that you'll be limited in transfer speeds. External SSD are not prefered, but if it's your only option, go for one that is USB 3.2 and a fast one, since speeds vary even inside one USB spec.
Form what I saw, they tend to top out at 2000MB/s (rated) which makes sense, the USB 3.2 tops out at 2,4-ish GB/s data transfer.

[Daedrius]

Yeah, what Darkholy said. I bought this one (below). After installing it and putting NMS and Fallout 4 on it, kind of wanted to kick myself for not getting one sooner. I've always built my computers and just never considered getting an SSD... old habits I guess. But, damn, the games run so much better. I use to get fps drops now and then and would see this pixilated effect in Fallout 4 with the lighting and pop-ins, all that is gone. I don't know how but it literally made the graphics look better - more clear I guess? I dunno it's weird, but awesome.


https://www.amazon.com/ADATA-Transfer-Personal-External-ASE900G-1TU32G2-CBK/dp/B08V8L37HX?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1

[kdodds]

1TB Samsung 970 EVO nVMe in a USB-C enclosure is ~$100.

[Caduryn]

Why.... does it needs to be external..?

[Thradar]

Most motherboards have 6 (or more) SATA ports. Just slap it in your system (unless you're playing on a laptop, in which case I wish you luck)

[rex34560]

Originally posted by kdodds:

1TB Samsung 970 EVO nVMe in a USB-C enclosure is ~$100.

Do they work well? Was looking at an enclosure and an NVME the other day.

[Oubley]

Originally posted by Caduryn:

Why.... does it needs to be external..?

multiple pc's and laptops..... Ease of use/convenience.

Also from experience, cramming more things into pc reduces air flow/air flow space.

Back in the day I used to also use the externals to backup game data stuff from playstation etc though don't do that as much anymore.

All things to consider.

[Tmangus]

I use a scan disk extreme external ssd and it does the job nicely

[pike]

That’s fine for storage but you don’t want the game installed on an external drive, you will be limited by the transfer speed thus negating having an ssd

[Tmangus]

I’ve not had any problems with my games running on an external ssd. Not that I have a choice really. Given the choice I’d take an internal one but that’s not an option. But honestly it’s been absolutely fine

[RiChuF]

I wouldn't things can get all janky while playing games like this on an external
Just get another internal sata ssd

[Groogo]

I purchased an external drive and used it for Starfield and got about the same performance that I was getting from my internal HDD drive. I then purchased an internal SSD drive and fixed the game's performance.

[ULTRA]

Originally posted by Oubley:

Originally posted by Caduryn:

Why.... does it needs to be external..?

multiple pc's and laptops..... Ease of use/convenience.

Oh, I thought you were gonna say all your SATA ports were used up, truly a shocking twist

[Hyokkuda]

Wait, I just noticed that this post is 6 months old! How did the first 'necromancer' here managed to find this post?

First of all, external drives over USB Type A and C are always slower than PCIe, if you are not familiar with it.

You have to make sure that your USB port is at least USB 3.2 Gen 1×2 (USB 3.2, SuperSpeed+) or USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (USB 3.2, SuperSpeed+) or higher for best transfer speed. Those are usually seen on USB C interfaces. Make sure to read your motherboard manual or laptop manual concerning the type of ports your computer has.

You can also get the best performance using an NVMe enclosure which is always better than any external HDDs. I can actually play games without any lag or stuttering using my ROG STRIX ARION (WD_BLACK NS770 - 1TB). The speed of that NVMe is overkill for the transfer speed I have over USB. But it was a great deal and I could always install it inside a PC later on.

I hope this helps!

------

Impressively well. You will not want to touch a puny USB stick/flashdrive or external HDD again after using one.

Originally posted by rex34560:

Do they work well? Was looking at an enclosure and an NVME the other day.