Question about SSDs and installing games like Hogwarts

[Explorerbeyondthemap]

Please pardon my ignorance, but I don't have any experience with installing games on anything except an internal HDD where the op. system is also usually located.

I really want to play this game but I need to do some upgrades. I'm doubling my RAM to 32gb and I'm also going to follow the recommendations of using an SSD.

But I would rather not have to swap out my HDD and have to install Windows and everything all over again.

Can you use an EXTERNAL SSD that connects with USB and install games on that and play them off of that while still having your operating system on the internal HDD?

[Fudge]

I have exactly what you describe. My OS is on my internal HDD and all of my games are on a 500gb external usb SSD. Works fine. Games don't need to be installed on the same drive as your operating system.

[KOOLLAYDTAC]

I don't see why you couldn't mate. Honestly the only differences from my understanding between SSD and HDD is the drive speed is faster. HDD is more for large files and storage. I have a laptop with SSD and a desktop with HDD and to be perfectly honest when it comes to gaming I haven't noticed a difference. I'd say just install it and test it out on you HDD and give that a run and see how you go. Anyway hope this helps some and good luck mate.

[Explorerbeyondthemap]

Great, thanks so much for the helpful responses! Will give it a try!

[Nats]

You dont need to. You can install the new SSD internally as a slave and keep the HDD as the master drive. That way the SSD just becomes a new drive letter in your system and you can nistall Steam games to it as and when you want to. I actually use a small master SSD for Windows, a large HDD for most stuff and a separate SSD for demanding games like this one. I just move around the games between the HDD and SSD to suit what I need and when. Its very easy to do that in Steam itself - you can shift games around easy between the two.

And installing a new drive is as easy as setting the jumper at the back to make it a slave, installing the cable and power lead to the drive and spare sockets on the motherboard/power leads, and fixing it into your computer. Very easy. You might need a small drive bracket that the drive can sit in although you can also screw them straight to the case a lot of the time.

[Sef]

Some things might run off your boot drive regardless, such as cached shaders and other things where programs communicate with each other. Shouldn't see insane performance difference in most games, but generally the OS would optimally always be installed on the SSD if there is one.

[spicy little monkey]

Originally posted by Junkface:

I have exactly what you describe. My OS is on my internal HDD and all of my games are on a 500gb external usb SSD. Works fine. Games don't need to be installed on the same drive as your operating system.

You really need to put your OS on an SSD

[Explorerbeyondthemap]

Originally posted by Junkface:

I have exactly what you describe. My OS is on my internal HDD and all of my games are on a 500gb external usb SSD. Works fine. Games don't need to be installed on the same drive as your operating system.

Yeah, this is what I also confirmed on a dozen or more gaming/forum sites. According to 100% of them, you can game off an external SSD drive or have an internal SSD. And you've had first hand experience that it works fine with an external SSD.

I suppose there may be some kind of potential difference between an external and internal SSD, or if it's connected with just USB or if it's actually integrated into the motherboard.

But from what I read the difference is not significant. But it seems to be one of the imbedded myths in the wider gaming community that games supposedly WON'T WORK or RUN properly if you use a USB SSD drive, which is totally untrue.

As far as having the operating system on the HDD and game files on an external SSD, again it seems to make very little difference in the functioning of games. Again, something you already have first hand experience with!

[Fudge]

Originally posted by El Sin Nombre:

You really need to put your OS on an SSD

Actually I did at one point, in another machine. I never noticed any substantial difference and SSDs are simply more expensive so I'd rather not fork out the money for an extra one.

[CatPerson]

I think this depends a little bit (performance wise I mean) on the speed of your USB connection.

eg, you could still get some long loading times if the read access is slowed down in that way. But I don't know how sigificant it would be since I don't use externals. Maybe it's nothing much, just something I heard/to consider.

I would always prefer internal "slave"/storage drives, myself. I have 2 internal HDD's (storage) 1 Sata SSD (game install drive) and the O/S is on an NVME. The only reason I would use an external for installing/using software is if a 2nd internal was not possible/difficult for some reason, like a laptop or whatever else.

[Swamp Fox]

Originally posted by Explorerbeyondthemap:

Originally posted by Junkface:

I have exactly what you describe. My OS is on my internal HDD and all of my games are on a 500gb external usb SSD. Works fine. Games don't need to be installed on the same drive as your operating system.

Yeah, this is what I also confirmed on a dozen or more gaming/forum sites. According to 100% of them, you can game off an external SSD drive or have an internal SSD. And you've had first hand experience that it works fine with an external SSD.

I suppose there may be some kind of potential difference between an external and internal SSD, or if it's connected with just USB or if it's actually integrated into the motherboard.

But from what I read the difference is not significant. But it seems to be one of the imbedded myths in the wider gaming community that games supposedly WON'T WORK or RUN properly if you use a USB SSD drive, which is totally untrue.

As far as having the operating system on the HDD and game files on an external SSD, again it seems to make very little difference in the functioning of games. Again, something you already have first hand experience with!

That's wrong. The difference is significant. If you don't know the subject at hand, don't give recommendations to other users based on what someone told you to do-- this is now third-hand information and you've already got it wrong.

[leighton]

I have windows on a 1TB HD and steam w/ all games on an internal 1TB ssd. It works just fine.

[Fudge]

Originally posted by Patrick Swayze's Ghost:

That's wrong. The difference is significant. If you don't know the subject at hand, don't give recommendations to other users based on what someone told you to do-- this is now third-hand information and you've already got it wrong.

I don't think anyone here is trying to debate against an internal drive being preferable performance wise, but personally no I can't say that it is significant. I've had it both ways on the same games, no noticeable difference. That isn't to say you may not have experienced differently, but there may be other variables in play.

Personally I find the external SSD more convenient because I have multiple machines in different locations and this way I can just bring my games with me if need be.

[Mike Hawthorne]

My computer has 3 Terabytes of storage on 2 Solid State drives, the smaller drive is partitioned to 250 Gigs and 750 Gigs.

Windows goes on the 250 Gig partition.
That's so I can rapidly make a System Image of the C:\ drive. Nothing but Windows and related files go on this drive. All my programs and data go on other partitions.

I can create or restore my C;\ drive in about 10 minutes. That means that if anything other than a mechanical failure happens I can fix it in 10 minutes.

There is nothing different about having Windows on a solid-state drive except the speed,
It is much faster.

But if you are going to make the change I'd take the time to reinstall everything, backup everything that's important, and just start over.

But, if you want you can leave your old mechanical drive and just put in a new solid-state drive. Then move all your gaming stuff to it.

[ANGRY LOBSTER]

If I was you I would buy a 1TB or 2 TB SSD (if you install a lot of games) and install it in your PC. Your system will be more than 10x faster and games can run smoother and faster.

There are some good cheap SSD's out there.

[margalus]

Don't use an external and don't swap your hdd. Just add an ssd as another device