Run Steam games from Network Attached Storage (NAS)

[markc6123]

Greetings. Has anyone had any experience moving the games from the local C drive to a NAS device? I'm running out of space on my gaming laptop. I've been checking file copy speeds to various devices. Copying from C to a USB stick gets 15 MB per second. Copying from the NAS gets 113 mb/s. Copying from C to attached external SATA drive gets 112 mb/s and to an external SSD drive gets 170 mb/s. External SSD is best but if I can get by with running the games off the NAS that would be great. Not sure what the minimum speed golf games, or any games, requires without getting lag. I could upgrade the hard drive but that's major hassle. Also, does the whole game directory need to be moved or just the games? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[ReBoot]

Well, you can always try. Loading times may take a hit, but otherwise, things should work fine.
Depending on the game, of course. Some poorly optimized games (Arkham Knight) may simply lock up when the storage is too slow, others may simply take a while to stream in ressources, but it should generally work.
It's not like trying will cost you.

[markc6123]

Thanks, that's what I'm thinking, later today will move just the Golf games to the NAS and try it out.

[ReBoot]

That surely ain't the kind of open-world-resource-streaming-SSD-actually-needed-games.

Fun fact:THE poster game for OW, GTA 5, may just as well sit on a Microchannel drive, it's loading time is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ joke, no matter the storage.

[Iceira]

hmm you might want to go dual network card, this will keep isp line free and nas on diffrent network scope to max networktransfer. ( i guess it depend on 100mbit+ 1gb isp ) then DL or should i say network bottleneck issue will be seen. ) you sure you dont have usb30 port , that can solve alot of issue.

[markc6123]

I have GTA 5 but haven't played it much, I'd probably leave that one on the C drive. Golf games suck up a lot of space if I can just move those I should be good.

Originally posted by ReBoot:

That surely ain't the kind of open-world-resource-streaming-SSD-actually-needed-games.

Fun fact:THE poster game for OW, GTA 5, may just as well sit on a Microchannel drive, it's loading time is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ joke, no matter the storage.

[markc6123]

NAS and laptop both have USB 3 ports. Thinking I'll just try moving golf games to NAS first and see how it behaves. If poorly, I'll try an SSD drive connected to the NAS USB port and see how that works.

Originally posted by Iceira:

hmm you might want to go dual network card, this will keep isp line free and nas on diffrent network scope to max networktransfer. ( i guess it depend on 100mbit+ 1gb isp ) then DL or should i say network bottleneck issue will be seen. ) you sure you dont have usb30 port , that can solve alot of issue.

[markc6123]

BTW, does anyone know if the whole game directory needs to be moved or just the games directory for each game?

[B Hooper]

Originally posted by markc6123:

Thanks, that's what I'm thinking, later today will move just the Golf games to the NAS and try it out.

[markc6123]

FWIW for anyone later looking at this thread, I mapped a games folder in Windows to the NAS so Steam would see it, and moved the games from within Steam to the new directory. Golf is working fine. It's a low end NAS, QNAP T-231P. Just saved 100g on my 500 g laptop drive. So far so good. Not sure how an intensive game would play, like GTA 5 and such....

[Bee🐝]

Originally posted by markc6123:

FWIW for anyone later looking at this thread, I mapped a games folder in Windows to the NAS so Steam would see it, and moved the games from within Steam to the new directory. Golf is working fine. It's a low end NAS, QNAP T-231P. Just saved 100g on my 500 g laptop drive. So far so good. Not sure how an intensive game would play, like GTA 5 and such....

I'd appreciate it if you could give us an update when you've tried some different games. This is actually really interesting in a totally geeky tech way.

[markc6123]

Yes I get that. I'll move Star Trek Online and let you know how it goes...

Originally posted by Bee:

Originally posted by markc6123:

FWIW for anyone later looking at this thread, I mapped a games folder in Windows to the NAS so Steam would see it, and moved the games from within Steam to the new directory. Golf is working fine. It's a low end NAS, QNAP T-231P. Just saved 100g on my 500 g laptop drive. So far so good. Not sure how an intensive game would play, like GTA 5 and such....

I'd appreciate it if you could give us an update when you've tried some different games. This is actually really interesting in a totally geeky tech way.

[Satoru]

I mean yoyu can 'try' but

1) steam doesnt support external drive solutions
2) You may run into permissions issues or the msot common problem of your games appearing 'uninstalled'
3) note that unless you've got gig ethernet directly connected your load times are gonna make you wanna gouge your eyes out

[markc6123]

I moved Far Cry 5 and it plays just fine, so did Jack Nicklaus Perfect Golf. Load times seemed about the same

[DarkNessXena]

Gg

[Bee🐝]

Glad to hear Star Trek Online and Far Cry is running without any major differences. This is sounding like a pretty good solution to a space problem. I wonder how it would work with something like Eve Online...