External hdd for gaming permanently?

[† ROGUE †]

Can i use an external hdd for gaming permanently ? i mean can it save files and works just like an internal one if i dont plug it out ? and is there any issues ?

Thanks in advance

[Phoenix]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von crunchyfrog:

II never said it worked for eveyone. YOU asserted that.

No Crunchy, I didn't say anything to that account. But given your flawed reasoning I'm not surprised you're trying to misrepresent the argument. I simply stated that

a) Valve/Steam - for good reason - recommends against using external drives
b) people regularly report having problems with libraries and external drives

Further down the line I called you out for your flawed reasoning and use of generalization to dismiss arguments. Regarding OP's original question I also pointed out that

c) Internal and external drives work differently and accordingly
d) external drives suffer from issues that internal drives don't

Note that I never - at any point - stated that the majority of people report problems with external drives. Nor did I (or Valve, for that matter) state that using external will inevitable lead to problems. External drive simply suffer from issues that internal drives do not and for that reason Valve advises against using them if you want to avoid problems. And that is still accurate and reasonable advice as per OP's question.

But by all means continue to take offense with things I didn't actually say and/or argue counter-factually.

Also...

incredulity[www.merriam-webster.com]
: the quality or state of being incredulous : disbelief

disbelief[www.merriam-webster.com]
: the act of disbelieving : mental rejection of something as untrue

I mean, Crunchy, come on:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von crunchyfrog:

So unless you have data on this being as big a problem as you claim[...]

This is you literally dismissing that the problem is worth mentioning based on your personal disbelief and in contradiction of Valve outright telling people that using external drives can cause problems while you yourself state as much in your first post.

You're literally admitting that external drives cause problems unless you configure your system in a very specific way, not to mention other issues exclusive to external drives. All of that can be avoided by simply refraining from using external drives.

The concept of avoiding something that can potentially cause problems in favor of something that doesn't shouldn't be that hard to comprehend Crunchy, even for you.

[Mad Scientist]

Could, not recommended at all.

Mostly because external things are prone to being bumped/moved around and thus can be damaged, which would need repairs if not an SSD in order to recover anything especially if dropped.

Internal is always far more preferable, though your situation sets what you can or cannot do and how or why.

[Phoenix]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von my new friend:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von † ROGUE †:

what about the temps if i use it for gaming straight for like 3-4hrs

Exactly the same as internal drives +-5c.

That very much depends on your system and the external drive in question. External HDDs can get quite a bit hotter than your internal drives.[forums.tomshardware.com]

[my new friend]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Phoenix:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von my new friend:

Exactly the same as internal drives +-5c.

That very much depends on your system and the external drive in question.

Nowadays, they're all pretty much within these tolerances.

[Phoenix]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von my new friend:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Phoenix:

That very much depends on your system and the external drive in question.

Nowadays, they're all pretty much within these tolerances.

That's literally not how heat dissipation works. If I take an external drive that isn't actively cooled, packed inside a plastic enclosure and which also has a rubber bumper on top of that it will be running quite a bit hotter (as in >>5°C) than a naked, actively cooled drive in direct contact with my steel or aluminum case if they are both stressed the same way.

What "tolerances" are you imagining here if I might ask, given that drives can be exhibiting differences of more than 5 K even when mounted in the exact same way simply because they are different models? This is akin to stating that the MPG of all cars falls to within ±5% of each other.

[my new friend]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Phoenix:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von my new friend:

Nowadays, they're all pretty much within these tolerances.

That's literally not how heat dissipation works. If I take an external drive that isn't actively cooled, packed inside a plastic enclosure and which also has a rubber bumper on top of that it will be running quite a bit hotter (as in >>5°C) than a naked, actively cooled drive in direct contact with my steel or aluminum case if they are both stressed the same way.

What "tolerances" are you imagining here if I might ask, given that drives can be exhibiting differences of more than 5 K even when mounted in the exact same way simply because they are different models? This is akin to stating that the MPG of all cars falls to within ±5% of each other.

All my internal and external drives fall within these tolerances. Some fully enclosed, others not and ones inside my NAS also fully enclosed.

[Phoenix]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von my new friend:

All my internal and external drives[...]

And you do realize that your experience != everybody elses experience, right?

...right?

NAS HDD drive temperatures, for comparison.[cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net]

Random SSD drives, for comparison.[overclock3d.net]

How come people think that stating "exactely X" based on nothing than their personal experience and contradicted by basically any random storage review dealing with temperature comparisons is good advice?

In short: Depending on your system configuration and external HDD the temperature might fall well outside the ±5 K range, because "tolerance" isn't an argument when you're dealing with different operating environments and/or drive models.

[my new friend]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Phoenix:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von my new friend:

All my internal and external drives[...]

And you do realize that your experience != everybody elses experience, right?

...right?

NAS HDD drive temperatures, for comparison.[cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net]

Random SSD drives, for comparison.[overclock3d.net]

How come people think that stating "exactely X" based on nothing than their personal experience and contradicted by basically any random storage review dealing with temperature comparisons is good advice?

In short: Depending on your system configuration and external HDD the temperature might fall well outside the ±5 K range, because "tolerance" isn't an argument when you're dealing with different operating environments and/or drive models.

Did you just compare a HDD with a SSD?

[Phoenix]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von my new friend:

Did you just compare a HDD with a SSD?

No. I posted a comparison between HDDs showing differences of more than 5°C and a comparison between SSDs showing diffrences of more than 5°C to illustrate that your argument doesn't hold true for either.

Given that you seem to be so sure about those ±5 °C, would you care to tell us what kind and model of storage OP is currently using and what external solution they are planning to buy?

...oh, you don't know because OP didn't tell us? Isn't that interesting. How do you even know that OP isn't using an SSD right now? Oh, you don't know that either because OP also never told us. Yet somehow they will all magically fall within 5°C of each other, according to you.

My man, you shouldn't be giving hardware advice, you should book a trip to Vegas instead.

[crunchyfrog]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von † ROGUE †:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von crunchyfrog:

You can easily buy a £40 drive off Amazon that's USB 3 and it will work fine.

is there any issue with usb 3 of external drives ? mine is usb3 and i'm gonna use it in front panel

Nope, as I pointed out earlier not a single thing has occurred to me, and lall the other people who I've said this too in the past (there's some post history of this if anyone cared to check).

Basically, as long as you do as I said - make sure you turn all power savings settings off, and make sure you have the drives recognised in Windows before starting steam it should run pretty damned flawless.

As I said I've done this for the whole timeI've been on Steam with this account and with all the games I have.

Oh and don't use sleep mode, of course, as you say :)

As for your webcam, that is an odd one but not unheard of. I've seen weird behaviour with power savings settings especially under Windows 10 (if that's what you're using). It might just be that when your webcam sees a power signals, it defaults to turning on.