If I put steam games on my external will it make the games run slow?

[bluesage8]

currently I have a 2TB Seagate external hard drive using a Super Speed to 3.0 USB I was wondering how much it would effect the game play on my games like COD Advanced warfare, Skyrim ect. also heres a link to the external hard drive and the cord that I have if you need more information on it. my computer I use is actually a 256gb Surface pro 2. here are the links

External Hard Drive: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion-STBX2000401-2-5-Inch-Portable/dp/B00ILALU9G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416432515&sr=8-1&keywords=seagate+hdd+2tb&pebp=1416432511469

Super Speed to 3.0 USB: http://www.amazon.com/TechMatte-SuperSpeed-Micro-B-Samsung-Included/dp/B00KSJE1OY/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1416433408&sr=8-9&keywords=super+speed+B+usb+3.0&pebp=1416433497685

[Shadowbenny]

It might make some games run slowly, but I would recommend against placing high spec games on the external.

[Erebus]

May significantly increase loading times, as well as destroy performance for any games which dynamically load resources.

[Andrius227]

I don't think it matters if the hhd is external or not. What matters is the speed of that hard drive. Games on a 5400rpm drive will run very slowly doesn't matter if it's internal hdd or not. You need at least 7200rpm drive or even better, an ssd to run games well.

And that drive that you linked is only 5400rpm just like most other portable drives. And the fact that it's portable means that it doesnt have external power supply so it probably makes it even slower than regular 5400rpm drives... It's not designed to be used for gaming. Only for media storage and stuff that doesn't require high read/write speeds.

[crunchyfrog]

In theory it can.

However, I've got every game on a removable hard drive which I swap frequently between 5 PCs at work and at home. I have some installed on those PCs too.

I have noticed in a few games load times have risen very slightly and the very, very rare game has the odd twitch due to loading.

Just based on this personal experience, I've found the difference then to be almost negligible as to be not worth bothering about. But of course, your mileage may vary.

[Zένø™ 👌]

it won't affect perfomance,it will affect only loading times,they will be a little slower but other than that you will not see any difference.

[Black Blade]

I have a laptop and most of my games are on a External HDD, simply as i do not have enough HDD space on the PC for the games
Saying that i found that by me the External HDD is faster then my internal one, so on basic like @Andrius227 said it depends more abut you HDD speed, and USB Speed then it will be abut if its in or out of the PC..

[wuddih]

if you have the choice:
esata -> firewire -> network -> usb

ordered by general speed, assuming that network is a full duplex 1gbit connection, depending on network hardware used may require also a dual nic on your nas and client.

most bundled external hdds are 5400rpm for temperature reasons, so they are generally slower, so search for faster one, the one you've choosen has 5400.

general longer loading times, and depending on game, ingame lags.

[Aero]

i thinking about doing this too, so games like league of legends, tf2 and garrys mod should be on the internal drive and games like ftl terraria and torchlight should be on external?

[antling]

Hi,
I hope i'm not too late! I have a 400GB HDD and it runs okay, but the loading time is hideous

(Team Fortress 2 takes ages to load, Of Guards and thieves, Portal 2...etc...) It really depends on you connector type, (such as USB, SATA or IDE.) so if you want quickest loading times try USB 3.0? Or SATA (Your main HDD connector(why your HDD runs so fast.).) I wouldn't suggest IDE, because it's a bit

slow... I have my HDD on a USB 2.0, you would hale much more success if you had 3.0, BTW if you have a USB 3.0 hub but not a USB 2.0 port (like the hub is connected to the port on your computer that has 2.0) then you will not have the pros of the 3.0 port

Kind Regards,
-Coolq.

[SandShoo!™]

Hi guys I know this thread was posted a while ago but I googled for help with my problem and this thread came up so that's why I'm posting in it. I've read what people have said for the question asked I have a similar problem I am looking to upgrade my PC as it's too slow for modern games. This is the pc I'm looking at getting (link below) and this is the hard drive I have with all my games on it (link below) I am also wondering if my games that I have will play smoothly on it without lag. I don't mind loading times I'm just wondering if the games I have ie resident evil 2/ cs:go/ skyrim/ dying light etc etc will still run properly whilst having them installed on my external hard drive. I don't want to just buy the computer then it doesn't run properly I asked the staff in currys if it will and they said it should be fine but I'm looking for other opinions any help will be much appreciated thanks.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/pc-specialist-vortex-st-s-intel-core-i7-rtx-2070-gaming-pc-2-tb-hdd-256-gb-ssd-10196471-pdt.html

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9207323?istCompanyId=a74d8886-5df9-4baa-b776-166b3bf9111c&istFeedId=30f62ea9-9626-4cac-97c8-9ff3921f8558&istItemId=ixwlitmqt&istBid=t&&cmpid=GS001&_$ja=tsid:59158%7cacid:532-198-3455%7ccid:598756200%7cagid:24290289890%7ctid:pla-793087807179%7ccrid:86846277050%7cnw:g%7crnd:5583230739767627943%7cdvc:m%7cadp:1o1%7cmt:%7cloc:9046928&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=598756200&utm_term=&utm_content=shopping&utm_custom1=24290289890&utm_custom2=532-198-3455&gclid=CjwKCAiA3uDwBRBFEiwA1VsajBtNMrqoE-bnkI38emkqGcodjR1joebunjvm0GmNsFme1kwiSu_qRBoC6G4QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Komrade]

Originally posted by SandShoo!™:

Hi guys I know this thread was posted a while ago but I googled for help with my problem and this thread came up so that's why I'm posting in it. I've read what people have said for the question asked I have a similar problem I am looking to upgrade my PC as it's too slow for modern games. This is the pc I'm looking at getting (link below) and this is the hard drive I have with all my games on it (link below) I am also wondering if my games that I have will play smoothly on it without lag. I don't mind loading times I'm just wondering if the games I have ie resident evil 2/ cs:go/ skyrim/ dying light etc etc will still run properly whilst having them installed on my external hard drive. I don't want to just buy the computer then it doesn't run properly I asked the staff in currys if it will and they said it should be fine but I'm looking for other opinions any help will be much appreciated thanks.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/pc-specialist-vortex-st-s-intel-core-i7-rtx-2070-gaming-pc-2-tb-hdd-256-gb-ssd-10196471-pdt.html

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9207323?istCompanyId=a74d8886-5df9-4baa-b776-166b3bf9111c&istFeedId=30f62ea9-9626-4cac-97c8-9ff3921f8558&istItemId=ixwlitmqt&istBid=t&&cmpid=GS001&_$ja=tsid:59158%7cacid:532-198-3455%7ccid:598756200%7cagid:24290289890%7ctid:pla-793087807179%7ccrid:86846277050%7cnw:g%7crnd:5583230739767627943%7cdvc:m%7cadp:1o1%7cmt:%7cloc:9046928&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=598756200&utm_term=&utm_content=shopping&utm_custom1=24290289890&utm_custom2=532-198-3455&gclid=CjwKCAiA3uDwBRBFEiwA1VsajBtNMrqoE-bnkI38emkqGcodjR1joebunjvm0GmNsFme1kwiSu_qRBoC6G4QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

If you build your own PC you would save £300, and also get higher quality parts at the same time. It’s not very hard, if you can assemble furniture you can build a PC.

[U.MY.METHOD]

same here, the downloading content and validation take endless time to load

[Cathulhu]

Not sure why you thought of posting this in a thread from 2014.

[_I_]

Originally posted by U.MY.METHOD:

same here, the downloading content and validation take endless time to load

yes, access time is greatly increased along with lower iops on remote drives
steam hammers the drive when downloading, updating and validating

install the games locally on a ssd or hdd
not ub/nas or on network shared drives