Is it possible to install a game on an USB3 SSD and play it normally?

[Seanny_Crow]

My MSI GP76 Leopard comes with a 1To SSD inside and that's it. Not even an HDD added.
With games being heavy as they are now (I had to uninstall AC Valhalla to install Starfield that sucks) it's getting really tight to be able to have several of those big games installed at the same time (Especially since I always leave at least 20% of the space free, IDK if it's really important but I've read in a lot of places that it was the way to go for SSDs).
But I do have 4 x 2 To SSDs plugged with USB 3.2 that I use to store everything else. I have 3 of them plugged to a USB 3.2 hub that is powered (plugged in the electrical outlet I mean) and one plugged in directly into one of the VERY FEW USB 3.2 ports of the laptop (couldn't they add more? seriously? Next laptop it's the first thing I'll look for with a bigger disk space).

Can I install games on those SSDs and have normal performances? Have you guys tried it?

I'm gonna try any way but doesn't hurt to ask if I'm wasting my time.

[Overseer]

Yes it's possible. No it's not a practical solution. Replace the internal SSD with one you will actually use.
That will solve all you problems without creating new ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6FT6qm6Oz4

[Seanny_Crow]

Arch! Still in warranty, I'm not comfortable opening a laptop, never was, scares me crapless that I will break it, I tend to break things, big hands and I shake a lot when I try to do something precise (I can't paint a wargaming figure to save my life for example). Damn I should just go back to a tower but I have more money than time now.
Thanks for the advice though and when the warranty's expired if I haven't bought a new one yet (or gone back to a tower PC) I will do it.

Can you elaborate why it's not practical? performance issues? Right now I'm contemplating using those USB SSDs just for games like Battletech, Jagged Alliance, so not too heavy on resources like Starfield and co.

[Crashed]

Yes you can install on a USB3 SSD, but performance-wise depends on the generation of the port and device.
USB 3.0 (Gen 1) will get you a bit less than SATA speed.
USB 3.1 (Gen 2) will get you twice that speed.
USB 3.2 (Gen 2x2) will get you PCIe 2 speed.
USB4 will get you PCIe 3 speed.

As for Starfield it just says SSD required, and they might mean SATA speeds might be enough.

I have a USB 3.2 to NVMe adapter, and CrystalDiskMark gives about 2GB/sec speed.

[Overseer]

You will fight with drive letters, games disappearing from Steam and it generally complaining alongside of random device disconnects that could even be caused by cable wiggle.
Performance is hard to tell as i do not know of any reliable benchmarks. But you may encounter anything related to device access times and it all depends on how well the external casing functions.

[Crashed]

Originally posted by Overseer:

You will fight with drive letters, games disappearing from Steam and it generally complaining alongside of random device disconnects that could even be caused by cable wiggle.
Performance is hard to tell as i do not know of any reliable benchmarks. But you may encounter anything related to device access times and it all depends on how well the external casing functions.

Doesn't Steam now have library hotplug, or is that just for Steam Deck?
One could define a drive letter manually in Disk Management before adding a Steam Library, and the letter should stay constant as long as you don't plug it in while another drive is using the letter.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

The performance shouldn't be an issue for running games off an external drive as long as it is some sort of SSD and not a HDD. HDD, especially external ones are quite slow even at the highest available performance. And most external HDDs are 2.5 inch which are even slower compared to most Desktop HDDs that are 3.5 inch.

The SSD can be SATA or NVME; it won't really matter. Just the NVME tend to be smaller in this regard. You generally will never get the full drive performance using an NVME SSD as an external drive. So even SATA SSDs are fast enough. However; the system Motherboard really needs to have USB 3.2 Gen1 or Gen2 (Type-A or Type-C; doesn't matter) to get as much performance from the SSD as possible And the caddy for the SSD supports that as well. If you buy an off-the-shelf external SSD such as WD, SanDisk, Seagate, Samsung; those will already have USB 3.1 or USB 3.2 (depending on model and age) to help ensure as close to max performance as possible for the SSD.

If it is a Laptop then you might only have one of these ports. Your Laptop should have come with two paper items; one is a brief manual and one is a diagram of all the ports and such. The port diagram should tell you what such ports would support for the max; such as USB 3.0; 3.1; 3.2; etc.

Steam Client and the other game clients such as EA, EPIC, UPLAY do not support hot-plugging. If you lose drive connection, or you already have the client running before the drive is connected you will need to Exit/Restart the game client for it to see the drive and game library folder.

When using any external drive where you will be installing apps/games to it to run them off such a drive (same goes for internal drives); make sure that the Drive Letter does not change over time; or this will break the game library and various links that allow the OS or Game Client to talk to the correct drive and/or folders in order to launch the apps and/or games from said drive.

So lets say I have a Laptop and I plug in an external ssd to install and run games off of.
Connect the drive, then bring up Disk Management in Windows OS. From here you can initialize + format the new drive. During that process it has a Drive Letter option; pick one much further down the alphabet; such as R, S, T just as an example. Leaving ones such as D, E, F, G free for other drives down the road.

If you leave that new drive as D drive for example; then later on the drive is disconnected and you plug in a usb flash drive, this drive becomes D. Then say you leave that connected and plug in your external SSD, this drive automatically becomes E since D is taken at the moment. So you can easily see where this would be a problem if you have Apps/Games installed to the External SSD and when doing so that drive was assigned to Drive Letter D before.

If going to use an external you will also want to disable USB power saving in the OS (Device Manager) as well as edit the Power Profile so that the HDD Timer is set to 0; as the HDD Timer applies to ALL Drives except the OS Drive in terms of a sleep power saving timer.

[alvian.ir]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

The performance shouldn't be an issue for running games off an external drive as long as it is some sort of SSD and not a HDD. HDD, especially external ones are quite slow even at the highest available performance. And most external HDDs are 2.5 inch which are even slower compared to most Desktop HDDs that are 3.5 inch.

The SSD can be SATA or NVME; it won't really matter. Just the NVME tend to be smaller in this regard. You generally will never get the full drive performance using an NVME SSD as an external drive. So even SATA SSDs are fast enough. However; the system Motherboard really needs to have USB 3.2 Gen1 or Gen2 (Type-A or Type-C; doesn't matter) to get as much performance from the SSD as possible And the caddy for the SSD supports that as well. If you buy an off-the-shelf external SSD such as WD, SanDisk, Seagate, Samsung; those will already have USB 3.1 or USB 3.2 (depending on model and age) to help ensure as close to max performance as possible for the SSD.

If it is a Laptop then you might only have one of these ports. Your Laptop should have come with two paper items; one is a brief manual and one is a diagram of all the ports and such. The port diagram should tell you what such ports would support for the max; such as USB 3.0; 3.1; 3.2; etc.

Steam Client and the other game clients such as EA, EPIC, UPLAY do not support hot-plugging. If you lose drive connection, or you already have the client running before the drive is connected you will need to Exit/Restart the game client for it to see the drive and game library folder.

When using any external drive where you will be installing apps/games to it to run them off such a drive (same goes for internal drives); make sure that the Drive Letter does not change over time; or this will break the game library and various links that allow the OS or Game Client to talk to the correct drive and/or folders in order to launch the apps and/or games from said drive.

So lets say I have a Laptop and I plug in an external ssd to install and run games off of.
Connect the drive, then bring up Disk Management in Windows OS. From here you can initialize + format the new drive. During that process it has a Drive Letter option; pick one much further down the alphabet; such as R, S, T just as an example. Leaving ones such as D, E, F, G free for other drives down the road.

If you leave that new drive as D drive for example; then later on the drive is disconnected and you plug in a usb flash drive, this drive becomes D. Then say you leave that connected and plug in your external SSD, this drive automatically becomes E since D is taken at the moment. So you can easily see where this would be a problem if you have Apps/Games installed to the External SSD and when doing so that drive was assigned to Drive Letter D before.

If going to use an external you will also want to disable USB power saving in the OS (Device Manager) as well as edit the Power Profile so that the HDD Timer is set to 0; as the HDD Timer applies to ALL Drives except the OS Drive in terms of a sleep power saving timer.

Your explanation really helps! I'm planning to get a new SSD NVME for external gaming purpose. The thing that makes me worry is losing the game data when unplugging the drive, but as you explained above, so it's better to make the drive letter anything but D,E,F,G to avoid issues right?
Regarding the performance, I know that upgrading the internal SSD might be better choice rather than using the new SSD for external purpose (gaming), but I just don't want to reinstall everything from the start. I'm just wondering if external NVME could run well with AAA games? Like, I play the game everyday, so it'd be intense use.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Well yes but also make sure to fully exit any and all game clients before disconnect any drive. It is OK to load up a game client that happens to have some games installed to a currently disconnected drive, just keep in mind those won't able to be run/played for obvious reasons until the drive is connected and game client restarted

[alvian.ir]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Well yes but also make sure to fully exit any and all game clients before disconnect any drive. It is OK to load up a game client that happens to have some games installed to a currently disconnected drive, just keep in mind those won't able to be run/played for obvious reasons until the drive is connected and game client restarted

I see. My next question is, do I have to install all the game clients in the external drive too (including Steam) or it's not necessary?
My another worry is that the external drive might overheating during gameplay, even if the enclosure has heatsink or thermal pad. I mean, is this such a normal thing happens or I have to stop gaming when the drive is hot?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

No you never want to do that, put them on C Drive.
The games can go anywhere as you designate this within the Client Settings.

Why would it overheat? Especially with a heatsink. Once the game is loaded up, the drive it is on is barely ever used.

[alvian.ir]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

No you never want to do that, put them on C Drive.
The games can go anywhere as you designate this within the Client Settings.

Why would it overheat? Especially with a heatsink. Once the game is loaded up, the drive it is on is barely ever used.

How do I properly designate the external drive with clients settings? Let's say the client is Ubisoft Connect (since I play their games too often). I think I won't have any issues with Steam, but I'm not sure with third-party clients like Ubisoft Connect or EA.

Actually, I don't know whether it will overheat or not during gameplay since I've never play games with external drive before. But, technically it will transfer huge amount of data during gameplay I think, so, it will overheat?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

In the Client Settings

[alvian.ir]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

In the Client Settings

Okay then, thanks for the help!

[Steven]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.