So most games today require SSD (like recently Alan Wake 2 or Hogwarts Legacy) to load assetts fast enough while also taking loads of space. And here is my current conundrum. When I bough PC 4 years ago, I was not thinking that far ahead and went only with 500 GB ssd and 2 TB hdd, thinking that 500 GB is enough for few games here and there that will really need the ssd. What I ended up with is now I have huge hdd that simply is not up to snuff in modern games and small ssd to juggle few games between.
My case layout does not allow for any more internal drives, so either I throw away the hdd and buy internal ssd or go for external.
And here comes my question, is external via usb 3 good enough, or will I suffer and end up having to buy internal ssd later down the line anyways?
Why not use an adapter to make your hdd external via USB, freeing up an internal slot on your PC?
If you have a spare pcie slot you can get a m.2 adapter and a nvme drive, or if your motherboard has a m.2 slot that would be the way to go. I got rid of all my sata and got a 2tb nvme drive and it has been good for a few years and probably good enough for a several more
A few additional details. M.2 requires a minimum PCIe 3.0 (or higher) x4. You’ll want to confirm in your motherboard specs that it supports the NVMe protocol and that using those PCIe lanes won’t affect the GPU lanes.
You could get a PCIe to SATA card if your motherboard doesn’t support the NVMe protocol.
i just got rid of all HD in my rig. usb 3 is okayish but nothing like internal obviously. I just waited for good sales on ssd’s now im all 4tb ssds so should be good for a while
You could get an internal SSD and put the existing HDD into a USB enclosure
My case layout does not allow for any more internal drives, so either I throw away the hdd and buy internal ssd or go for external.
You can move an existing drive, if you want to keep it. Get an external USB enclosure. Get a new, large, SSD. Move the internal drive that you want to keep to the external enclosure. Put the new, large, SSD in its place internally.
I would consider an enclosure with a fan. There’s not a lot of airflow in a lot of enclosures.
USB is probably fast enough, but buying an external enclosure for your HDD and putting the SSD inside would probably be the best choice.
I have 2 SATA SSDs I use via an USB adapter externally and have never had an issue.
Technically SATA is faster at 6 gigabyte compared to USB 3.0 at 5 gigabyte. That being said USB 3.1 or newer is faster than SATA.
How if we’re talking nvme, internal drives are basically always going to be faster than a USB adapter.
does your motherboard have any m.2 slots? if so you could instal an NVMe ssd. if you don’t already know, type “sysinfo” into your task bar search field and see what it says your mobo is then lookup the user manual to see the board layout.
to the question of external drives, id sooner just replace the HDD with a (larger) ssd than go external. also if your case has bays for 5 1/2 inch devices (like an optical drive) they make adaptors to hold HDDs and SSD in those spaces.
