External Drive for Playing Steam Games?

[Holman]

Sometime back I built my own PC (first time) and everything is grand, but I'm starting to run out of SSD drive space. I have to keep uninstalling games to make room.

In the course of building the machine, the only mistake I made was in first plugging in that SSD drive. The angle was tough, and I bent and ruined one of the prongs on the motherboard-to-drive connection, but there was still another one on the motherboard, so I used that. Unfortunately, this means I now don't have a spare connection available for installing another SSD directly to the motherboard.

My storage problems would be over if I just put Steam and its games on a new drive, but that drive (due to my above-mentioned screwup) would have to be external.

My question: would running Steam-installed games from an external drive be as fast and seamless as from an internal drive? Is a USB connection good enough for that?

Second question: if so, can anyone recommend a good drive or make of drive for this purpose? (I assume SSD is faster than HDD for this.)

Thanks for any advice!

[Anonymous Bosch]

Any reliable external SSD ought to work adequately.

With the drive plugged in and connected, just do the following in Steam:

1. In the menu, go to View > Settings > Downloads.
2. On the right, click the Steam Library Folders button under Content Libraries.
3. Click the Add Library Folder button and direct it to where you want the library saved on your external drive.

If you want top-notch performance, WD Black Game Drive SSDs are specifically designed as portable game drives (though a mobo with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 support is necessary to harness its speeds to the fullest).

[hitbyambulance]

but that drive (due to my above-mentioned screwup) would have to be external.

no it wouldn't. get a PCIe SATA III controller card:

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=PCIe+SATA+card

rule of thumb: nearly any broken built-in mobo functionality can be replaced in PCIe

[Isgrimnur]

I have games running off a spinny drive in a drive mount connected by USB.

[Holman]

Thanks for the replies!

Anyone know any common pitfalls to avoid? ("Make sure your drive is rated at this speed" etc)

[Jaymon]

If you have a free PCIe slot, then you don't need an 'external' drive.

You can get a PICe card that will mount a Sata SSD, or a PCIe card that will mount a compatible M.2 drive.

The M.2 drive with adapter, if its in your price range and you have the slot, is blazingly fast.



Also, and this may sounds obvious, but thats how I am, check your motherboard, and see if it has mounts for an M.2 drive already.
The M2. drive, if you haven't used one, is flat, slightly larger than a stick of gum. It lays flat on a motherboard. Here is what the connection spot could look like.

[hitbyambulance]

Also, and this may sounds obvious, but thats how I am, check your motherboard, and see if it has mounts for an M.2 drive already.

i was going to suggest that, but i figured if that motherboard only has two SATA ports, it's probably old enough that it's not going to have an M.2 port

[stimpy]

I have a couple of these laying around.
https://www.newegg.com/samsung-850-evo- ... 6820147373
Brand new. $60 shipped if you want it.