Using External SSD For Gaming

as usual, just a nice photo, for the article. Photo by JC Gellidon on Unsplash

There is no doubt whatsoever that SSD, even a cheaper one, is better than regular spinning hard drive. All of my computers are powered by SSD drive. However, large file storage still comes from the secondary, regular spinning drives on both my PC and iMac. This is fine for regular coding and such. However, it was becoming an issue when I occasionally do some gaming.

I set out to solve this problem with an external SSD. This is my report.

Benchmarks

I decided to run some HDD tests before deciding to use my external SSD. Wanted to be sure if it is actually faster.

Here is are some HDD specs.

1. Windows OS drive — SK hynix BC501 HFM128GDJTNG-8310A — 128 GB NVMe
2. Windows Secondary drive — DT01ACA200 2TB — 7200 RPM
3. External drive — SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD — 512 GB. Connected to the desktop via USB Type C cable.

Generated using Crystal Disk Mark 8.

This gave me the confidence that, okay, perhaps, I can just use my external SSD as my gaming folder.

Gaming Experience

I have been playing the following three games on my PC. All of them were previously installed on the 2 TB 7200 RPM drive. Now, they have been moved to the external SSD.

1. Jurassic World Evolution
2. Sims 4
3. Forza Horizon 4

So far, I am not facing any issues. That’s good. The big difference, of course, are loading speeds. I don’t have any benchmarks to show but, based on first hand experience, load times have improved significantly.

Especially Forza Horizon, which takes a while to change cars, and fast travel to different locations, now, everything is quick. Like a second or two. Before, it was at least 5 to 10 seconds.

Final Note

Ultimately, if you have USB type C connection on your computer, an external SSD should be just fine.

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