External SSDs are fairly affordable and a great option for gaming laptops if you don't want to have to replace the boot drive.

@mastaw

3 жыл бұрын

Also worth noting that many new Notebooks have an empty hard drive bay next to their nvme boot drives. So it's worth checking that first

@Piketom1

3 жыл бұрын

@@mastaw My Razer Blade 17 has one so I put an extra 2TB 970 EVO plus in there for game storage. I just like having games stored off my boot drive. I used an external SSD on the laptop I had before that and it worked just fine for my needs when connected to the USB-C port.

@Piketom1

3 жыл бұрын

@Ziv Zulander I use a very similar solution for my backup drive. I put a larger C drive in my laptop so I put the original SSD in an enclosure and partitioned it so that it has a windows ISO, my backup files and some important drivers to get me going in case I need to repair the system.

@blahorgaslisk7763

3 жыл бұрын

@@mastaw This is really worth checking. I upgraded the HDD in a notebook that was a few years old. Since it was to be a drive swap I just bought a Samsung SATA SSD and cloned the internal drive to it using the software on the Samsung website. When I opened the machine I discovered that in addition to the SATA drive there was a M.2 slot next to it. Now if I had known that I could have bought a M.2 SATA drive and kept the HDD as a backup or just to store movies and such. Now if your notebook has an M.2 slot then check just what drives it will support before you go shopping for one. In my case it only supports SATA drives. The slot has a tab that prevent you from even installing a NVME drive so you will know if you've got the wrong kind of drive as it won't even fit. If you have a machine with NVME support that's not the case. A SATA M.2 drive will happily slot into the slot and I think most if not all NVME enabled M.2 machines will support using a SATA drive, but it will mean that you are leaving some performance on the table.

@Nyafumi

3 жыл бұрын

External ssd is a saviour for me. I have a macbook air with only 128gb and having a Bootcamp partition is no go. It takes too much storage space.

Anyone else still mindblown that an external drive the size of a credit card can fit so much data into it?

@afuturehobo

Жыл бұрын

Nvme's are just absolutely an out of this world concept to me. they can casually fit 8TB on them. if you truly want to be mindblown, look up DNA digital data storage. A single gram of DNA can theoretically store up to 215 petabytes (215,000,000 GB) of data.

@oldmanbob2094

Жыл бұрын

@@afuturehobo How do I hook up my DNA to my skytech gaming pc? I am not sticking my penis into this one, not after last time dammit

@newbleppmore7855

9 ай бұрын

im still mind blown you can run triple A games off an external ssd usb drive

@Winter_Wyvern1

2 ай бұрын

Phones are close to the size of a credit card, can store 1TB of storage (perhaps more but they dont wanna sell 2TB/4TB phones for now) and it can play games for hours, play clear & loud music (at least iPhones and S classes), and it can take Photos and Videos that seem as if taken from professional 10K$ cameras! Like in reality u send pics over Instagram or google backup them and they lose a bit of its real quality, then also those professional movies MAAAYBE takes a better 4K movies or whatever, but back in REALITY: if u don't have the 10K$ TVs u won't notice a difference. I'd like to see some rich / famous producers to risk a movie and film it all on iPhone XYZ Pro Max (whatever is highest model that year) and release it and if anyone will complain with the quality! I bet NO! MAYBE the night time video recording may struggle, but 1. I bet that can be fixed with external flashes/lightning; 2. I bet even those expensive professional cameras (I mean camera-only items! Unlike a multi-functional phone!) do need external light in nighttime parts of the movie!

Interesting content as always guys. Definitely worth mentioning how much CPUs can impact game updates due to decompression though!

Switched my PS5 external storage from a WD Black HD to an NVME SSD and loving it. For PC, I'm always going to store games on an internal SSD so I don't need to worry about the bandwidth limitations of the USB ports. A+ video

@SomeoneFighter

Жыл бұрын

USB and thunderbolts have more bandwidth then the m.2 slot

@hachooo

Жыл бұрын

@@SomeoneFighter What PS5 has USB/thunderbolt ports faster than m.2 slot?

@SomeoneFighter

Жыл бұрын

@@hachooo in ps5 specifically the external ports aren’t as fast as m.2 but in general thunderbolt 3 and 4 devices are faster then m.2 pcie 4 But it doesn’t really matter because nvme ssds can’t take advantage of the full bandwidth of m.2 anyway

Can't wait for USB 4 gen 2x2 revision 2 gen 2 superspeed. Gonna be great!

@HawkSea

3 жыл бұрын

When's that supposed to roll out?

@Amogh-Dongre

3 жыл бұрын

@@HawkSea its a joke

@fhkkjjk9255

3 жыл бұрын

@@Amogh-Dongre yeah, why can't they be like pci-e?

@Amogh-Dongre

3 жыл бұрын

@@fhkkjjk9255 yeah that's true

Thanks. I'm getting a Crucial X8 for my more taxing games. Really appreciate your clear info on this subject.

USB should just be designated by speed, throw away the annoying 3.x gen something bullshit. There's USB2, USB 5 Gbit/s, USB 10 Gbit/s, USB 20 Gbit/s. Just like ethernet everything is simple now.

@JoLong

3 жыл бұрын

even the first row he used, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, simple, without the gen 2+2=4 BS

@tommihommi1

3 жыл бұрын

@@JoLong the Problem is that 3.0 and 3.1 don't exist anymore with new terminology

@JoLong

3 жыл бұрын

@@tommihommi1 i know, should have been the name from the start, instead of renaming existing generation

2 years later and you are the ONLY youtuber who properly covered gaming on external hard drives. Everyone else just goes off features not even related to gaming.

@KonglomeratYT

2 ай бұрын

@@freedomisdead9638 An SSD can't overheat your CPU. If your CPU is capable of overheating, then it will do that regardless of a USB drive.

@backbenchers7101

Ай бұрын

​@@KonglomeratYTwill external ssd affect fps?

Thanks for sharing! Me and my wife share a laptop and so I don't want to hog up storage with all my games and slow the system down. At the same time, I'm also in the market for an external drive to store photos and documents so this would seem like an appropriate solution.

Great video. Very informative. I Love the presentation and the timings to jump to certain content. I am definitely going back to watch others you posted.

Fantastic video with great advice, including information on the speed realities of these devices on older and newer USB hardware. This video helped me make a choice to purchase the Crucial X8, something I can now use for multiple purposes and have great speeds when needed. I'll be using my incoming (today!) X8 as a quick fix for backing up my Android smartphone (S21 Ultra) sans laptop, use as a temporary external device for my aging laptop (internal SSD failed so X8 will be utilised for diagnostic purposes and running an OS), and later as a new storage source for my PS5 on occasion. Crucial X8 1Tb has the raw speeds I like for when I need it on USB 3.2 Gen 2 devices (or whatever the previous names were 🙄), but has storage capacity useful for older devices on short notice. Having the X8 preformatted in exFAT makes this option seamless across multiple devices in my home too. Thank you again! 😊

The USB consortium really needs to have a non-engineer come up with the naming scheme.

@stenduginski2306

3 жыл бұрын

As an engineer, I hate this naming scheme. Designations, along with technical reports, are for conveying information as *clearly* as possible. Someone didn't get the memo on that.

@DaedalusMinion

3 жыл бұрын

@@stenduginski2306 You might hate it but most of the engineers I'm friends with are completely happy pushing out what are basically internal identifiers into a public facing name, because they don't have the training or expertise to recognize the headaches this causes on the consumer's end. There needs to be oversight on naming conventions, especially when they are being used by literally hundreds of millions of people.

@freerange8458

2 жыл бұрын

@@stenduginski2306 IEEE mafia to blame.

@jimmehjiimmeehh9748

2 жыл бұрын

This isn't an engineer name, engineers wouldn't keep changing the names of previous revisions. This is a marketing name. That's why when you buy Gen 3.2 Generation 1 you're actually just buying USB 3.0. It stops the backlog of 3.0 devices that they still want to sell from becoming unsellable if you can just relabel them as Gen 3.2

@CommanderTato

Жыл бұрын

@@jimmehjiimmeehh9748 that should be illegal, its clearly a scam. Its abusing people who is not tech savy and that is the mayority of the world.

Banging video. Thank you so much, I was needing a bit of help!

THANK U for the advises in the end of the vid . i was wondering what i should choose and now i know 👍

Great video. I'm almost a little curious as to how a SATA to USB interface hooked up to an internal SSD would perform. Maybe that could be something to include in a potential follow up video?

@amberraining9546

2 жыл бұрын

Did you find that out?

@1a8e

Жыл бұрын

I don't understand the setup that you're suggesting... care to rephrase?

@Nousenesp

Жыл бұрын

You need to go for usb 3.2 and you can get speeds of 500mb/s So nvme are not really good for this because you will be wasting money

Exactly what I wanted to know, super thanks! I have the Crucial x8, so this was perfect.

wow this has been the best video on the topic so far. I've even learned something about USBs, thank you so much!

Hey, just want to say I enjoy your tech takes and thoughts on your channel.

Thank you for all this real world testing :)

Hi Ibra, this is really informative! Just quick question regarding reliability of the external ssd connected to usb port all the time. Is this safe?

I know this is random, but after 2 years since seeing your review on the Glorious Model O mouse, I've finally managed to convince my parents to buy me one in December last year! Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on the other peripherals a bit faster than the mouse. :)

What about network attached options? I like the idea of downloading games onto a NAS and having them available on any device connected to the network. I think ideally it would act as a central cache for all downloaded games that each device can then install from as required so it acts more like a local steam server.

Best and most informative video on subject that I have found. Thank you! Liked and subbed

Keep up the great content!!

Thanks for this video. This is a very interesting topic and a very nice presentation.

Amazing video quality ! By content and production, you got a new sub !

Good information, good presentation. Thanks!

Great video. The speed difference between the x6 and x8 isn’t that much different. Sure the x8 is faster, but not by much. What an eye opener.

Love the vids! Thanks for the information.

Switched to full SSD recently : a 240gb corsair nvme drive (gen3, might go gen4 soon) and 2*1tb crucial MX500. I'll admit it was more of an aesthetic choice by getting rid of the drive bay, but I'm glad there's an actual difference with the chunky 7200rpm they replaced

@DarkAngel-vf4em

3 жыл бұрын

I have crucial mx500 as well, but kinda disappointed to be honest. TBW on crucial ssds are joke compared to Samsungs one. particularly to evo 860 2tb which offers up to 1.200 tbw.

@guillaumejoop6437

3 жыл бұрын

@@DarkAngel-vf4em even if the crucial are half of that, it would mean filling up my SSD 600 times. It's more than enough for non-server use

@DarkAngel-vf4em

3 жыл бұрын

@@guillaumejoop6437 with 1tb crucial you get 300 - 350 tbw which is tbh a lot but my point is that while paying almost the same price as samsung, samsung offer better endurance which translates for me into better endurance, longevity and without worrying about driver failure.

amazing video! thats a sub! any advice....i need to upgrade my nvme, should I clone it or run games off an external? would i notice much difference?

GREAT VIDEO !!! Thanks bro!

Awesome video Eiber!

Excellent coverage as always. Love your voice too.

Great video. Did you experience any overheating impacts on the external ssd? They run good on cold but after a few minutes some that are not well designed go to bottom speeds. Did you experienced any of that from the models you tested?

Nice video! Would've liked to see the same test with an external server connected via 10 gigabit ethernet ;)

very good video helped me a lot thank you.

Freaking awesome video, very informative and to the point. You gained a subscriber

Hey there, great video! I just bought my m1 macbook and I wanted to ask if I install games on an external drive will it leave any "footprints" of temporary or otherwise game files on the internal drive? I don't want to "polute" and overload my drive with unnecessary stuff.

SSD's seem to have got stuck at a certain price point and 2TB or above is really expensive in comparison to 1TB SSD's. Not sure why though. It seems that 4TB SSD's are not common enough to drive the prices down.

@dynamicide

2 жыл бұрын

It's good to see that now you can get a 2TB M.2 SSD for $200. I can't wait to see how this comment ages when we start talking about how many cents you pay per TB instead of per GB. :)

@bwood6337

2 жыл бұрын

Even at 2TB you're getting twice the storage of a 1TB for less than twice the cost. Not saying that's all there is to it but I don't think that's necessarly unreasonable.

@320466

8 ай бұрын

Lol 4 tb are now like 200 bucks... You dont need external drives anymore and i saw on amazon an internal sata 4tb not m.2 ssd for 150

Thank you learned alot from this video

So I’ve been considering getting a USB SSD (Adata SE900) but I have a question about your comment on not having too many usb slots plugged in. Was that specifically for the front panel IO or was that overall as well? Like, should I not be using any usb hubs with one of them plugged in? I have my main peripherals and audio devices plugged into the back of the motherboard, and the front usb slots are usually reserved for my wired controllers or my midi piano keyboard. If I’m going to pick up an external ssd, will any of these split up bandwidth?

So good video quality, amazing work good job

when it comes down to the game updates with I think internet performance has a larger effect, because i have an 8tb WD green drive that spins at 5400rpm and i downloaded the same updates and got the same times that the nvme got. I do get 50mb/s - 200mb/s as of internet bandwidth. Yet this could honestly be different with anyone with different HDDs

That ROG nvme enclosure you have,.. I have it and its a life saver.. I was using 1TB WD sn550 as a secondary storage for Multiplayer based games like Warzone, apex etc, along side 1TB 970 Evo Plus as boot and work app drive. I was able to score PS5 and needed a external drive for it. So i was looking to use the sn550 for ps5 and swap it with another drive but this time with good random speed one, and was got 2TB WD Black SN750 on deal so transferred many other games to that ssd.. Luckily, the ROG enclosure was on sale on second hand market, sealed.. So now this is now my PS5 intall for PS4 games and transfers are so fast.. This will serve well when we would be able to transfer PS5 Games too..

Thanks for the video and advice! I stream video games and have a question: I have several peripherals plugged into my PC’s USB ports (camera, mic, joystick, rudder pedals, throttle, Track IR, keyboard, mouse), as well as a 1TB SSD in a SATA-to-USB enclosure plugged into the fastest USB 3.1 port on the back of the machine and things run well, though sometimes the camera, which is also plugged into a fast USB port in the back, lags in Open Broadcaster Studio. There are no devices plugged into ports on the front of the case. Could the lag be caused by the USB bus being overloaded?

Subbed son! Quality info!

The MX 500 is just so competitive ... you see it in every review and tech channel for several years now. Legendary

@HardwareCanucks

3 жыл бұрын

It really is a legend.

@BelofBabylon

3 жыл бұрын

@@HardwareCanucks Thank you E for the informative video

@DarkAngel-vf4em

3 жыл бұрын

yes and no, also it has the least tbw among ssds out there.

@MikevanLieshout

3 жыл бұрын

I have bought six (three for myself and three for family) over a span of 3 years and its awesome

@WarriorsPhoto

3 жыл бұрын

Plus it’s a great deal. Does it last a long time?

great video bro 👍🏽

Great Review . Finally i know , i no need buy 2 x 1TB M.2 for my laptop . Toshiba 3TB 7200rpm are just 50% of the cost for 1TB M.2.

U know no idea how hard it is to find this info on KZread, I'm a beginner and that all made sense. So tank you very much!

how would you go on about building your own external ssd for games and etc. which ssd and enclosure would you use ? Would love your take on it. with the times we are in laptops are getting more popular but most of them come with a single drive bay

Finally, a real world comparison of drives.

He has the taste and refined air of a sophisticated gamer.

@josephfrunzi4606

3 жыл бұрын

I was going to make a joke about sophisticated gamer being an oxymoron, but I actually agree with you.

I am not surprised. It’s been a common occurrence that I thought 💭 I needed more performance. Only to be okay with what I already had.

literally I was waiting for this particular video.....

This video especially helped, in the right time, since I had debate beetwen Crucial MX500, and Crucial P5 NVMe. Since at my local store Crucial MX500 2TB version is 170$ cheaper, I'l get that (+ I don't wanna go back to noisy hard drives). Btw what Cpu, Gpu, and RAM combo is minimum for gaming (Scum, Gta5, Battlefield 5...), and casual 3D modeling (Maya, Autocad, Adobe...). For both sides (Intel or AMD), and to be able to use it for next 2 year's ? Thank you. :)

Just a quick question, some systems, like the one i just got, scar 17 g733 came in 1+1TB Raid 0 config... Does Raid 0 really matter in a gaming rig? Though it does show significant speeds (r/w)on benchmarking tools, how does it really compare on actual load and update times? (just asking coz i really don't have anything else to compare it to, and am looking forward to your insight coz i am preparing to upgrade to a 2+2TB either in the same config or a non-Raid) Btw, great comparison, thanks for sharing! 👍🏻🤟🏻

Using a Crucial X8 SSD on my PS5 and it's working great

I use a laptop and have a Samsung T7 Portable and I've been having FPS issues with it. I tried different games and they definitely ran smoother on the internal SSD. What do you think could be the problem? Thank you.

Video well put E, thanks for your efforts.

The lighting here is perfect

@Rashadmcka

3 жыл бұрын

This channels production value is honestly seriously underrated!

Best tech content on KZread!!!

my question is. is there any difference in latency for usb mouse and keyboard in the different usb types? like is it better to plug mouse and keyboard in usb 3.0 over 2.0?

How much free space did you have on the hard drives? Was the game install the only thing on the drive? If you have a platter full of files, the seek times may be higher for in-game loading possibly.

Do you have to format your external SSD to NTFS before? Or will exFAT work just fine? I have a Sandisk Extreme external SSD

Hey guys! :D I hope you stay safe and have a nice day, God bless you!

Great video. The x6 wasn’t that much slower than the x8 as original thought. Yes

the test at 9:12 all the drives are external right? for eg. the sata ssd mx500 is sitting outside of the system and connected through a usb cable..?

Bought a new gaming pc but it doesn’t have a lot of storage, this video is very helpful

4:37 and 12:41 more details PLEASE! Why is that? How is it different from using 2 adjacent USB ports on the back panel IO? What about USB ports on hubs or on monitors (acting as hubs)? Same deal?

I usually put smaller/indy games on the hdd but then also some games I barely ever touch. figured id do a test run on my new system with Need for Speed from the external drive and notice that the read on that drive was almost always capped at a 100% and I was experiencing some stutters or bad frame times.

Great content, keep it up! 🔝🔝🔝 Can I suggest you to revisit some SSHD like the Seagate Firecuda or similar?

I have a question about the game data like game save files stored in system documents but what if we plug the same external drive to another pc will the game start from the start or will continue where you left

You guys released this video on just the perfect time for me! I was _this_ close to ordering an external SSD to run games off of.

@bepbep7418

3 жыл бұрын

Just get a external M.2 drive enclosure. It's cheaper in the long run because you'll be able to upgrade drive size (1TB - 2TB) much cheaper using "Internal" M.2 drives instead of constantly having to buy a bigger dedicated external drive. This video shows that load times aren't that far off compared to internal drives. The only real difference will be if you use NVME {10GB} or SATA {5GB}) and even then unless it's a massive file, you probably won't be able to tell a difference.

@mkhanman12345

6 ай бұрын

What’s the issue I don’t get it

Good video, I'm upgrading my laptops 256gb nvme drive to a 1tb or 2tb model and wanted to use the 256gb in an enclosure. Glad to see it's worth it.

about a month ago, i snagged a deal on a used 2.5" external hdd since my internal drives were filling up. sadly, it didn't work well (drive would hang, usb disconnect and prevent my pc from booting). i ended up ditching the case/adapter and just using it with sata internally. might try external if i need more storage in the future

Hey it has been 2 years and lot of games have released that pushed system hardware to its limits , could we get an updated version of this video ?

Any opinion on having nvme ssd within an enclosure as external drives?

Great Video👍

I just got a new NVMe m.2 and USB-C Enclosure for my external storage. I only use it to store videos I have recently been recording.

I grew up on 8 bit gaming. Load times don't bother me at all. I use a M.2 Type C external drive (1TB AData Sata M.2) steam drive with my laptop.

Wished you also tested these drives with content creator apps

Has anyone experienced the decreased performance for the Crucial X8 when its temp increases or when you try writing a lot of data? I've seen reports of these and am now hesitating to get it because of these.

@AnimeRecksYou

18 күн бұрын

Did you ever end up getting an External SSD?

Does gaming on an external hard drive shorten its life or make it prone to having issues ?

New viewer, well done, subscribing.

excellent video.

please make a video on corsair 5000x

What about using an internal SSD with a USB adapter? How does that compare against SATA or even an external SSD?

Thank you for this..

I'm thinking of getting an external SSD, my computer is USB 2, would connecting an external SSD through USB 2 be likely to be any faster than the internal or external HDDs?

I have 1.5TB in NVME and 6TB HDD so all the games I don’t play often go on the HDD. With the introduction of Direct Storage this or next year could require high speed SSDs for some new games.

@HardwareCanucks

3 жыл бұрын

Exactly. DirectStorage will be a big thing.

@greggmacdonald9644

3 жыл бұрын

@@HardwareCanucks Which also means that USB won't cut it at that time... but NVMe (for internal), or Thunderbolt 3/4 (for external) will. It would be interesting to see you run the tests you did with an Optane drive.

Awesome video, everyone always told me that externals were bad for gaming

can you upgrade ssds in the alienware r7 m15 with an intel core

Great work, Hardware Canucks!

Thank you so much for this awesome video. My wife just got me a 4TB potable SSD woot woot

personally, i'm just gonna upgrade or add to my internal storage when I need more space. USB devices are great nowadays but I don't want the extra wires, or things sticking out of my pc lol. I still have room for 4 SSDs and already have two nvme SSDs on the mobo

@blahorgaslisk7763

3 жыл бұрын

There's also PCIe cards with up to eight M.2 slots, so you can keep adding storage for quite a while... The eight slot cards are pretty pricey though cards with two or four M.2 slots aren't that expensive.

@linnen_elm

2 жыл бұрын

you dont say. of course as long as you have the slots it will always better to up the internal. but what about those laptops with 1 SSD slot and they are near their full of storage? replacing that one slot with one bigger means the old storage end up getting wasted but by buying external ssd gaming they could keep the old one while migrating it to the new one to free up some extra space, nothing wasted

My father bought a 1tb samsung t5 ssd just for his music collection and it still have 700gb free for my games i am so lucky

What is a good secondary hard drive for gaming on a pc... currently have ssd, can I add another ssd or is it better to use external?

Just use something like an Mx500 as a primocache L2 storage for a 5400rpm spinner.. it'll run as fast as the Mx after 2 runs but will self manage the cache so you don't have to constantly move game files around.. 6tb + 256gb cache will do for 80-90% of normal gaming scenarios out there

@master_baiter1873

Жыл бұрын

Its like 250 for 2 2tb sata drives.