External hard drive enquiry

[PhoniDunedain]

Are external hard drives viable for gaming? I have a HDD and SSD which is almost full, so I was thinking an external hard drive would be a handy fix until I can save up for a new computer?

I've read that 7200 RPM is the basic require for a gaming external hard drive, is that accurate?

 

[AgentCooper]

Are external hard drives viable for gaming? I have a HDD and SSD which is almost full, so I was thinking an external hard drive would be a handy fix until I can save up for a new computer?

I've read that 7200 RPM is the basic require for a gaming external hard drive, is that accurate?

A 7200RPM HDD will be viable, but it'll be painfully slow by today's standards. An SSD would have a significant effect on load times.

This vid will give you a rough idea...

 

[TonyCarter]

Depending how much space you need, and what ports your PC has, an external USB3.2 SSD will be much better than an external HDD.

The only thing HDDs have going for them is their available sizes and their cheaper £/GB.

An external 1TB SSD can be had for about £100 - e.g. a Samsung T5 (~550MB/s) or Crucial X8 [~1050MB/s).

 

[Martinr36]

you could use an external HDD to store games etc on when you aren't playing them & when you want to play them move them back onto the fast SSD, can you post your full spec as depending on what you've got their is probably room to add something internally

 

[ubuysa]

The only thing HDDs have going for them is their available sizes and their cheaper £/GB.

Although not really relevant to this discussion, HDDs have an important feature in that as long as the platters still rotate you can usually recover most data from an HDD. Generally, when an SSD fails the data is gone.

Some years ago I was able to recover 100% of the data from an HDD that was in a laptop that had been dropped into the marina (5 meters depth) and been down there for close on an hour. Because it was on when it tumbled in, everything else inside was electrically trashed. There was no SSD in that laptop but I wouldn't have given any odds on being able to get the data off it.

 

[PhoniDunedain]

Depending how much space you need, and what ports your PC has, an external USB3.2 SSD will be much better than an external HDD.

The only thing HDDs have going for them is their available sizes and their cheaper £/GB.

An external 1TB SSD can be had for about £100 - e.g. a Samsung T5 (~550MB/s) or Crucial X8 [~1050MB/s).

That does seem quite reasonable in price, having some suggestions certainly helps (as someone who isn't tech savey) with decision making on what to get (or not to get). Thanks!

 

[PhoniDunedain]

you could use an external HDD to store games etc on when you aren't playing them & when you want to play them move them back onto the fast SSD, can you post your full spec as depending on what you've got their is probably room to add something internally

That would certainly be easier, wouldn't shifting games between drives reduce their lifespan faster?

As for my specs:

Case	PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)	Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard	ASUS® H81M-PLUS: Micro-ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)	8GB Corsair DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card	8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 Ti - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
2nd Graphics Card	NONE
1st Storage Drive	500GB Samsung 860 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive	1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	NONE
External Hard Drive	NONE
Memory Card Reader	INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply	CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable	1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling	CoolerMaster Hyper 212X (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler
Sound Card	ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Network Card	WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD
Wireless Router/HomePlugs	NONE
USB/Thunderbolt Options	MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
4G Module	NONE
Firewire	NONE
TV Card	NONE
Operating System	Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

Extra Case Fans

4x 120mm PCS Liquid Series Ultra Quiet Fan

Apologies for the delay, I got caught between events that needed attending and the fact I haven't tabbed the option to receive forum notifications via email

 

[PhoniDunedain]

Although not really relevant to this discussion, HDDs have an important feature in that as long as the platters still rotate you can usually recover most data from an HDD. Generally, when an SSD fails the data is gone.

Some years ago I was able to recover 100% of the data from an HDD that was in a laptop that had been dropped into the marina (5 meters depth) and been down there for close on an hour. Because it was on when it tumbled in, everything else inside was electrically trashed. There was no SSD in that laptop but I wouldn't have given any odds on being able to get the data off it.

That is quite useful information actually. Honestly I thought the only different between HDD and SSD's is that one is faster, but more expensive whilst the other generally has a much larger storage capacity.