External HDD and gaming?

[Josef86]

Would a external HDD drive work okay for gaming? I would not be putting games like fear on it. But all my rts games take up a good deal of space and it would be nice to have the game installed some place else. I use a laptop otherwise I would not be asking about it.

[odannyboy000]

Sure it would work fine, just the same as any other hard drive. A hard drive doesn't have much to do with performance, more about loading times when it comes to gaming. Once the hard drive has given the information to memory, it is done with it.

[jlreich]

I have to disagree. USB (assuming USB) will be very slow in comparison to an internal drive. I think you find quite a bit of slowdown during any loading.

SATA II = 300Gb/s compared to USB = 480Mb/s. ;)

Once the hard drive has given the information to memory, it is done with it.
This is true, but at first load isn't the only time the game will require data from the hard drive. Depending on the game you will find serious lag when it's time to retrieve new data.

There is also the issue of the possibility of changing drive letters with an external drive. This can be dealt with, but it's not at all ideal.

USB external drives are best left to regular data storage. And programs to internal drives.

[odannyboy000]

I should have clarified that it depends on the game.

Also, jlreich I think you meant:

Sata II: 3Gb/s rather than 300Gb/s.

300GB/s would be sweet though.

[Sylvander]

"USB external drives are best left to regular data storage. And programs to internal drives."
I use my USB HDD for...
1. Backups.
2. Ordinary data files.
3. Portable Programs [don't need settings in the registry]
These seem to work just fine. :)
.

[Erik]

I agree, stick with an internal drive to run your applications from.

Though the difference between SATA and USB isn't really all that great since they are both limited by the speed of the drive itself more than the both. The 3Gb/s is a theoretical max and data transfer doesn't actually occur that fast. The internal drive will still be a better performer without a doubt though, and no need to worry about changing drive letters as mentioned.

[Josef86]

How about a firewire 800 external drive. I believe I have seen a few.

[jlreich]

Also, jlreich I think you meant:

Sata II: 3Gb/s rather than 300Gb/s.

300GB/s would be sweet though.
Hehe yes. I guess my fingers got too happy on the keyboard. :p

Erik, yes 3G is theoretical, but so is USB's 480Mb/s. Either way as you said the internal is going to be faster.

Josef86, why are you so interested in an external drive? Why not just buy an internal drive? Even Firewire 800 isn't going to keep up with an internal drive.

480/8 = 60MB top speed for USB. 800/8 = 100MB for firewire. 3Gb/8 = 375MB for SATA II 3G.

As Erik said these are all theoretical top speeds. I get between 100-130 sustained speeds and 170-180MB/s burst out of my SATA II drives. USB and fireware are going to be painfully slow in comparison to this. I think USB tops out around 40MB/s when all things are good.

[Josef86]

I would like to have a drive that I store videos, music, and other media on. I would not want to have it all the time taking up space for something I won't use to often.

I would not keep games like Fear, Doom 3, Battlefiled on it. My c&c and lord of the rings rts games take up a good amount of space. I don't play them that often but I do play them. I wanted to know if these games would run okay if I had them stored like that.

I have a HEl80 (notebookt) with one HDD i don't think a 2nd would fit. yes I am the same guy that was asking about the video cards in the other thread.

[Josef86]

How does the usb/fire wire compair to the older ide (ata) hdd. My old desktop until it died used the ata drives. I was able to put SATA it them but I never did. I had used my freinds USB 2.0 HDD from time to time and it seemed to work a little better then the one I had in the computer. I know that SATA is better then any external, but as I stated before I don't know how they compair to the ATA, since I don't know the specs on them.

I guess I am running of past experiance, since this is the first time I have used, used is a bad word, owned a SATA.

I have both a pc card slot and a express card slot. can I use any of these for something hdd related, i think it may be related to eSata. I think they make such interface cards but I am not sure. I don't think I have played around much with the express cards but I have used a few Type II PC cards about once a month.

[Josef86]

Okay did a little seaching on. This is what I found for a expresscard

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2254078&CatId=1455

and here are some external SATA drives.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2429&Nav=|c:136|c:2421|&Sort=3&Recs=10

Would these be an okay bet for what I would like to do.

Here is one I clicked on first:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2658810&CatId=2429

[jlreich]

Oh yes a note book. I should have remembered. Looking back at your original post I see you said it was a laptop. :o That does change things a bit.

Yes the eSATA would do much better than USB.

What size hard drive do you have in the system right now? If it is small, say 60-80GB, you could easily buy a 200GB internal drive for the cash you are willing to spend on the external drive and card adapter. They are very easy to swap out.

[Josef86]

LOL, I had a feeling you forgot it was a notebook, but I was not sure. I would not have even asked if I had a desktop.


I have a 160gb drive in it as this time. I'm thinking for the futur. Do I think I am going to feel up 160gb anytime soon, no.

However, unlike my video card I think I may end up need more space at some point before this laptop needs to be replaced. If I have a decent external, well then that can always be carried over.

[jlreich]

With 160GB in there I would just work on keeping any data on an external drive. Music and video files will be fine on any USB external drive. Those types of files don't require a lot of bandwidth.

But as already stated several times keep your programs on the internal drive. 160GB will be enough for most people to install their programs on. I said most, not all. :p I need more than that myself. I have 2x250GB, 160GB and have a new 500GB that should arrive tomorrow. :D One of the 250's is PATA and I am going to replace it with the 500 and put the PATA 250 in an external enclosure that will arrive with the new drive and use it for backup storage. But I'm one of those that has massive amounts of data, but a large portion of users will never even come close to filling up an 80GB drive. :p

[Josef86]

Okay then.