Best affordable external HD for games

spikerules · 12 Jun 2017 at 13:03

Hi,
I'm running a laptop at the moment with 512GB HD capacity, but would like more space externally. I don't want to use up too much space so would like a smaller profile hard drive without losing too much speed. I have a USB-C TB3 port, so transfer speeds shouldn't be too much of an issue, but I can't really find any decent Hard drives. I can only seem to find TB2 drives. Can anyone recommend anything for me please?

Thanks
Spike

spikerules · 13 Jun 2017 at 12:25

Anyone got any advice for me?

ED209 · 14 Jun 2017 at 08:13

Do you have a budget in mind?

Do you want the drive to be small and get power from the USB ports (like WD passport) or do you not mind if it requires external power and is a internal HDD in a enclosure? (like a Seagate 3TB drive)

what size HDD are you looking for?

spikerules · 14 Jun 2017 at 20:37

ED209 said:
Do you have a budget in mind?

Do you want the drive to be small and get power from the USB ports (like WD passport) or do you not mind if it requires external power and is a internal HDD in a enclosure? (like a Seagate 3TB drive)

what size HDD are you looking for?

Thanks for the reply,
I would prefer it to be small and powered from the USB drive to be honest, but I also don't want to too slow or for it to be a detriment to the performance of the games that will be installed onto it. My budget is around 100-150.

ED209 · 14 Jun 2017 at 20:55

For USB powered HDDs the passport ones are the only ones I have used and had.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-my-passport-2tb-portable-hard-drive-hd-53t-wd.html

Have you considered a External SSD? not too sure on the size your after but there is this

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sams...gb-usb-3.0-external-hard-drive-hd-218-sa.html

Or if you have a spare SSD of a decent size you can just get a enclosure for it.

the issue with USB powered HDDs is that they are normally laptop HDDs and have a 5400 RPM HDD instead of a 7200 RPM HDD which is used on internal HDDs.

spikerules · 15 Jun 2017 at 17:03

Thanks! 250GB seems a little low for games. I also want to maybe think about a TB3 dock or RAID device for installing drives into?

ED209 · 15 Jun 2017 at 18:54

I have never used external raid and would think this may become a lot to get a enclosure than supports raid and hdds. In the long run you may as well get a nas connected to the network and use that for raid. May cost more than your budget tho.

Is it purely for storing game libraries on? If you like and can wait I'll do a speed test on my USB seagate 3tb drive which is connected via USB 3 and post the results as then it gives you a idea of what speeds you can get

ED209 · 15 Jun 2017 at 22:43

Update below of my SSD\HDD setup and speeds so you get a idea of what to roughly expect.

First off is my Toshiba Laptop HDD model HDD2L02 connected to USB 3 port using a cheap £8 USB to sata adaptor, power supplied by USB port

External Seagate expansion desktop HDD, mains powered (not USB powered), USB 3, model SRD00F2

SSD - OCZ Trion 256GB - OS drive connected to sata 2 port

SSD - 2 x 850 evos in raid using sata 2 port - setup for it to show as 1 500gb drive rather than 2 x 256GB drives.

I am using a old X58 LGA1366 socket mobo which is why I'm using sata 2 ports and not 3 but gives you a idea of speeds using everything.

hope this helps