Using NAS Drive to store games?

SayWhat? · 5 Dec 2013 at 09:46

Is it a good idea to install games on the NAS drive?

I'm building a PC and my storage will include a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD drive as the main OS drive, but as a secondary storage device, I'm planning on using a NAS drive (Western Digital 3TB NAS Drive). The SSD drive might not be large in enough in space to store all the games that I may install, so I was wondering whether it's recommended to install games on my NAS drive if this were to happen.

Beerbaron · 5 Dec 2013 at 09:48

I wouldn't recommend using a NAS to run games. I would get a larger SSD drive.

Woden · 5 Dec 2013 at 09:53

Would be very slow. Unless you can whack the whole thing into a RAM disk to play, but that would have slow start times initially.

SayWhat? · 5 Dec 2013 at 13:47

I thought as much. I might have to use my old 1TB Samsung HDD in my new PC then, just in case I do run out of space.

InfiniteNoise · 6 Dec 2013 at 10:20

Unless it's connected directly to the PC via 1GB/s or faster Ethernet, it's not worth it, and even then you're better off using internal or external drive (via USB3 or faster).

d_brennen · 6 Dec 2013 at 10:26

I dump Steam games that I'm not playing but might want to play soon onto my NAS. Just dump the folder and delete local content, transfer them back when needed

Confused · 6 Dec 2013 at 16:21

d_brennen said:
I dump Steam games that I'm not playing but might want to play soon onto my NAS. Just dump the folder and delete local content, transfer them back when needed

This is the best way to do it. That way, you've always got the stuff "local" (ie within your house), but not necessarily on the machine itself. If your NAS is quick enough to saturate a gigabit network, then you can copy backwards and forwards at ~110MB/sec

If your NAS only does ~20-30MB/sec (as a lot of cheap ones do) then this will be more of an issue.