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[Rendered Tangent]

Just a quick question, as I'm working through upgrading my computer and it's increasingly difficult to get a straight answer from Google searches.

Personally, I feel like the real world experience of my fellow Gaffers is a much better resource.

Anyway, I am running low of storage and I am wondering if it's possible to buy a high speed SSD that can be plugged in like a regular hard drive?

I'm not up to speed on pc tech, so am I correct in thinking NVMe is the "high speed" option used in most PCs?

My internal high speed SSD is very small so I'm having to store everything on the regular internal harddrive or an external one.

So, can I buy an external SSD and will it be as fast as the internal one, and does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks in advance, Gaffers.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

possible yes but don't expect SSD speeds via USB bus if that's your method of connecting it.

Just buy a bigger drive and replace it with the older one or use one of those PCIe SSD/boards that'll house multiple NVMe's

 

[Topher]

Just a quick question, as I'm working through upgrading my computer and it's increasingly difficult to get a straight answer from Google searches.

Personally, I feel like the real world experience of my fellow Gaffers is a much better resource.

Anyway, I am running low of storage and I am wondering if it's possible to buy a high speed SSD that can be plugged in like a regular hard drive?

I'm not up to speed on pc tech, so am I correct in thinking NVMe is the "high speed" option used in most PCs?

My internal high speed SSD is very small so I'm having to store everything on the regular internal harddrive or an external one.

So, can I buy an external SSD and will it be as fast as the internal one, and does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks in advance, Gaffers.

Personally I only use external USB if I need to be able to move it around. Otherwise, internal SATA is faster but not as fast as NVMe, obviously.

 

[Rendered Tangent]

possible yes but don't expect SSD speeds via USB bus if that's your method of connecting it.

Just buy a bigger drive and replace it with the older one or use one of those PCIe SSD/boards that'll house multiple NVMe's

It would be via USB, yes

 

[Rendered Tangent]

Personally I only use external USB if I need to be able to move it around. Otherwise, internal SATA is faster but not as fast as NVMe, obviously.

That's a shame.

 

[MadchesterManc]

I've used SATA SSD externally before over USB 3.0 without any issue. Not tried an M2 enclosure given a decent one will cost you and it likely wont hit anywhere near its rated speed over USB if its a fast SSD you are after. I suppose it depends on what the storage will be used for.

 

[flying_sq]

Depending on your computer you can just buy a PCIe add on card and plug NVME SSDs into that. Just do a little compatibility research first.
https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/accessories/hyper-m-2-x16-gen-4-card/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084HMHGSP/?tag=neogaf0e-20

If you want to stay external, you are going to be limited by your external I/O. See what kind of USB ports you have and buy a drive that matches or exceeds that speed. Probably stick with an external SATA SSD, which is still in the hundreds of megabytes a second. Depending on what you are storing there, it's probably fine, if you are going to install games, perhaps use it as an archive disk and just put games you don't play often there. You can just copy them back into the correct folders when you need them.

 

[Ulysses 31]

Samsung T7 Portable SSDs

You'll need a USB 3.2 port to get those speeds though.

 

[Xyphie]

I have a Samsung T7 External SSD I previously used for games which worked worked perfectly fine. It's not as fast as something PCIe-based SSDs, but speed really doesn't matter much either way. I bought a bunch of cheap surprise NAND SATA SSDs to store games and you really can't tell. Maybe when DirectStorage because more common that'll change though.

 

[Rendered Tangent]

I've used SATA SSD externally before over USB 3.0 without any issue. Not tried an M2 enclosure given a decent one will cost you and it likely wont hit anywhere near its rated speed over USB if its a fast SSD you are after. I suppose it depends on what the storage will be used for.

Does it matter which type of USB port you plug it into?

 

[kvltus lvlzvs]

Not related to the speed question, but if you get an external ssd, get two of them. Things can go wrong really quick with external devices.

 

[Rendered Tangent]

I have a Samsung T7 External SSD I previously used for games which worked worked perfectly fine. It's not as fast as something PCIe-based SSDs, but speed really doesn't matter much either way. I bought a bunch of cheap surprise NAND SATA SSDs to store games and you really can't tell. Maybe when DirectStorage because more common that'll change though.

Thanks, that's helpful information.

 

[Rendered Tangent]

Samsung T7 Portable SSDs

You'll need a Gen 3.2 USB port to get those speeds though.

I was looking at those, so you recommend?

 

[Xyphie]

I was looking at those, so you recommend?

Very happy with it. But then I managed to snag two of them (1TB version) for $15 each during Amazon Prime day due to a pricing error so it's hard to complain lol.

 

[SScorpio]

Does it matter which type of USB port you plug it into?

Yes, but not just the physical A/C type of port.

What computer are you using? Regular USB 3.0 has a max speed for 620MB/s but with overhead and other devices you are probably looking at 500-550MB/s which is about the maximum speed for SATA 3 which is what you'd get if you are using an older non-NVME SSD.

Those Samsung's that can do higher use USB 3.2 which can be the smaller USB-C or the regular looking USB-A port. Some motherboard have a mix of both 3.0 and 3.2 USB A ports on their back panel.

Another option if you are running low on space, what is the internal storage on you machine? Could you possibly move to something bigger? If you have a machine that came with a 256-512GB NVME. You could upgrade to 1-2TB. The limitation would be if you machine can be upgrade.

 

[jaysius]

NVME prices are dropping right now, and continuing to do so, even in Canada, so SSDs are dropping too, just hold out for a month then move on one.

Also "running out of storage" usually isn't a real thing, it's usually a user issue, use a free cloud service or just learn to part with things. If hoarding is the issue, you'll soon run out of space again.

 

[Ulysses 31]

I was looking at those, so you recommend?

I don't have T7s yet, but their T3s and T5s have served me well.

 

[Rendered Tangent]

NVME prices are dropping right now, and continuing to do so, even in Canada, so SSDs are dropping too, just hold out for a month then move on one.

Also "running out of storage" usually isn't a real thing, it's usually a user issue, use a free cloud service or just learn to part with things. If hoarding is the issue, you'll soon run out of space again.

That's fair, actually.

I am not great at managing the space I already have and keep games installed that I probably won't play, just in case.

 

[Rendered Tangent]

Yes, but not just the physical A/C type of port.

What computer are you using? Regular USB 3.0 has a max speed for 620MB/s but with overhead and other devices you are probably looking at 500-550MB/s which is about the maximum speed for SATA 3 which is what you'd get if you are using an older non-NVME SSD.

Those Samsung's that can do higher use USB 3.2 which can be the smaller USB-C or the regular looking USB-A port. Some motherboard have a mix of both 3.0 and 3.2 USB A ports on their back panel.

Another option if you are running low on space, what is the internal storage on you machine? Could you possibly move to something bigger? If you have a machine that came with a 256-512GB NVME. You could upgrade to 1-2TB. The limitation would be if you machine can be upgrade.

I'll have to check those numbers, and I'll update my post.

 

[AutumnLeaves]

I bought a Crucial X8 2TB External USB - C 3.2 Gen 2 and I'm extremely happy with it.

 

[danklord]

I was looking at those, so you recommend?

These are some of the best, I frequently use these for on-set video production and it's the absolute best when it comes to transfer time and reliability.

 

[01011001]

possible yes but don't expect SSD speeds via USB bus if that's your method of connecting it.

Just buy a bigger drive and replace it with the older one or use one of those PCIe SSD/boards that'll house multiple NVMe's

eh, I use a USB Samsung SSD as my main gaming drive and my load times are only slightly slower than console sometimes they are actually faster thanks to my better CPU

 

[Rendered Tangent]

Very happy with it. But then I managed to snag two of them (1TB version) for $15 each during Amazon Prime day due to a pricing error so it's hard to complain lol.

$15 each?

That's ridiculous...nice one.