Yes, anything USB 3.0 and up and able to sustain at least SATA-like speeds on reads and writes is plenty fast for gaming.

What's the model of the Laptop?
Many have internal room yo expand via more M2 NVME slots.

You could for example install a larger SSD such as 1, 2 or 4 TB and then do an entire disk clone from old to new. Once cloned remove the 500GB SSD and install the new one in its place and boot from that. Then wipe the 500GB SSD clean and use it like a usb flash drive via a simple M2 to USB adapter. Then if need more space, add-in another larger M2 NVME SSD inside the Laptop

If you buy a prebuilt external like that Samsung then I'd go with 2TB or 4TB. 1TB is too small. 2TB is very cheap atm. Often under $100

I do fine with this $25 SSD hotswap on the USB 3.1x2 which is the USB Type-C with that 10Gb/s transfer rate (which only stabilizes at 6Gb/s SATA III).

I have no qualms with the hotswap (USB 3.1x2) and SSD's (hotswap reads faster than the internal SSD's and writes are only 1ms under).

It is just when using externals (or a hotswap), give the ext. drive(s) a proper drive letter is all (most people do not and issues arise but maybe you could get away with it on a laptop).

USB 3.0, 3.1x1, and 3.2x1 are all the same trash, go with generation 2 for these and USB 3.2 are all fine (now I forget if USB 4.0 is out).

If going with hotswaps, companies are trying to hide the fact that most of those units are slower USB styles (generation 1 has slower transfer), always go with g2 (or higher now).

I've never had an issue running games on external SSDs. I use a USB adaptor and real SSD, not the prebuilt ones. I think it's better to do that because you know the quality of the SSD and the device isn't useless if the SSD dies because you can replace it.

They also can be found for low prices all the time.

internal is always better, even if its sata

there are are a few rules to follow with a steam library on external drive

1. make sure steam is not set to run at startup
2. make sure the drive is connected and has the correct letter assignment (check disk management) before running steam
3. exit steam fully (steam -> exit) before disconnecting the drive

or the library may become corrupt or steam may see those games as not installed anymore and need to verify them again

usb will always be slower than internal sata/nvme due to its limited iops
sata3 = 50k-200k iops, usb 3.2 ~ 5-20k max iops

dealing with single large file does not need as mush iops and it could hit the max transfer speeds
but when dealing with lots of little files and read/write at the same time iops will trash the speeds
steam does not do single file operations while installing/updating games

Oprindeligt skrevet af AmaiAmai:

I've never had an issue running games on external SSDs. I use a USB adaptor and real SSD, not the prebuilt ones. I think it's better to do that because you know the quality of the SSD and the device isn't useless if the SSD dies because you can replace it.

They also can be found for low prices all the time.

I tend to do that anyways for same similar reasons. Started doing that many years ago with 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch HDDs. Many of those External HDDs only had a 1 year warranty; where as with using an actual 2.5 or 3.5 inch HDD you could get one that has 3 or 5 year warranty and just use an adapter or caddy.

The issue with NVME adapters is you really need to better understand them. Make sure they support the right keyed drives and support 4TB or larger, just incase you ever need to use one of those, since many of those cheaper adapters might only support much older drives or smaller sizes.

or if the laptop has a 2nd m.2 slot, or sata bay, get a ssd that fits it

Oprindeligt skrevet af _I_:

or if the laptop has a 2nd m.2 slot, or sata bay, get a ssd that fits it

Yes that's what I was suggesting in Post #2

^^

Thanks everyone, it's a Gigabyte G5 KF (from 2013).

Edit - 2023, not 2013!

Ok if it's old enough to have an optical drive then it should have a caddy adapter available you could buy off ebay that allows you to install a 2nd SATA HDD/SSD in place of the optical drive

😊 This discussion answered a question I had. Thank you!

if you have a decent spare computer you can build your own Nas from true-nas to windows server, over a network.

options are always nice

Oprindeligt skrevet af ℍ𝔸𝕍𝕆ℂ™:

😊 This discussion answered a question I had. Thank you!

Now I'm curious about this too!

Just realised I said 2013, I meant 2023!!

All but one of my games are installed on an external SSD that’s connected via USB-C.

No issues.