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JakeGrover
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23 May 2010, 11:52 am

Although I'm a big tech-savvy person. I have question for others out there. So, my internal HD is running out of space and I've decided to my gigantic games folder. So, I'm going to move them to another External HD. Here's the question: When the games are on the External HD, would they be slower than when they were on the internal HD? I know that the internal HD is connected through SATA which is much faster than USB 2.0 which is on my external HD. Any answers?



Keith
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23 May 2010, 12:27 pm

E-S-ATA would be better as it's "ATA" which is what hard drives run from.
USB is mainly for other devices.

USB 2.0 max speed 60MBps
S-ATA2 3Gbps = 384MBps depending on physical limitations which is why SSD's are fast. They can run at full speed.

USB 2.0 has a limit, SATA has an upper limit..
USB speed is dependant on other devices. If others are on the same channel, that 480Mbs is divided accordingly and will slow down.

It would be easier to get a larger hard disk fitted internally. External hard disks are ideal if you're constantly between computers



JakeGrover
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23 May 2010, 12:30 pm

Yes, I'm planning to get a bigger drive in about a month. But, I think in the mean time, I'll just deal with some game slowdowns. Thanks for the info. Would a computer USB port divide it's speed?



SabbraCadabra
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23 May 2010, 3:05 pm

JakeGrover wrote:
I know that the internal HD is connected through SATA which is much faster than USB 2.0 which is on my external HD.


They make external SATA drives.

Honestly though, I don't see the point in external drives, unless it's something you take with you often to plug into different computers.

Here's a super tip though, from a guy who used to compute back when gigabytes weren't quite in fashion yet: uninstall some of your games :wink:


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JakeGrover
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23 May 2010, 4:19 pm

See, I have Mac, which doesn't have an external SATA port. The point of external drives is when your internal drive reaches it's size limit so you get some more storage. You can also use external drives for backup.