External ssd drive
- Thread starter rmdk
- Start date
I actually had it on an External USB drive with the blue connectors (not SSD), and it seemed to work just fine, even when it was getting to a terabyte in size. I decided to archive that and downsize and reinstall on the main hard drive, but I would say an external SSD via USB3 should be even faster, although not as fast as maybe an internal SSD if you have space inside.
Maybe you can clarify why you wouldn't put a new SSD internal. 1 Tb internal SSDs are now common.
External drives work pretty well and I've used one with my laptop which doesn't have a large internal drive. The problem I found is they get warm because of the constant disk access so don't plan on using this for long term use and only for short periods because the heat will eventually degrade the performance. If you do go external, get a unit with its own power supply. The ones that run off the USB port will draw a lot of current if they are under constant load. I saw the bad results of this on someone's work laptop. Their USB port was scorched and the machine had to be replaced.
springtransit
What are you looking at?
My laptop uses a 1 TB SSD, and it's filling up! I think you'd be best replacing the internal HD with a bigger one...
KotangaGirl
Pre-Grouping Railways Nut
All the external hard drives for my desktop computer, both spinners and SSDs sit on top of one of those flat accessory coolers they make to go under laptops. The one I purchased has a stiff wire mesh screen over the fans and I just place the external hard drive cases on top of that. Our Summer just gone had some pretty darn hot days and the cooler kept everything nice and chilled down. The fans on my generic cheapie cooler are really quiet too so that might be worth checking out as well if you want to give this a try.
This isn't a sales pitch, - I'm just a happy customer.
This isn't a sales pitch, - I'm just a happy customer.
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Not so fast, as I asked in post #4 why would you get an external SSD instead of an internal SSD?
I don't want to answer for rmdk22, but some people may not know their way around the inside of a computer and prefer to just plug something in. For the most part it is not hard to mount a second internal drive and connect it to power and data cables, but it might not be something unfamiliar folks want to attempt. I would add that there are probably plenty of how-to videos on YouTube, but still.
KotangaGirl
Pre-Grouping Railways Nut
Then there's the problem as well that some computers are just not very friendly when it comes to adding more drives. And if you've got a magnificent great GTX40060Ti graphics card in there as well it's very likely that trying to run cables neatly so they don't get caught up in anything might be near impossible. SSDs might be small, but they have to have good airflow around them or they'll fry.
Accepted
Not sure about that. I have two back to back in the same compartment with no ventilation, 1/4 TB and 1 TB and they stay around 30 to 35C.
To answer the question yes it would, personally I'd go for adding additional drives internally.
Most PSUs have at least 6 connectors for drives, most tower cases have room for at least 4 hard drives often more, I have a case here that can take 6 drives, more if using the stacked SSD brackets, most PSUs can support 6 maybe 8 sata connectors, as long as you have a sata data lead it's just a case of plug it in and fit it somewhere securely, these days the bios will pick up extra drives often without the need to do anything.
Stacking SSDs does not affect their temperature, I have two stacked in one of my PC's and they never go over 30°C
However if you don't feel like opening up the case although it advisable to clean the muck out of the fans then just use externals.
Most PSUs have at least 6 connectors for drives, most tower cases have room for at least 4 hard drives often more, I have a case here that can take 6 drives, more if using the stacked SSD brackets, most PSUs can support 6 maybe 8 sata connectors, as long as you have a sata data lead it's just a case of plug it in and fit it somewhere securely, these days the bios will pick up extra drives often without the need to do anything.
Stacking SSDs does not affect their temperature, I have two stacked in one of my PC's and they never go over 30°C
However if you don't feel like opening up the case although it advisable to clean the muck out of the fans then just use externals.
Again, thanks for everyone's contribution.
I thought it might be an easy way around my problem of filling/full internal drives.
And yes, I am not real confident about opening the case up and fiddling around in there. Might have to get a pro to install another internal ssd.
Russell
I thought it might be an easy way around my problem of filling/full internal drives.
And yes, I am not real confident about opening the case up and fiddling around in there. Might have to get a pro to install another internal ssd.
Russell
Many SSDs come with migration software in the event you have to expand the drive Windows is installed on (or expand drives you have delegated to perform Windows functions, like apps). Other than that it should be a plug and play affair. Your instruction manual should have a section on upgrading drives.
coRioGrandeSouthern
Fan of Otto Mears
To reveal just how old I am, when I purchased my first computer it had 2MB of RAM and a 20MB HDD. The salesman told me that was more than enough memory and storage than I would ever need! -haha- I just upgraded my desktop PC with 32GB RAM and two 1TB SSDs, and I am already thinking maybe I should upgrade to two 4TB SSDs someday.
At least there were hard drives and floppy disks. My first computer had 64 kilobytes, of which 16 kilobytes was RAM and an audio cassette tape drive to record and load programs (Commodore 64). Not to mention the predecessor programable calculators that read and recorded programs on gum-strip magnetic media.
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