I'm looking to improve my setup for downloading and watching high-quality shows and movies. Right now, I have a 2 TB SSD in my laptop that's almost full, so I previously bought a 4TB Toshiba Canvio Basics portable external HDD. Initially, I used it for torrent downloads directly to the drive, but after a couple of months, the video playback became choppy, VLC would freeze, and navigating through files on my laptop (which runs Linux) was painfully slow. After switching back to downloading to my SSD, everything worked fine again.
Now, I'm wondering if my issues with the HDD were due to it being a hard drive instead of an SSD, or if it was just a faulty unit. Should I stick with an external HDD for my next external drive, or invest more in an external SSD? Also, since I torrent a lot and watch high-quality files, might that push me toward choosing an SSD? I'd appreciate any recommendations on specific drives too!
3 Answers
I've been using a budget external SSD from Amazon for a similar setup without any problems. A bad USB cable can really throttle performance, so beware of that! If you’re actively torrenting and watching at the same time, you may want to consider an SSD for better performance, especially with large files.
You should be fine with an HDD as long as you're not overwhelming it with downloads and streams at the same time. USB 3.0 is generally sufficient for 4K content, since it can handle 5 gigabits per second, which is usually enough for streaming high-quality video. But if you're experiencing issues, an SSD is worth considering for faster speeds.
I think the HDD's issues might not be solely due to it being an HDD. It's possible that your connection type or the USB cable played a role too. Make sure you're using a good quality cable and try different USB ports. If you're transferring a lot of data while watching something, that could tax the drive as well, but an SSD might handle that better overall. Just some things to consider!
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