I recently removed my 1TB SSD from my Asus laptop from 2023 and put it in an NVMe enclosure, which is working great with my new laptop for games. When I build my PC, I'd like to keep that 1TB SSD as a secondary drive connected via USB, but I'm concerned about how that setup might affect gaming performance. Specifically, would using a 256GB SSD as a boot drive and relying on the 1TB for game storage significantly impact gaming performance, or is the effect minimal considering I'm on a budget?
4 Answers
I recently did something similar myself. I hooked up a 1TB SATA SSD in a USB 3 enclosure and pointed Steam to its folders. Load times were a bit slower compared to direct connections, but gameplay was unaffected. If you're okay with slower load times, this setup can work well for you.
It really depends on the speed of your USB enclosure. Just because it’s NVMe doesn't guarantee fast speeds. If it runs fine with your laptop, it should be similar on your desktop. However, keep in mind that 256GB might be tight for a Windows install unless you're just using it for the OS.
Do you already own that 256GB SSD? They can be pretty overpriced for the capacity. Honestly, it might be wiser to use your 1TB SSD as the main drive instead and consider saving to get a new SSD down the line. A couple of years is not very long; you could still get a lot of use out of it.
Typically, external SSD enclosures can bottleneck an NVMe SSD, but they should work for most games. You might notice slower load times rather than any noticeable drop in frame rates, so it might not be a huge deal for casual gaming.
No, not yet. I’m just exploring options. Maybe I’ll use the 1TB as the primary and buy a new one later when I need more space.