My prebuilt gaming PC has roughly 800 GB of usable storage, and I'm running out of room for the online games I want to install. I'm considering adding an SSD, but I'm not sure how storage affects gaming. Would installing games on an SSD improve online latency or prevent connection problems in games such as Counter-Strike or Deadlock? I'm also unsure whether my case has room for another internal drive, so I may need to use an external one. The PC appears to use a Huntkey G35 case and already includes an SSD. What would be the best storage upgrade for this setup?
2 Answers
An SSD will give you more room for games and can improve loading, installation, and sometimes game-launch times. It won’t reduce your internet ping or fix online latency, though—that depends on your internet connection, router, and the game server. If you use an external SSD, connect it through USB 3.0 or faster. There may also be room for another drive inside the case, so checking the exact PC model or opening the case would be worthwhile.
For competitive online games, an SSD shouldn’t cause problems or noticeably change your connection. It mainly affects how quickly the game loads assets and levels. Since your operating system is already on an SSD, moving additional games to another SSD may not make a huge difference beyond giving you more space, but it’s still preferable to a mechanical hard drive for general responsiveness.
I mostly play multiplayer games, so I’m not very concerned about loading screens. I mainly wanted to confirm that storing them on an external SSD wouldn’t create latency issues in games like Counter-Strike or Deadlock.