If you’ve been wondering if having an external SSD is good for gaming, you’re not alone. In this article we’ll answer your questions about externals SSDs and gaming, including:
Ultimately, we hope to help you choose the best external SSD for gaming.
An external SSD is a great investment for gamers facing storage and performance issues. If your internal storage is running low and you find yourself constantly deleting games to make space for new ones, an external SSD can provide the additional storage you need. It also offers faster load times and smoother gameplay compared to a traditional external hard drive, which is crucial for games with large files and frequent updates. Additionally, if you play games on multiple devices, an external SSD allows you to easily transfer your game library between your PC, console, and laptop without the hassle of re-downloading large files. This makes it an ideal solution for gamers who value both performance and convenience.
If your PC, Mac or console storage is already filling up (or full) of your favorite games, you may have already started deleting games to clear out space. Instead, choosing a portable SSD for your game library makes a lot of sense. Portable SSDs are durable, portable, spacious and compatible with multiple devices. But there are a lot of options to choose from, so how do you decide which one is best for you?
We think you’ll find what you’re looking for in Crucial’s full portfolio of external SSDs, which have transfer speeds up to 2,100MB/s and capacities up to 8TB. In fact, in 2023, PC World chose the Crucial X10 Pro as the best external SSD for gaming. But here are the specific factors you should consider, no matter what external SSD you choose:
Whether you’re saving games on or playing legacy games directly from your external SSD, you want read and write speeds that can keep pace. The highest read speeds available in USB external SSDs hover just around the 2,000MB/s mark, while write speeds are generally a bit lower. When choosing a drive, consider whether you will mostly be writing (saving games to your drive) or reading (playing directly from the drive) to decide what’s best for you. In general, getting the fastest speeds for your budget makes the most sense. Crucial’s fastest external SSD is the Crucial X10 Pro. But if budget is a major consideration, don’t worry about choosing a drive that’s not the top of the line. The Crucial X9, for example, has read speeds of 1,050MB/s, which means it is 7.5 times faster than portable hard drives (HDDs), and 100 times faster than USB flash drives.
If you’ve ever filled up an older external drive, you know that file transfer speeds can significantly slow down when it gets close to capacity. This meant that you needed to either expect slowdowns as your drive filled up, or buy more capacity than you really needed to maintain faster performance.
One important benefit of the technology engineered into newer drives like the Crucial X10 Pro and X9 Pro is that it makes them powerful enough to support sustained performance throughout the drive’s capacity. The X9 Pro, for example, offers 1,050MB/s reads and 975MB/s writes throughout the drive’s capacity.
Speaking of capacity, since games are getting bigger with every release and DLC drop, it’s easy to quickly run out of a space with just a few games. A couple of cases in point:
That’s nearly 1TB of storage needed if you just store those five games! Of course, you’re likely to have many smaller games in your library as well, but it’s important to consider the size of the games you’ll store when choosing your drive’s capacity. The good news? The Crucial X10 offers up to 8TB of storage to keep all your favorite games installed.
The Crucial X10 Pro SSD is the ultimate choice for gamers who also manage a YouTube channel or edit streams and upload content to platforms like YouTube. With its exceptional speed and capacity, the Crucial X10 Pro is designed to handle large video files effortlessly, making it the best drive for video editing tasks. Crucial recommends the X10 Pro for video editing due to its ability to store and access large files quickly, ensuring smooth and efficient workflows.
Additionally, you can conveniently store your games and editing files all in one place, eliminating the need for multiple storage solutions and enhancing your productivity. Whether you're gaming or creating content, the Crucial X10 Pro SSD delivers the performance and reliability you need.
If you’re a gamer who wants loads of space for your favorite games and the new ones you’re looking forward to playing in the future, you’ll love the speed, performance, capacity and portability of external SSDs. Just remember these important points: