Can you run games off of an external hard drive?

Ok so my friend wants to get into pc gaming but his dad doesnt want him taking up space on his pc.

He doesnt know much about computers so he doesnt want to add a hard drive.

Main question, would it be possible to install games (like WoW, Starcraft, and games on Steam) to an external hard drive and run them off of there?

The specific external hard drive he has is an ADATA NHo3 Nobility Series.

Yes, but it will most likely be slow, low power = low spin speed with = low data rate, high seek time. Other than that, an external hdd is just a hdd with a plastic shell around it.

"doesn't know 'much'" The real difference between adding an external hdd and an internal is, well it's not external. You don't need to know anything 'bout a computer to figure it out, just an IQ above 6.

Yes, but it will most likely be slow, low power = low spin speed with = low data rate, high seek time. Other than that, an external hdd is just a hdd with a plastic shell around it.

"doesn't know 'much'" The real difference between adding an external hdd and an internal is, well it's not external. You don't need to know anything 'bout a computer to figure it out, just an IQ above 6.

Inconsistancy

How slow are we talking here? Would it depend on the external hard drive? Hows that one he has chosen, any other recommendations?

Can't figure out how it preforms in realistic tests, says it has a 140mb/s xfer rate, which can't possibly be it's sustained. But there doesn't seem to be any way to see the stats of it's actual hdd... besides size.

Downloading a benchmark to cross check results vs mine.

Seems to benchmark quite a bit higher than mine... guess it's faster, sure would like to know what the hdd's like in there, wonder if it's noisy, to be faster than an internal..

Ok so my friend wants to get into pc gaming but his dad doesnt want him taking up space on his pc.

He doesnt know much about computers so he doesnt want to add a hard drive.

Main question, would it be possible to install games (like WoW, Starcraft, and games on Steam) to an external hard drive and run them off of there?

The specific external hard drive he has is an ADATA NHo3 Nobility Series.

Crypt_mx

I never said it'll hurt your frame rate, the only way that'll happen is if the data is being streamed then rendered, not loaded... it's just load times that is effectd. FPS is allmost 100% your cpu, ram and video card. The HDD's activity is 0% outside of loading, or the rare instance of streaming, such as in mmo's where it streams to load characters that are comming into range.

There's probably space in the computer to put another HDD? What makes it really much slower is the USB interface. Most of the External HDD have connector to provides power, so this ain't much the problem in most of the case. An external HDD is just a normal HDD into a case after all.

USB 3.0 : Up to 5GBits/s

USB 2.0 : Up to 480Mbits/s

eSATA : Up to 3GBits/s

SATA 2,6 : Up to 3GBits/s

SATA 3.0 : Up to 6GBits/s

The interface is the thing you should be carefull here.

You can however as state it may be slow and not to mention some games may not run if you install the games on a different computer and play it on another computer as well, though easily fixable through adding it to the registry.

I never said it'll hurt your frame rate, the only way that'll happen is if the data is being streamed then rendered, not loaded... it's just load times that is effectd. FPS is allmost 100% your cpu, ram and video card. The HDD's activity is 0% outside of loading, or the rare instance of streaming, such as in mmo's where it streams to load characters that are comming into range.

Inconsistancy

As long he use a fast External HDD, with a good interface and powered it will run as fast as any good Internal HDD.

Don't forget there's stuffs installing for most of the games on the computer as well. Mostly the registry that is a pain in the butt if you wish to play on more than the same computer.

adding a HDD isn't too hard. just slide it into one of the HDD slots, screw it in or whatever, and plug it in to the mobo.

As long he use a fast External HDD, with a good interface and powered it will run as fast as any good Internal HDD.

Don't forget there's stuffs installing for most of the games on the computer as well. Mostly the registry that is a pain in the butt if you wish to play on more than the same computer.

hamelkarl

I use an external USB HDD and some games have stopped working. This is because I turn it on and off a lot and sometimes the Drive letter that it comes up as will not be right. Some games used to work for months (and even years, I've had it that long) before they stopped working randomly (after some other changes with my computer).

Company of Heroes, Freelancer, Far Cry and Crysis and GTAIV all run off it fine. If there's any FPS drops I've never noticed them.

In short, yes you can, but they may stop working unexpectedly for some silly reasons.

I don't understand how so many people can run out of space with the size and cheap prices of HDDs these days...FelipeInside

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"]I don't understand how so many people can run out of space with the size and cheap prices of HDDs these days...DigitalExile

I got about all my games, Excluding those on steam though I could put them there aswell, on my external harddrive and I've never had any issues regarding games being slow because of it.

I don't understand how so many people can run out of space with the size and cheap prices of HDDs these days...FelipeInside

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"]I don't understand how so many people can run out of space with the size and cheap prices of HDDs these days...Inconsistancy

[QUOTE="Inconsistancy"][QUOTE="FelipeInside"]I don't understand how so many people can run out of space with the size and cheap prices of HDDs these days...bonafidetk

[QUOTE="bonafidetk"]

[QUOTE="Inconsistancy"] Huh, I keep having to prune my 1tb hdd... sits usually at 92-95% full... I think I download too much stuffs..FelipeInside

How so? 0% fragmentation, fast load times, no viruses. I've noticed that windwos defragger usually needed 15% pre win7, win7's was such garbage that I've always use defraggler instead.

And if I really wanted, and wasn't lazy I could free up plenty of space, but until I see a performance hit, I'm not gonna waste my time filling my old 250gb hdd

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="bonafidetk"] buy a new one. You can get a TB drive for about £60 cant you.

Inconsistancy

How so? 0% fragmentation, fast load times, no viruses. I've noticed that windwos defragger usually needed 15% pre win7, win7's was such garbage that I've always use defraggler instead.

And if I really wanted, and wasn't lazy I could free up plenty of space, but until I see a performance hit, I'm not gonna waste my time filling my old 250gb hdd

[QUOTE="Inconsistancy"]

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"] Inconsistancy, you know that having a HDD that full is bad for Windows right? Windows requires at least 15% of the HDD empty....FelipeInside

How so? 0% fragmentation, fast load times, no viruses. I've noticed that windwos defragger usually needed 15% pre win7, win7's was such garbage that I've always use defraggler instead.

And if I really wanted, and wasn't lazy I could free up plenty of space, but until I see a performance hit, I'm not gonna waste my time filling my old 250gb hdd

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="Inconsistancy"]

How so? 0% fragmentation, fast load times, no viruses. I've noticed that windwos defragger usually needed 15% pre win7, win7's was such garbage that I've always use defraggler instead.

And if I really wanted, and wasn't lazy I could free up plenty of space, but until I see a performance hit, I'm not gonna waste my time filling my old 250gb hdd

Inconsistancy

I never said you did have stability issues, and maybe you won't for a while....

I'm just saying how Windows works and what it needs. I've seen even servers have trouble when the HDD got full.

If you choose to continue like that fine by me, I'm just giving you some info :)

[QUOTE="hamelkarl"]

As long he use a fast External HDD, with a good interface and powered it will run as fast as any good Internal HDD.

Don't forget there's stuffs installing for most of the games on the computer as well. Mostly the registry that is a pain in the butt if you wish to play on more than the same computer.

FelipeInside

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="hamelkarl"]

As long he use a fast External HDD, with a good interface and powered it will run as fast as any good Internal HDD.

Don't forget there's stuffs installing for most of the games on the computer as well. Mostly the registry that is a pain in the butt if you wish to play on more than the same computer.

hamelkarl