Would this usb 3.0 external drive be fast enough to install games

Yeah that'll be fine. Though you really should run games from the internal SSD if you really care about performance.

anonymous4a said:

Hi, I saw this usb 3.0 external hard drive

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Backu...[asin|B00829THO6[authorId|5856732741879800112

, would it be fast enough to install and run games on a macbook retina at 1900 x 1200 resolution ?

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You should try to get a 7200rpm if you are going to get a HDD. If it must be a 2.5" bus powered drive then try to get the HGST Touro Pro. Make sure it is the Pro. It's 7200rpm. There is no other 1 TB 2.5" 7200rpm drive currently.

http://www.touropro.com/product/touro-mobile-pro/

anonymous4a said:

yeah, I was considering that drive but than others have told me that the speed of external hard drive only affects install times, load times of levels in games. Not actual gameplay lag. That still is determined by cpu, gpu, ram of computer. Is that true ? I don't mind longer load times if I'm able to save a few bucks. I was most worried about actual gameplay lag in a multiplayer game .

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thats not true. if thats the case, people would be buying 4200rpm usb 2.0 drives and installing games on them. if you want to install games on external, buy 7200rpm usb 3.0.

anonymous4a said:

yeah, I was considering that drive but than others have told me that the speed of external hard drive only affects install times, load times of levels in games. Not actual gameplay lag. That still is determined by cpu, gpu, ram of computer. Is that true ? I don't mind longer load times if I'm able to save a few bucks. I was most worried about actual gameplay lag in a multiplayer game .

Click to expand...

Some 5400 USB drives can be very slow, irrespective of whether they have a USB 2.0 or 3.0 controller. I wouldn't risk it. I would only use 5400 drives for storage.

Also the drive inside is exceptional as a stand alone. Owc even buys the touro pro just to rip the drive out. You see them selling the used enclosure for a few dollars. So if you ever give up on gaming, the drive works well in laptops and minis etc. I run one in a fusion drive on a 2012 Mac mini.