Steam on internal partition or external HDD? Opinions?

[Podifer]

Looking for a bit of advice please.

I've had issues with Steam on windows in the past so I've decided I want to 'isolate' the Steam app and games from the rest of my new 2012 MBP.

So...do I:
1, Give Steam and it's games a 200-250gb partition on the internal 7200rpm HD
Or
2, Give it a 350-400gb partition on an external usb3 portable 5400rpm HD

I'm new to Macs but I've searched and read up about symbolic links, so think I could set that up alright.

Any opinions on performance issues etc? I'm not big into gaming - I like stuff like Portal, Assassins Creed etc rather than heavy shoot em ups.

What do you think? And many thanks in advance 🙂

 

[deadwulfe]

Not as much advice as just telling you how my setup is.

I keep Steam and games on my internal drive. I've allocated plenty of space, so I can load up about 2 dozen games. For me, that's plenty of a selection to have at any given time.

I backup the game files to an external drive. This way, if I don't feel like playing something, beat a game, or would rather play something else, then I can delete it and load something else.

If I ever want to play something again, I already have the files locally so I don't have to download them again. Just reinstall from the backup on the external drive.

As for performance of having games on an external drive, it might just take longer to load at launch and loading screens. I don't know for sure, since I haven't tried that approach.

 

[Podifer]

Thanks for the quick reply. Think I might be leaning towards a partition on my internal HD - probably less hassle than plugging in an external every time I want to play a game. If I go this route, then I'll back up the game files to an external as you say.

What to do...my problem is that I get so hung up on trying to get things 'just right' from the start - that I spend days not doing anything! 😱