Tangible improvements possible with an external SSD?

[scotchegg 4,241]

I've currently got MSFS on an internal nvme which also has my OS, and the community folder on an HDD.

Would I notice the difference in anything other than load times if I put everything on an external SSD? There are a few like the Crucial X9Pro that are on the Prime sale finishing today.

[Gabshall 43]

The Crucial X9 Pro is USB 3.2 so read speeds are usually ~1000 MB/s (technically USB 3.2 can reach 10 GB/s but drives rarely get near this). In contrast your NVMe drive should be in the range of 1500-3000 MB/s depending on associated hardware (and how old it is). An external drive is therefore likely to slow loading times rather than increase them. If you want to buy the X9 Pro, use it to store photos or music and free up space on your C: drive.

Edited October 14, 2023 by Gabshall

[scotchegg 4,241]

9 minutes ago, Gabshall said:

An external drive is therefore likely to slow loading times rather than increase them.

Cheers, you’ve saved me a few yen!

[Gabshall 43]

Prime Days do provide too much temptation!

[turbomax 3,307]

my Samsung sequential benchmarks:

980 PRO 2 TB: 6.936 MB/s NVMe (12 x faster than sata SSD)

860 EVO 4TB:    562 MB/s sata SSD

-----------------------------

even 500 MB/s via sata is more than sufficient for MSFS. no fps difference in actual game play, whatsoever.

 

Edited October 14, 2023 by turbomax

[Gabshall 43]

13 minutes ago, turbomax said:

 

even 500 MB/s via sata is more than sufficient for MSFS. no fps difference in actual game play, whatsoever.

 

Drive speed generally won't affect fps (provided you're not on a platter), it's the load times when the app first runs and subsequent loading for each flight that are potentially affected.

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,799]

There are external NVME about which on a USB 3.2 or Firewire bus are pretty fast, but my experience with them is they tend to overheat on sustained writes, generally the cases are not up to dissipating the heat.

Though for MSFS use you are unlikely to strike issues. Just be aware some (most?)  external NVME can be problematic if you are using them to do stuff like back up an entire hard disk.

[scotchegg 4,241]

Cheers for the comments, all, think I’ll give it a pass.

Anyway, 2024 should mitigate things and I’ll probably do a new PC build not long after that comes out, so…