November 25, 20241 yr With the coming of MSFS 2024, I decided that the best plan for me would be to put it and all if it's associated folders on a designated SSD. I was wondering though if anyone is using or has used an external (USB) hard drive for flight sim 2020 or 2024? Does it work well, or is an internal drive the better way to go? Tom
November 29, 20241 yr On 11/25/2024 at 7:27 PM, TangoSierraMike said: With the coming of MSFS 2024, I decided that the best plan for me would be to put it and all if it's associated folders on a designated SSD. I was wondering though if anyone is using or has used an external (USB) hard drive for flight sim 2020 or 2024? Does it work well, or is an internal drive the better way to go? Fetching data and loading will be slower from an external drive, this will impact performance. Raymond Fry.
November 29, 20241 yr On 11/25/2024 at 7:27 PM, TangoSierraMike said: I was wondering though if anyone is using or has used an external (USB) hard drive for flight sim 2020 or 2024? Does it work well, or is an internal drive the better way to go? It does depend on the external drive. I have one that is almost twice as fast as an internal SSD, operating on USB C. Windows does not see a difference between internal and external. Internal External Edited November 29, 20241 yr by Reader
December 2, 20241 yr Internal drive. https://www.flickr.com/photos/154944674@N05/54179666591/in/dateposted-public Raymond Fry.
December 5, 20241 yr On 11/29/2024 at 4:50 PM, Reader said: It does depend on the external drive. I have one that is almost twice as fast as an internal SSD, operating on USB C. Windows does not see a difference between internal and external. Internal External You are comparing an old internal SATA SSD to a more modern PCIe drive so I don't think that it is a fair comparison. Also, your screenshot doesn't show the much slower random reads; random access is what hurts USB most since USB has a much higher latency than internal storage controllers. I expect that most people with recent flightsim PC's are using internal m.2 Nvme drives which are much faster than these old SATA SSD's. Even the standard M.2 SSD in my business laptop is 7 times faster than the drive in your screenshot of an internal SSD: Flightsim rig: CPU: AMD 5900x | Mobo: MSI X570 MEG Unify | RAM: 32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo | GPU: Gigabyte RTX 3090 | Storage: M.2 (2 & 4 TB) | PSU: Corsair RM850x | Case: Fractal Define 7 XL Display: Acer Predator x34 3440x1440 | Speakers: Logitech Z906 Controllers: Fulcrum One Yoke | MFG Crosswind v2 pedals | Honeycomb Bravo Quadrant |Thrustmaster TCA Quadrant | Stream Deck XL & Plus | TrackIR 5 Tobii eye tracking
December 5, 20241 yr 2 hours ago, Allard said: You are comparing an old internal SATA SSD to a more modern PCIe drive so I don't think that it is a fair comparison. Thanks. I wasn't a comparison, it was an illustration that an external drive is not, by definition, slower than an internal one, as alleged here: On 11/29/2024 at 1:35 AM, G-RFRY said: Fetching data and loading will be slower from an external drive, this will impact performance. One day, it will be possible to post what is intended to be no more than helpful advice to the person who asked the question without anyone coming along and challenging it. Evidently, that day is not yet here.
December 7, 20241 yr I don`t know your specs but my last three home builds all supported MV2 internal drives, and that`s over 10 years. Raymond Fry.
December 30, 20241 yr Author Thanks everyone for your feedback - I ended up finding an internal SATA SSD. Installation was dead easy... now to see if I can finally get MSFS2024 installed... Tom
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