An external harddrive to play games directly off of?

[garrenfrost]

I got myself a Lenovo legion Y520 (Core i7 8GB 256GB SSD 15.6" GTX 1050 Ti) and as seen it only has 256GB of SSD, and I frankly can't be bothered with constantly uninstalling games and installing others when I wanna play games on a whim, so I wanted to know was there a possible solution in the form of a connectable external harddrive?

I am quite sure that this pc does not possess any open spaces for upgrades. but hell if I know, I'm frankly an idiot when it comes to computers 😛

I was hoping to mainly play steam games off of it, but I was genuinely unsure if that was a possibility, as I could vaguely piece together a grey zone answer.

 

[GreyCatz]

Most of my Steam games are stored on a 2TB Western Digital external harddisk spinning at 5400 rpm and connected via USB. I have tried playing the same game, e.g. Metal Gear Solid V, on a system SSD and I could not detect any difference in terms of lag or disruption.

Using an external HDD has saved my sanity on more occasions than I care to admit, and I will always recommend this solution. Especially considering that Windows 10, even the official retail version, will occasionally die on you for no good reason.

 

[USAFRet]

Multiple locations for Steam games are no problem.
Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder

You can also move game install location between drives, without delete and reinstall
To move an already installed game
Games library
Right click the game
Properties
Local Files
Move Install Folder

 

[jaguarskx]

The Legion Y520 has a M.2 that is currently being used by the 356GB SDD and it also has a 2.5" bay for another SSD or hard drive.