External drive Hdd or Ssd

[SsSsSsSsSnake]

My inexperience automatically said to me ,no brainier ,get an ssd but doing a bit of searching I’m unsure now as it seems to depend on usage?
This would be with the new IMac M1.
main usage my photos library to light edit from and browse etc.
can game apps be played smoothly from an ext drive or will they lag?
suggestions please

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Go SSD with the latest operating systems using APFS not liking platter drives, to say nothing of the time saved. Personally prefer coning software for backups.

Games comment I will leave to others as not much of a gamer.

 

[gilby101]

I’m unsure now as it seems to depend on usage?

Sure does. If you want to be cost effective:

SSD for photos, video (for editing), documents, and anything that requires reasonably fast disk access. I say that because the SSD has zero seek time. SSD transfer is limited by the device and interface speed. The HDD as well having lower transfer speed is slowed by head movement and waiting for the disk to rotate.

For large (or infrequently used) things a HDD is more cost effective. Thinking here about backups and downloaded movies.

Games - I don't know. I guess a HDD would be good enough for most.

What you really want is both - an SSD for most data and a HDD for backup.

 

[ElectronGuru]

There’s also a size component. If 2tb will hold you for years, don’t even look at HDD. But if you need 10tb at a swing, you’ll go broke trying to ssd everything.

 

[SsSsSsSsSnake]

thanks a lot all so far. so definately SSD and with that i want to buy a new HDD for general backup as my present ones are working ok but would like a new one so considering either the Lacie's, WD etc. any ones to avoid?

 

[velocityg4]

For modern games you definitely want a fast SSD. They take ages to load from a HDD. I'm not sure how gamers who use HDD still stand it. I switched to SSD around 2010 to 2011. As it took way too long to load them. They were only a fraction of the size of modern games.

I wasn't even using one HDD. I was using three of the fastest reviewed 7,200 RPM drives in RAID 0 and game load times were still too long for my taste.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

thanks a lot all so far. so definately SSD and with that i want to buy a new HDD for general backup as my present ones are working ok but would like a new one so considering either the Lacie's, WD etc. any ones to avoid?

Get the Lacie if you can afford its price.
I would buy one USB enclosure + 1 HDD with the lowest price per TB, and 5 years warranty tag on it.