external hard-drive question.

Run slow? Nope, unless it's some MMO. Slow loading? Yes, definitely, unless it is esata one.

For most stuff is fine. Get a 3.0 usb one if you can. Ninjas cleaned this.

well, count me in for this as well, looking to spend 100$ for an external hard drive that doesn't use AC power (plug in) and preferable a quiet one.

I don't think it will be possible to play games on it if it's USB

eSATA to usb3 maybe

I don't know much about this personal, but from what i heard, don't do it. Games should run slowly from an external hard drive, and using it in such a way would also mean considerably lowering its lifetime. You are better off just downloading games and keeping them on the hard drive, but then copying them on your computer to play them. If you are just looking for more space in general better get a 2TB internal hard drive instead

All this is of course speaking for usb hard drives, i'm not sure how eSATA hard drives function and what are their limitations

i use external disk with usb 3.0 for some games ( i had 2 library in my steam settings, one in local disk, one in the external ) and it's still give the same performance if i compare when the game still on the local disk. A bit slow of performance just happen when it saving the game progress.

for port, i think the fastest one right now is thunderbolt ( but i just saw this kind of port in mac and some hp product ) and then there's esata and usb 3.0 port, some people said esata is faster but another said usb 3.0 is faster. based on my experience, for read rate both almost at the same speed but when it came to write esata is still faster (maybe because esata is native sata so there's no overhead/additional latency like in usb 3.0), so if you got thunderbolt port go get external disk with thunderbolt, if not consider esata and then consider usb 3.0 .. don't use usb 2.0.

for disk speed, choose disk with 7200RPM don't buy 5400RPM.

for brand, i think LACIE is the best and at the 2nd place is buffalo and seagate. LACIE and other brands have product with thunderbolt, esata, usb 3.0 port or even combination of ports so you can use esata at your pc but when you need to transfer to another pc that only have usb 2.0 port you still can do that.

I have a western digital elements 1tb usb 3.0 drive. I didn't run into any problems even with graphic intense games like tomb raider and bioshock infinite. If you have a notebook or if you want to move your hard drive regularly buy one that's powered over usb. If not you could buy one with an ac adapter they tend to be a bit cheaper.

I'm Currently using as a backup a 500 GB USB 3.0 Seagate Expansion Drive So far i recommend it hasn't given me a prob . Had it for about a year already. Though its speed is really good imo . A TB or so for heavy gaming . The thing i love is no ac cord , USB powered. Got mine for around $47 but i heard newegg will have a sale soon .

Heres a link if you guys want to get this 2TB for 69.99 with this promo code EXLEMC2268 .Link to deal Heres a piece from the email i recived from newegg Link Hope it helps ya or anyone.

If you use a External USB Hard Disk, you'll find steam and games slower, even using USB 3.0... as it requires to load from the Hard Disk to the RAM memory to run/execute, so yes... it'll be notoriously slower.

The best use for a External Hard Disk is: Backups.

I install half of my games on a external 500 GB USB 3.0 HDD and they all work fine to me though my Steam is installed on the main drive.

People are saying USB 3.0, but you probably do not have that.

I would look into esata. It is the same connection they use internally, but used externally.
If you already have an external port great, but assuming your computer has at least internal sata ports it should be incredibly easy and cheap to add a external one. I am guessing here, but most likely the esata would be even better than USB 3.

getting mixed answers , hopefully more people could help

If you get one that uses a USB 3.0 or eSATA connection, you will be fine as the data throughput rates for those connections are higher than the read/write rate of most standard 7200rpm SATA 3 hard drives.

Why not move your non-Steam files to that drive so you won't have to worry about space? Isn't there a backup service on Steam so moving game files is a simple transfer?

Externals are for backups. I have a couple.

Not necessarly, depends to what you are comparing the "slower", you didn't say your internal setup (explanation below). You can definitely play with it.
USB 3.0 (and make sure you also have USB 3.0 ports on your mainboard!) is faster than everything except Sata3 (which, anyway, is only for internal HDD). Also don't listen to who is suggesting eSata, it's slower than USB 3.0. If you have an internal HDD <Sata3, it will even be faster.
Assuming you are talking about a notebook, if it has the usb 3 port, go for it. However if it's a desktop, why don't you pick another internal sata3 HDD if you have a sata3 mainboard (and pay less too)?

not exactly external, but superior imo if you have a free 5.25 bay

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816215324