external ssd ?

war2k10

Well i want to have an ssd for gaming with a laptop but do want to have it a the os drive soo can ya get an external one or how would i make one ?

Monotype

Is it that you do not want it as the OS drive?

Why not have it as an OS drive? Too much trouble to reinstall and you have large amounts of data? You really get the best out of the drive by using it as an OS drive - lots of random reads which SSDs are very quick at. For games, there's not so many random reads but you do get the benefit of the raw high speed for large amounts of data.

If you were to use it as an external drive, you could get an enclosure. Does your laptop have USB 3 or eSATA? You would want one or the other to get high speed out of an SSD. USB 2 is too slow.

You can get add in express cards to give yourself USB 3 if you don't already have it. Express cards can tie in either to the PCI-E bus or USB. If it connects the the PCI-E bus, it's good as you'll get a high speed but otherwise, you'll only get USB 2 speeds. That depends on the laptop though and is not something that's advertised even the the specification sheets.
Alternatives are that you can get an SSD in the form of an express card or other ones in as mini PCI-E cards. These wouldn't be as good as mainstream SSDs and are really for extra storage to benefit from low access times rather than blazing fast transfer speeds.

vibe666

Quite a few of the current gen ssd's have a USB connector as well as a sata one so you can just use a USB cable, not even any need for external power as USB is enough.

Or you could get a hdd caddy that fits in your DVD drive bay and put it in that.

war2k10

Well i have a dell xps 15z soo i have usb 3.0. And it's not that i dont want it as my os drive it just there a lot of money for a good sized one and they only go up to 512gb like do ya think i should spend that much ? by the way im looking at a intel one http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ssd/20157091/intel_330_series_120gb_2_5_sata600/details.aspx

vibe666

for convenience, you might want to consider getting one of these to put it in if you don't use your DVD drive that often: http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=328

as for size, do you really need a 512gb drive just to load games onto?

how many games do you play on a regular basis that need ultra fast load times? you could probably manage with just a 64gb or 128gb drive until prices come down further on them?

Monotype

512GB is a bit of a waste of money.

You can get the Samsung 830 128GB for €99
http://www.dabs.ie/products/samsung-128gb-830-series-sata-6gb-s-2-5--ssd-laptop-kit---free-norton-ghost-15-7SR9.html?src=2
Very good drive and despite Intel's great reliability for SSDs, I'd probably take the Samsung anyway as it still retains high quality.

or the Samsung 830 256GB for around the €185 mark (it's moving up and down and there'll be a small bit of extra VAT on the shown cost here).
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-2-5inch-Notebook-Accessory-Norton/dp/B005OK6VLS

Skylinehead

Best thing to do is get a 128GB SSD, replace the HDD in the laptop, and get a caddy so you can connect the old HDD via USB.

war2k10

noo the 512gb ssd would be for an os drive if i was getting an ssd for it, 128gb ssd would loads for games and then when the price drops i get a 512gb one