how does an external hard drive work. I would like to speed up my computer for gaming will this help me.?

Question

What is the cost

GOOD ANSWERS THANKS

Answer 1

I don't think so. I look at an external hard drive as mostly for storage and backups. If you want to increase speed, you have to keep open programs to a minimum, lose the wallpaper and screensavers, run Disk Cleanup, Scandisk, and defrag regularly, etc. Let me give you my list:

- Many users are not aware of how much RAM is used by wallpaper and/or a screensaver full of graphics. They run in the background and consume memory. (I have only 512mb RAM, run multiple programs simultaneously, and have set my wallpaper and screensaver to blank.)

I don’t do games, but I do know they are primarily graphics which need and use a lot of memory.

- How many programs do you load at startup? Maybe you should check it out and ensure you are running just what you need.
To do this: cl Start, cl Settings, cl Taskbar and Start Menu.
- cl Start Menu, cl Customize, cl Remove.
- cl the icon for the program you wish to remove
- then cl Remove.
- This will prevent the program from loading at startup, but will not remove the program from the hard disk.

- When you are working in a large file, save frequently to restore full memory access. (Your work remains in memory until you “save” it to disk.)

1. Did you run an error check? Open My Computer,
Right-cl on C:, Select Properties, Tools – Run an Error Check ( checkmark “check all and fix); then run a Defrag

2. Are you using Yahoo Toolbar? Run a full Norton Antispy.

3. From IE, click Tools, Internet Options
delete cookies
delete files (offline files)
clear history (set days to save to 0 if you want)
click o.k., and Restart

3. click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools – run Disk Cleanup

4. click Start, Run ipconfig renew (type ipconfig space renew)

All these things should be done regularly. The more frequently they are run, the less time they take.
- Note: Games and videos are mostly graphics. Graphics create large files. If this doesn’t help, you should consider getting more memory.
- A good web site to visit: http://www.theonlinefamily.net/organize/spring_clean_computer/index.html

Answer 2

Of all the things you can do to make your computer faster for gaming, the one that will help you the least is an external hard drive. A hard drive is just storage space for your files. It's possible that you could get an external drive, move 90% of your files over there, and then defragment your original hard drive, and that MIGHT make gaming a LITTLE faster. But it's really not worth the effort.

Faster gaming means more memory (RAM), and a better video card. You really need at LEAST 1 gigabyte of memory to do any real gaming, and the more the better. As for video cards, they make some really amazing (and really expensive) cards these days. If your computer if more than a year or two old, and you're looking for really fast gaming, you should look into getting a new video card and more RAM.

Answer 3

No an external hard drive will not help at all. It would simply be used for storage. The best way to speed up your comp for gaming is buying more RAM and buying a new video card. Another way would be to buy a better processor but that's much more expensive and more confusing to install than RAM or a video card. Check out www.tigerdirect.com for pretty cheap brand name computer stuff.

Answer 4

No an external hard drive would speed your computer up for gaming, what you need is a faster processor card which can get pretty pricey from like $50 (for a slow one) - over $400 (for fast ones). it depends on how fast you would like it to be and what your price range is. If you can play games like call of duty for the computer then i would just stick with the processor you have now.

A external hard is so you can have a lot of memory transported from like work to home. Its portable computer memory and they range to 50 dollars to 400 dollars. depend on how much memory you want.

Answer 5

External hard drives are slower and more expensive than one that goes inside. They work thru your USB port. So I don't think it will help your gaming.