WoW on a external Hard Drive

[Nohara]

I have a question. I play WoW on a late 2009 iMac, which still runs awesomely well, but, there are a few things. My internal build harddrive tends to get very hot when playing WoW. This has always been the case, but I'd like to extend my iMac's time as much as I can. So, my idea is playing WoW on a external hard drive. Unfortunatly, the iMac doesn't have a USB 3.0 slot. That said, it does have a Firewire 800 slot. Now, I could have tested this myself, but today my Firewire external HDD actually broke (click click click screeeeech click click bzzzt screech is all it does), so, that one is kind of unuseable.

There arent many Firewire 800 external drives out there, so they are a bit on the expensive side. So if there would be no difference (in WoW) between USB 2.0 and Firewire 800, the first one is probably cheaper. So, will it increase loading times a lot trough USB 2.0 or FW800? Does it matter if the drive is 5400 or 7200 RPM.

I prefer a external HDD with a power adapter and perhaps cooling, as long as it isn't loud. Moneys is not really an issue, but 1-2 TB below 200 euro would be the maximum I'd like to spend.

[fu7ure]

You shouldn't see a huge performance difference when running on an external hard drive. Loading times will be pretty rough, but other than that the actual functionality of the game should be no different.

I have one of the first generation MBPr and a Thunderbolt drive that I run the game off of. I purposely installed WoW on the Thunderbolt drive because I wanted to run benchmarks on different Macs to see which would give ideal performance. Unfortunately, almost all of them heat up quickly and its only a few minutes before the fans are at full blast, even in the most idle of areas.

I honestly don't know what the difference in performance would be between USB 2 and Firewire 800, but I do know that regardless of how you configure it that you're going to run into heat issues. If money is no issue then I'd suggest getting a 7200 external hard drive because that definitely will make a difference in how long it takes for the drive to respond to the commands coming from the machine, and I know that there are still external hard drives available that have both USB and Firewire ports.

Also, even though you said money isn't an issue, it's pretty much a waste to get a drive that needs an external power source and one of those monstrous metal enclosures. You're still going to deal with heat, the drive is still going to fail sooner than later because you're putting so much stress on it, and the time it takes for you to end up having to purchase another drive will be so minimal you probably won't even notice.

Blizzard is awesome when it comes to running games off of external media. I managed to get Diablo 3 to run off of a 6th Gen iPod Nano and multiple flash drives. Same with Starcraft 2, ran just fine on an old 5400 USB 2 external hard drive I rarely used. As long as your machine can handle the rendering and all that, and from what I understand about the 2009 iMacs they can, you shouldn't have too many issues.

[Nohara]

Thanks for the quick response. At least now I can be 100% sure it will work trough a external HDD, and I will be going for FW800 then (I found on wikipedia that FW800 is almost tripple the actual speed). After a bit of googling, I found a G-Drive 2TB gen 6 at 7200 RPM at exactly 200 euro, but it has an external power supply. It wouldnt bother me if it isnt mobile, it will never leave my desk. The idea behind the external power supply is a little less stress on the build in power unit in the iMac self, another part that gets quiet hot.

I'm not sure how much a firewire 800 drive pulls from the power unit, so if it's really that non important, it may indeed be wise to simply buy a cheaper USB charged drive. Before I spend 150-200 euro, I shall google and research some more. Thanks again for the quick answer.

[Master Guns]

I run all games via USB 3.0 external hdd. No issues at all.

[Wries]

USB 2.0 will absolutely bottleneck some and furthermore drag down loading times. Throughput of USB 2.0 drives are usually around 40MB/s, if lucky. Firewire 800s actual throughput would be about 80MB/s. (Keep in mind I'm talking real-world performance here so don't quote me math derived from their theoretical 480mbps vs 800mbps)

But it will certainly be playable regardless. It's rather about the quality of the experience that you want.

This thing about your internal hard drive overheating. What temperature is it running at? Remember that as a system disk it will likely be on and accessed regardless of whether or not you have WoW on it. It might also be hot because components around are heating up, and will remain hot even after you've moved WoW away from it.

To make a bit of a rant. I can't believe someone would design a computer without an easy way for the user to switch out the hard drive. Essentially guaranteeing random failure at some point. At least there is a way, although overly complicated and scary.

[lockblock]

Have you attempted putting a new drive inside the firewire enclosure? It's safe to assume it uses a standard 2.5 or 3.5" drive like just about every other external drive.

[fixx]

It will work, but loading times especially if you have many addons will be hell through USB2. It can take several minutes to load busy cities. Firewire and USB3 are ten times better.

[Vermicious]

Another thing to consider: Get a SSD drive for your iMac. They don't heat up nearly as much, and would put new life in your computer for a reasonable price. You can get a 256MB SSD for ~$100 nowadays. Crucial MX100 is a good model to look at if you're on a budget.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...CE&Pagesize=30

Buying a new drive for your external enclosure would be pretty cheap too, you can get 2TB for under $100. Look for Western Digital Blue.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-339-_-Product 1TB

Edit: Oops sorry didn't see the EURO mentioned before, but the recommendations are the same

[skitszo]

Thats what i would do: get a SSD and run that as your main hard drive and install your OS on it. the hard drive you have now you can use as your external data disk.

The 256GB SSD'd are getting to be only 100 dollars now.
Definately don't get a 5400 speed mechanical over a 7200.

[Vermicious]

Thats what i would do: get a SSD and run that as your main hard drive and install your OS on it. the hard drive you have now you can use as your external data disk.

Doh, yeah you can use the drive from the iMac as a new external drive. Save even more money you can use on a larger SSD

If you're wondering how to install an SSD, here's a video you can watch to find out how, it's fairly easy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJHMQlvPEz0