None. Too slow if small usb 2.0 or 3.0 flash drive as most are around 50 MB/s or less about the same as SD cards.

For games you want at least HDD speeds so like 100-200 MB/s or higher.

External 1, 2 or 4 TB SSD are cheap

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6S44K2Z

any flash is slow
usb is going to be slower

pick up an external ssd for storage, that will be limited by the usb connection rather than its storage

1tb 2.5 sata ssd is ~$50
or 500g for $25-30

and usb 3.0 2.5in sata enclosure is around $10
https://www.amazon.com/POSUGEAR-External-Enclosure-Tool-Free-Compatible/dp/B0C9TGY9XG

or for m.2 nvme (m key or b+m key)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DT6LZ8BS/

If USB DRIVE or enclosure make sure it fully supports USB 3.2 or even 4.0

3.0 is much too limiting

its really simple.....any drive running a real USB-C port at 20gb or over will work fine......if you dont have USB C i would find another way to add storage

Western digital blue hdd goes 125 megabyte per second in a usb enclosure

Originally posted by smokerob79:

its really simple.....any drive running a real USB-C port at 20gb or over will work fine......if you dont have USB C i would find another way to add storage

its not speed limited, its iops limiting
single file can be copied much faster than many small files

Best bet is not toe yourself to a usb flash drive. Get a mini USB pen sized card reader and you can swap out Micro SD cards.

For running Ganes, get a M2 External Enclosure that supports USB 3.2 and NVME up to 4 or 8 TB. It should have USB Type-C on the Enclosure Side for connectivity, M2 NVME inside and then just install a cheap priced nvme ssd

Best bet will be to read up on some higher end Flash Drive reviews. You can find some out there that will work. Years ago, when a 128GB SSD cost as much as a 500GB HDD or more, I picked up a pretty high end Mushkin Flash Drive that had IOPS and Sequential Transfer speeds that were higher than a HDD, but only about 2/3 of the then common SATA SSD's. Still being 2/3 of the way to an SSD, it was still plenty fast. I used it as a steam install drive for 5 years, plus another 5 as a flash drive before it went into read-only mode from failure.

You will pay a premium for such drives through. Back then such drives on a per-GB basis were cheaper than an SSD but more than a HDD.

Despite what allot of people here are saying, most steam games will do fine on flash. If they didnt, it would not be the go to option for expansion on the Steam Deck. I run an AP2 512GB card in my steam deck personally.

If you are really worried, just get a USB3/USB-c SD/MicroSD atapter and run App Class 2 cards. Those will have a certified IOPS speed that is usable for live-time run programs.

https://www.sdcard.org/developers/sd-standard-overview/application-performance-class/

For context, a properly performing AP2 class Micro SD should put up comparable performance to common SSD's of 10-15 years ago. Not amazing by todays standards, but far above a HDD and well within the performance standards of any game outside of those using high end data streaming (which typically now days specifcy requiring an NVMe or similar).

(source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOPS - 4k Iops for AP2 is roughly in line with sustained IOPS testing on an Intel x25 from 2010).

Higher end flash drives make zero sense today because their size is small and SSDs that are 100X faster have come WAY DOWN in pricing.

You'll easily spend about the same for a high performance flash drive that's only maybe 256-512 GB versus a 10-100X faster SSD of around 1TB

There are plenty of light weight, compact NVME ssd choices

he maybe stuck on a laptop with a single drive bay......

Originally posted by smokerob79:

he maybe stuck on a laptop with a single drive bay......

And? So what's wrong with NVME SSDs via USB?

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

None. Too slow if small usb 2.0 or 3.0 flash drive as most are around 50 MB/s or less about the same as SD cards.

For games you want at least HDD speeds so like 100-200 MB/s or higher.

External 1, 2 or 4 TB SSD are cheap

{LINK REMOVED}https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6S44K2Z

Is 400mbps read speed enough for a flash drive

That's not a flash drive that's a usb ssd. They do have pen drive sized ssds now as they are basically tiny M2 ssd inside.

Do you have a link to what you are looking at.


Usb flash drives below 100 MB/s are best as os media installers or tech tools or a live Linux boot drive. Or just for transferring files or offloading documents and such. Never good for installing things to and running things off of them such as Apps or Games.

The best bet really is buy an external enclosure that supports regular M2 NVME drives up to the 2280 size and storage size of 4 o8 TB for their max support. And that it connects using USB Type-C 3.1 or later spec. This will allow you to choose from a long list of available M2 NVME SSDs to use via USB. I even use one like that for my Phone when I travel or going to out for a whole day or weekend or something. Very nice to have and if something does not have Type-C port such as a Desktop PC or okder Laptop you can buy a Type-C to Type-A cable

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

That's not a flash drive that's a usb ssd. They do have pen drive sized ssds now as they are basically tiny M2 ssd inside.

Do you have a link to what you are looking at.


Usb flash drives below 100 MB/s are best as os media installers or tech tools or a live Linux boot drive. Or just for transferring files or offloading documents and such. Never good for installing things to and running things off of them such as Apps or Games.

The best bet really is buy an external enclosure that supports regular M2 NVME drives up to the 2280 size and storage size of 4 o8 TB for their max support. And that it connects using USB Type-C 3.1 or later spec. This will allow you to choose from a long list of available M2 NVME SSDs to use via USB. I even use one like that for my Phone when I travel or going to out for a whole day or weekend or something. Very nice to have and if something does not have Type-C port such as a Desktop PC or okder Laptop you can buy a Type-C to Type-A cable

It's a 3.2 flash drive from sandisk

{LINK REMOVED}https://a.co/d/623tM7O


I don't know why the link is removed but just Google " SanDisk 128GB Ultra Luxe USB Type-C Flash Drive - Up to 400MB/s, USB 3.2 Gen 1, Premium Metal Design - SDCZ75-128G-G46 " and you will find it in amazon


128gb is around 15$