Best external SSD for gaming 2025: top portable drives

The Samsung T9 Portable SSD is the company's current top-tier external SSD that packs in peak performance of up to 2,000MB/s – fast enough to transfer 2GB in one second. This makes it perfect for anyone needing to sling huge files back and forth to their external storage. All that performance also ensures you can very safely use this drive as an external Steam or other game library drive.

It's also available in capacities or 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB while being very small and tough thanks to a rubberized casing. It also offers hardware encryption for peace of mind.

Its speed is overkill for most buyers needs, with slower drives still able to deliver fast game load times and reasonably fast file transfers – and you are paying a for that extra speed – but if you absolutely need the best, the T9 delivers.

Get the full picture in our Samsung T9 review.

The Samsung Portable T7 Shield offers the same specs as the Samsung T7 in third place in our guide but adds the reassurance of a tougher, rubberised exterior and an IP65 water and dust resistance rating. If you're careful, you can save a little money and go for the non-Shield option but we'd choose the tougher drive every time.

The T7 Shield uses a USB 3.2 connection for sequential transfer speeds of up to 1,000MB/s read and 1,050MB/s write. That's fast enough for very quick file transfers and reliable gaming loading, if you want to use an external SSD for your Steam game library.

The extra protection of this drive won't protect it from a full submersion in water but it can withstand jets of water blasting at it and it's fully dust sealed. You will have to make sure you clean out the USB port before plugging it in, though, if the drive has gotten mucky.

Despite its budget tagline in our list here, the Samsung T7 is actually a very capable and fast external SSD option. Its USB-C 3.2 port can deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 1,000MB/s and 1,050MB/s respectively, which is fast enough to move a 1GB file to or from the drive in just one second. 

Meanwhile, the drive is also fast enough to deliver reliable game loading times, if you're looking for an external SSD that can be used to store your Steam/Epic game library, for instance. In-built hardware encryption also ensures your data is safe.

With its reasonably compact and pocketable design, this drive is also very portable and comes in capacities from 1TB to 4TB, so you've plenty of options for a huge amount of portable storage. Despite not being pitched as a ruggedized drive, this is still a tough little unit that will survive knocking around in a laptop bag quite happily.

If you want a little more peace of mind, though, the ruggedized version of this drive – the T7 Shield – is worth the extra few dollars but otherwise the standard T7 is a great choice.

If you're in need of as much storage as possible for as little money as possible, external hard drives are still the most cost effective option. The WD My port can be bought in capacities ranging from 1TB all the way up to 6TB (most SSDs top out at 4TB), with prices for each capacity comfortably lower than the equivalent SSD.

For instance, a 2TB WD My port costs around $85 whereas most 2TB SSDs are around $120, and the difference is even bigger for larger drives. A 4TB WD My port costs around $125 whereas most 4TB SSDs are around $250.

There are two big caveats with opting for a portable hard drive, though. For a start, this WD drive is slightly bigger and heavier than the likes of the Samsung T9, at 107 x 75 x 19mm and 208g compared to 88 x 60 x 14mm and 122g. Plus, it's far less resistant to damage. It will still survive falling off most tables but that's about the limit of its toughness.

Finally, there's speed to consider. With a maximum read/write speed of just 120MB/s this drive is almost exactly 10x slower than the Samsung T7, and 20x slower than the Samsung T9. That amounts to file transfers taking a lot longer but perhaps more importantly means this drive isn't well suited for storing games. You'll notice the sluggish load times trying to run your game library from a drive like this. Instead, it's best for slow-access bulk storage, though it's still fast enough for watching a 4K video direct from the drive, for instance.

We love the Sandisk Extreme Portable, which is now on V2 thanks to its continued popularity. Despite its small size of 2.07 x 3.97 inches, the Extreme Portable still packs a punch. Thanks to the NVMe drive under the hood, it's capable of swift sequential read and write speeds of 1,050MB/s and 1,000MB/s respectively.

It can also take a beating with two-meter drop protection, and IP55 water and dust resistance, making it the perfect travel companion for the best gaming laptop – not that we recommend chucking it around. We've used our original drive every single day for years, and have never once had any issues.

It connects via USB Type-C, although there's a Type-A adaptor included too. You can pick the drive up in capacities ranging from 500GB up to a whopping 4TB, and sizes from 1TB now come in two funky blue colorways. It truly is portable and is designed with a hole in the corner so that you can clip it onto your keys or a bag. 

The Lexar Blaze SL660 is the perfect choice for you if you want a dedicated portable gaming SSD. Compatible with PC, as well as PS5, PS4, and Xbox, it's a versatile drive that combines reliability and performance with a great price. It's not the fastest SSD in this guide, but the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 ensures fast read and write speeds.

Like the Asus ROG Strix Arion below, the Blaze has a gorgeous RGB design. At just 2.5 inches wide, it also boasts a truly portable form factor, comes with a detachable stand for added functionality, and its aluminum construction ensures protection from shock and drops. Security-wise, it offers 256-bit AES encryption software solution to protect your data.

The downside of the Lexar Blaze SL660 gaming SSD is that it needs a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 connection to get the best performance. The capacity also maxes out at 1TB, which may be too low for some, but if you want a truly portable SSD to complement a larger hard drive, this might not be a problem.

The Xbox Series X / S won't allow you to install and play current generation games on any random external SSD, instead making use of the expansion slot on the rear of the console.

Seagate's NVMe is currently the only model that fits into Microsoft's proprietary port and offers read and write speeds identical to the console's internal NVMe solid-state drive. There's no USB connection, however, so this is solely an external SSD for the latest Xbox consoles rather than one for your PC.