Quick google search shows SATA internal hard drive connection being 6 gbs with USB 3 . 0 being 5 . 1 both connection speeds being WAY higher than the read speeds of any hard drive , so the connector doesn ' t matter . But the biggest thing you also have to factor in the fact the internal drive is 5400 RPM I think . While an external could be 5400 , 7200 , or a wide variety of SSD . 7200 RPM drives read speeds are somewhere between 50 mbs and 120 . SSDs speeds are all over the place , but are typically better than most RPM hard drive , especially if you spend a little extra . So , in short , yes an external would be better than the internal , since the drives aren ' t capped by their connector but the device itself . The main advantage of having an external is games load from there , while the OS and pergamecache is on the internal , so you don ' t have the game and OS fighting for the same hard drive resources .