I have a 2017 iMac that otherwise meets minimum requirements or better, but it only has internal and external HDs. Will Shadowlands launch and run from an external SSD, or does it have to be internal? (This is my first experience with SSDs, so no apologies for being an utter noob about it.)
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WoW will run from an external drive, albeit slower than an internal drive assuming the same drive type (obviously a platter drive is slower than an SSD).
You can test it out now merely by installing WoW to your existing external drive and pointing the launcher to that location for launching the game.
I have WoW on a second internal drive. WoW does not have to be installed in the Applications folder of your main drive, it just defaults to that location. You can tell it to install to a different location.
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Thank you!
Great question, Pelagius. I came to ask the same one!
I run WoW on a slightly older version of your iMac (mine is from 2015), and it mostly runs BfA well, though the initial load times when I log-in are just short of miserable. This worries me a bit for Shadowlands, especially given the SSD āminimum requirementā update.
But before I go ahead and buy an external SSD (which is a much cheaper alternative for me than buying a new Mac, since my current iMac does everything else I need just fine), has anyone tried running WoW from an external drive?
My concern is that the the additional data transfer times that will occur due to the drive being external will simply negate any speed upgrade the SSD brings over my current, internal SATA disk. Iād hate to drop $100-$150 on an external SSD just to find that Iām ultimately getting the same results, in-game.
Thanks, in advance, for any wisdom!
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I run BFA on my Samsung T5 external SSD over USB on my late 2013 iMac and it work great, much better than from the fusion drive.
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it will depend greatly on how you connect the external SSD to your iMac.
and in lesser part on the type of SSD
the faster the interface the smaller the bottleneck
connection: TB3 > TB2 >= USB3 > USB2
SSD: nvme > sata3
lowest speed in chain will always be your max transfer speed
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Thank you! Thatās exactly the kind of specific thing Iām glad to know.
I am running the SL beta on a 2018 Mac mini and my user drive is a Samsung SSD T5 connected via USB-C and I have no problems at all. I only use the internal SSD for the Mac OS and thatās it.
I have a late 2013 iMac. I think Iām going to go with the Samsung T7 external ssd to put WoW on. It seems to actually be cheaper than the T5 now. I donāt think the it actually be much faster, if at all than the T5, since its going to be connected to a usb 3.0 but a newer ssd for a lower price seems to be the way to go. Has anyone tried running WoW on the T7 with a Mac?
I came to ask that same question, as a $2000-$5000 new computer is not happening any time soon. (Youāve chosen a terrible time to bump up your requirements beyond many Mac userās capabilities at a very BAD time, Blizz.) I have a late 2013 Mac, and it does just fine for everything else. Load times have always been miserable. Soā¦ consensus is an external SSD will work?
before my 2013 imac died i was using an external ssd via usb. booting into that and bypassing that awful slow hdd. it made the computer feel new again and Wow loaded faster as well.
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I have a samsung T5 SSD connected to my late 2013 iMac via USB, loading times are significantly faster, only a few seconds
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Before my current Mac I was running Battle for Azeroth on a Mac Mini with a regular spinning hard drive. When I would teleport to Dalaran it would take about 40 seconds for the screen to appear. I went to a simple external SSD via USB on the same Mac Mini and Dalaran would consistently load in about 10 seconds. Thatās a regular SSD with a simple USB connection. Any SSD, internal or external, is going to drastically improve gameplay going from a traditional hard drive.
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Hey all,
Just as a reminder, while SSD are recommended as minimum it is not required by any means. Any HDD will still work for the game. Just keep in mind the slower the drive the longer the loading screens will be!
More info on the most up to date system requirements can be found here.
Side note for OP, any external drive is fine to use! Just make sure itās either Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 (or higher). USB 2.0 would be a pretty massive downgrade even for most older HDD. This does mean the port on the computer itself needs to also be 3.0 or higher not just the drive.
Edit: The drive will also need to be NTFS for Windows, or APFS for Mac. Both systems come with built in formatting tools. Contact Microsoft or Apple support for the operating system for assistance with formatting drives using their tools!
More info on USB transfer speeds.
More info on Thunderbolt transfer speeds.
Hope the info helps. Cheers!
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Note: APFS is only required for Mojave or later. You can still use HFS+ if you are on Sierra or High Sierra. In fact, for those two OSes itās prudent that you do use HFS+ as APFS at that time was still insanely buggy and a far cry from APFS in 10.14 and beyond.
Also playing on an external SSD with exFAT. Should I format to NTFS?
Youāre posting in a Mac forum.
NTFS is only used by Windows.
exFAT is best suited for storage only. If you are running applications from an external drive, you would want it formatted in NTFS if running Windows or MacOS Extended (non-SSD drives) or APFS (SSD drives) if running OSX.
Itās almost 2021 my dude
Yes, it will run from an external SSD just fine, you just have to move the files from the WoW folder in its entirety, to the SSD (for simplicity sake, I recommend creating an /Applications folder on the external SSD to mimic the boot drive, but this is personal preference), and then relaunch b.net app and click the thing next to Install that says āLocate Gameā and point it to the SSD volume/path.
Thank you to all for information on topic. Have a late 2015 27" iMac that was seriously struggling. Between upgrading to 32GB ram and adding a 500GB SSD, the game plays better than it ever has on this machine. Just wish graphics card was a little better. 
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