then its not sutable for running software of any kind... they are only for storage and the speed of the drive becomes irrelevant because its the USB port that runs these type of hardware and they drop in and out all the tiime
That's not accurate.
![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/aROlA7Z.png)
A HDD on a SATA interface has a transfer rate of 100 MBps–200 MBps. The lowest quality USB 3.1 Generation 1 interface is 3 to 4 times faster than that. Plus you still get the faster access time and read write speeds of the SSD.
So a Baseline SSD, on a Baseline 3.1 USB gen 1 cable, will still wildly outperform any HDD.
Plenty of people run games on external SSD's and can attest to how much better they are for loading speeds and framerates.
Please don't tell people they will be "fine with an HDD" - you are setting them up for disappointment.