Also is it possible to download anything from the marketplace directly on to your USB Drive?
My 120 GB HDD is full with a max amount of 1000 seperate saves. I'm using a 32 GB USB stick to save the rest. I have my reasons on keeping individual saves.
I find that patch 1.8 however loads my saves pretty quick especially when I have Skyrim, Dawnguard, and Hearthfire installed on there.