External storage - HDD or SSD?

[Encid]

I need some more storage space... another external drive.

I have several WD 1TB drives and they seem to work OK although they are a bit slow when transferring small files like Word documents and photographs etc.

 

I am considering purchasing an external SSD like the SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable SSD 250GB or the Samsung 250GB Portable SSD with USB 3.0 but am concerned that the RW speeds of the drive would be constrained by the USB interface. The adverts say that they work up to 4 times faster than conventional HDD's but how accurate is that?

I know, I could install an internal SSD but I need the portability.

 

Any suggestions or recommendations please?

[RichCor]

Might want to look at these TomsHardware forum posts:

 

Clarification of terminology: SSD vs M.2, vs PCIe vs. NVMe

 

SSD options- PCIe vs NVMe vs USB

 

NVME, eSATA SSD, are usually mounted internally and take take advantage of higher internal bus speed or number of available 'lanes' to the processor. USB will be your slowest option.

 

 

[shady86]

USB 3.0 will limit at around 400MB/s which is still much faster than portable HDD which is around 150MB/s.

For storage I will still recommend portable HDD or get a USB stick. 128GB cost the same as ssd now.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[lvr181]

SSD if you want speedy access or HDD for very cost effective storage.

[dotpoom]

How the times have moved on from the carrier pidgeon!

[Gary A]

I changed the hard drive in my desktop to an SSD. I took the original hard drive and put it into an Orico exclosure and use it for storage and backups.

[Richard-BKK]

If the extra cost of a SSD is no restriction, I would go for a SSD with USB… and SSD has as advantage that it doesn’t have any moving parts…

 

Say you’re working with your external storage and it accidentally falls from your desk… With a spinning HDD falling from your desk on the floor you can be sure you in for a new one, while with a SSD in a good external case you would not have any problems….

 

Also some modern external HDD/SSD cases have multiple interfaces, for example USB 3.0, eSATA and Thunderbolt... I have a StarTech external 2.5" HDD case that supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 (that is 10GB data transfer) and some mainboards already come standard with USB 3.1...

Edited June 17, 2017 by Richard-BKK

[Rob13]

 

SSD will  cost you more up front but will last longer. Overall you're better off getting a good quality  SSD. 

[misterphil]

I put a SSD in my Windows laptop and it boots up from cold in 30 seconds. 

 

Very pleased with the upgrade. 

[Encid]

Thanks everyone for all the replies so far.

 

A couple more questions... if I go for the USB SSD option how can I find out if my desktop computer's USB ports are USB 3.0? 

Are there any way of testing them to find out?

My concern is of course that I may not have USB 3.0 and even if I did spend the extra money on an SSD I might not get the performance claimed.

In other words, I may as well just buy a standard USB HDD.

 

2 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

One thing to be careful about with SSD - if it loses power (accidentally hitting the USB connector for example), there's a significant risk disk would be completely unreadable after that and in some cases can't even be formatted to be used again.

This worries me because we regularly have unscheduled backouts in our moobaan.

They vary in duration from a fraction of a second (which shuts the PC and modem down but not the refrigerator or digital clock) to several hours.

We never have any warning about when they will occur, but they happen about twice a month.

Would an SSD survive these?

[Rob13]

1 minute ago, Encid said:

 

A couple more questions... if I go for the USB SSD option how can I find out if my desktop computer's USB ports are USB 3.0? 

 

If you're using Windows, go into the device mangager. Click next to where it says USB or Universal Serial Bus.It should give you a list of usb ports and their ratings

[Encid]

OK... done that but I am none the wiser.

Any more suggestions?

 

The PC is an HP Pavilion 6185L about 5 years old.

 

[RichCor]

HP Pavilion p6185l Desktop PC Product Specifications

 

Front I/O ports

USB: 2
Headphone: 1
Microphone: 1

 

Back I/O ports

1. Coaxial SPDIF Out port.
2. Video Graphics Adapter port.
3. RJ45 Network (LAN)
4. Audio: Center/Subwoofer (yellow orange)
5. Audio: Rear Speaker Out (black)
6. Audio: Line In (light blue)
7. Audio: Line Out (lime)
8. Audio: Microphone (pink)
9. Side Speaker Out (gray)
10. USB 2.0: 4
11. DVI port

Edited June 17, 2017 by RichCor

[Rob13]

1 hour ago, Encid said:

The PC is an HP Pavilion 6185L about 5 years old.

 

 

 You're device mgr doesn't seem to be showing it. Google says you have USB 2.  

 

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01767857

[lvr181]

 

Have a look around your tower or laptop and identify the USB ports from this pic.

Edited June 17, 2017 by lvr181
Additional comment

[masuk]

6 hours ago, Encid said:

Thanks everyone for all the replies so far.

 

A couple more questions... if I go for the USB SSD option how can I find out if my desktop computer's USB ports are USB 3.0? 

Are there any way of testing them to find out?

My concern is of course that I may not have USB 3.0 and even if I did spend the extra money on an SSD I might not get the performance claimed.

In other words, I may as well just buy a standard USB HDD.

 

This worries me because we regularly have unscheduled backouts in our moobaan.

They vary in duration from a fraction of a second (which shuts the PC and modem down but not the refrigerator or digital clock) to several hours.

We never have any warning about when they will occur, but they happen about twice a month.

Would an SSD survive these?

Check the colour of the USB plug. If the strip inside is blue, then it's USB 3.0.   I backup regularly using a WD 1.0TB drive, and with USB 3.0 connected, it really moves fast.

[masuk]

oops.  I should have read the whole discussion.  Good photos Ivr 181

[DogNo1]

If you have an internal PCI slot available, you could put in a USB 3 adapter that would give you two USB 3ports out back.

[JaseTheBass]

Thanks everyone for all the replies so far.
 
A couple more questions... if I go for the USB SSD option how can I find out if my desktop computer's USB ports are USB 3.0? 
Are there any way of testing them to find out?
My concern is of course that I may not have USB 3.0 and even if I did spend the extra money on an SSD I might not get the performance claimed.
In other words, I may as well just buy a standard USB HDD.
 
This worries me because we regularly have unscheduled backouts in our moobaan.
They vary in duration from a fraction of a second (which shuts the PC and modem down but not the refrigerator or digital clock) to several hours.
We never have any warning about when they will occur, but they happen about twice a month.
Would an SSD survive these?

Buy a UPS.

Sent from my Cray II supercomputer

[mtls2005]

10 hours ago, DogNo1 said:

If you have an internal PCI slot available, you could put in a USB 3 adapter that would give you two USB 3ports out back.

 

This is probably the best advice for the OP's computer. It looks like the MB in that unit has three (3) PCI Express x1 slots, and a two (2) port USB 3.0 expansion card would be ~ 500 baht (max).

 

After that I might still stick with a portable, external mechanical HDD for back-up/portability given the local price difference per GB.

[Encid]

3 hours ago, JaseTheBass said:

Buy a UPS.

Very good suggestion.

I have been thinking about it for some time as the power outages must be having some adverse affect on my internal HDD as well.

I can get this one on Lazada for 1,690 baht - 1000VA/400W.

 

12 hours ago, DogNo1 said:

If you have an internal PCI slot available, you could put in a USB 3 adapter that would give you two USB 3ports out back.

Excellent idea.

I found this PCIE to USB 3.0 4 port adapter on Lazada for 540 baht.

 

So for just over 2,000 baht I will have upgraded my PC's ability to transfer data faster and safer, and not need to worry anymore about power outages.

I could also test the speed of my existing WD external USB drives, as all are USB 3.0.

What sort of speed increase could I expect?

Maybe an SSD would not be needed after all?

 

Thanks everyone for the helpful replies.

[JaseTheBass]

Excellent idea.
I found this PCIE to USB 3.0 4 port adapter on Lazada for 540 baht.
 
So for just over 2,000 baht I will have upgraded my PC's ability to transfer data faster and safer, and not need to worry anymore about power outages.
I could also test the speed of my existing WD external USB drives, as all are USB 3.0.
What sort of speed increase could I expect?
Maybe an SSD would not be needed after all?
 
Thanks everyone for the helpful replies.

Old fashioned HDDs will still be slow even with USB 3 connections.

Sent from my SM-T815Y using Tapatalk

[Jai Dee]

1 hour ago, Encid said:

I could also test the speed of my existing WD external USB drives, as all are USB 3.0.

What sort of speed increase could I expect?

 

Theoretical speed limits are as follows:

 

In bits per second:

• USB 1.1 = 12 Mbit/s
• Firefire 400 = 400 Mbit/s
• USB 2.0 = 480 Mbit/s
• FireWire 800 = 800 Mbit/s
• USB 3.0 = 5 Gbit/s
• USB 3.1 = 10 Gbit/s
• eSATA = Up to 6 Gbit/s (750 MB/s) right now as it depends on the internal SATA chip

In Bytes per second:

• USB 1.1 = 1.5 MB/s
• Firefire 400 = 50 MB/s
• USB 2.0 = 60 MB/s
• FireWire 800 = 100 MB/s
• USB 3.0 = 625 MB/s
• USB 3.1 = 1.21 GB/s
• eSATA = 750 MB/s

So you should see a marked improvement in RW operations by upgrading from USB 2.0 to 3.0.

 

However even if it falls far short of its theoretical specs, USB 3.0 is still far faster than its predecessor. In testing USB 3.0 reliably comes in at speeds nearly three times as fast as USB 2.0.

See here for more information.

[Encid]

Copying a folder containing 25 GB of data from the internal HDD via the USB 2.0 port to an external USB HDD I am getting around 21-23 MB/sec transfer rate.

 

 

But moving a folder containing about 17 GB from the external HDD via the USB 2.0 port to the internal HDD I am getting around 31-33 MB/sec transfer rate.

 

Edited June 18, 2017 by Encid

[Encid]

That move speed of 33 MB/sec dropped dramatically to about 3 MB/sec when moving pdf files.

 

 

Which drops further to less than 1 MB/sec when moving small txt files.

 

 

Which is exactly why I've been considering an SSD instead of a HDD.

 

Edited June 18, 2017 by Encid

[RichCor]

Suggest using a dedicated drive speedtest app.

 

There's the free LAN Speedtest (Lite) from totusoft.com I use to test network drive connections.

For local drive tests I suggest setting the file size to 40MB or larger for more accurate/repeatable test results.

[shady86]

That move speed of 33 MB/sec dropped dramatically to about 3 MB/sec when moving pdf files.
 

 
Which drops further to less than 1 MB/sec when moving small txt files.
 

 
Which is exactly why I've been considering an SSD instead of a HDD.
 

You won't see much improvements because your bottleneck is USB2.0 host (computer). I'd suggest you get a pci express USB 3.0 interface card or getting a new pc because there is not much you can do for current pc configuration.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[Encid]

27 minutes ago, RichCor said:

Suggest using a dedicated drive speedtest app.

 

There's the free LAN Speedtest (Lite) from totusoft.com I use to test network drive connections.

For local drive tests I suggest setting the file size to 40MB or larger for more accurate/repeatable test results.

Thanks for that link.

 

I gave it a try and here are the results for the external USB 1TB WD drive (via a USB 2.0 port):

 

Compared with this result for my internal 1TB Toshiba HDD:

 

 

4 minutes ago, shady86 said:

You won't see much improvements because your bottleneck is USB2.0 host (computer). I'd suggest you get a pci express USB 3.0 interface card or getting a new pc because there is not much you can do for current pc configuration.

Yes I'm convinced that I need to buy a PCIE USB 3.0 adapter card and also the UPS.

But I still need extra storage.

I still do not know if I would benefit from a USB 3.0 SSD or another USB 3.0 HDD.

 

2 hours ago, Jai Dee said:

However even if it falls far short of its theoretical specs, USB 3.0 is still far faster than its predecessor. In testing USB 3.0 reliably comes in at speeds nearly three times as fast as USB 2.0.

If that is the case then I should expect to see about 500 Mbps (62.5 MB/sec) write and about 825 Mbps (103 MB/sec) read speeds from my existing external HDD's.

Would that be realistic?

The SSD that I was looking at from Lazada was the SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable SSD 500GB USB 3.0 which claims rw speeds of 415/430 MB/sec.

[RichCor]

Copying/Moving 26,200 items creates a large overhead queue of the file system, smaller files especially being very inefficient use of system resources resulting in poor transfer rates.  

 

Here, move this grain of sand. Now this brick. Now these five individual grains of sand.

[Encid]

3 minutes ago, RichCor said:

Here, move this grain of sand. Now this brick. Now these five individual grains of sand.

I had to laugh at your ever-so-appropriate imagery Rich.

You are dead right!