Portable SSD + USB 3.0 vs HDD

[Woody1999]

Just a thought I had.

My brain always connects USB things with slow data transfer, but with the recent USB 3.0 I guess it has got better. I was thinking though, would a portable SSD (do they exist outside of flash drives?) and a USB 3.0 connection still be faster than, say, a typical WD Black hard drive?

Woody

 

[USAFRet]

What are you using this for?

 

[Jonas Magnusson]

Ssd's are faster than hdd's but don't have a big storage capacity.

 

[Woody1999]

I don't own any of this, I was just curious. I've never really seen a portable SSD so was wondering if the USB would slow it down.

Woody

 

[casper1973]

Portable SSD's exist. I use one almost every day in my work. Wipes the floor with any portable HDD in terms of performance. It's also much more robust since there is no moving parts (ie. I can throw it around a lot more)

USB3 is far from slow. It's rated at 5Gbps. Consider SATA3 rated at 6Gbps so it's not much less. eSATA will give you better results for raw performance, but the difference isn't huge and USB3 is more widely supported.


It generally works out a lot cheaper to go 'DIY' with a portable SSD. Buy a SSD and fit into an enclosure something like this - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker%C2%AE-Drive-External-Enclosure-9-5mm/dp/B00KCEY3WU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1422488363&sr=8-5&keywords=ssd+enclosure

 

[sora]

Just a thought I had.

My brain always connects USB things with slow data transfer, but with the recent USB 3.0 I guess it has got better. I was thinking though, would a portable SSD (do they exist outside of flash drives?) and a USB 3.0 connection still be faster than, say, a typical WD Black hard drive?

Woody

In my opinion it should be faster, especially since a solid state drive operates faster.

 

[USAFRet]

Again, what might this be used for? Sometimes, the 'speed' does not matter.