Question Slow transfer speed with M.2 SSD in an external enclosure ?

[emitfudd]

I purchased a Sabrent EC-SNVE external SSD enclosure. I also purchased a Crucial P3 500 GB M.2 SSD. When the Sabrent enclosure arrived I realized it only came with a USB C cable. My PC doesn't have a USB C port so I ordered an adapter. It is a Ugreen USB to USB C adapter. Everything is rated at 10GB. I initialized the SSD, made sure it is online, formatted it, etc. I am not getting better than 40MB transfer speed. My PC case is a Corsair 780T. It has 2 USB 2.0 slots and 2 USB super speed ports that as far as I know are rated at 5GB.

Why am I only getting USB 2.0 transfer speed? I have tried all 4 ports. I did notice it will start at above 2GB transfer speed and then drop down to 40MB. I have made sure better performance and write caching are enabled in device manager. I have also had some odd issues pop up. At one point my monitor turned gray and completely blank. I had to restart. Another time I chose to eject Sabrent and it said it was still in use even though it wasn't. I unplugged it anyways and my PC restarted. Something is off here. Did I get a dud?

 

[helpstar]

EDIT:

How did you measure the speed? By transfer speed you mean what exactly? random read, write or sequential read or write ?

update usb and chipset drivers
update BIOS of motherboard
your P3 itself could be the problem, check for firmware updates

the cache after 64GB of transfer would be full and the SSD would go with about 480Mbit

try a differen usb cable without adapter: USB-A to USB-C, be sure it´s an USB 3.2 gen2 data cable

40MegaByte or Megabit?

above 2GB would be 16Gigabit/s, fastest speed would be about 3Gbit

keep in mind, that your SSD could get hot in a short time and would throttle
or while copying/moving files which are small, the transfer speed would also not be really high

 

[emitfudd]

How did you measure the speed? By transfer speed you mean what exactly? random read, write or sequential read or write ?

update usb and chipset drivers

try a differen usb cable without adapter: USB-A to USB-C, be sure it´s an USB 3.2 gen2 data cable

40MegaByte or Megabit?

I measured the speed by the box that pops up on the screen when you start the transfer. It fluctuated between 39 to 40.8 megaBYTES. I have read USB 2.0 should be capable of up to 60MB but 40MB is common. I am using the cable that came with the enclosure. I can't try it without the adapter because I don't have a USB C port on my PC. But the adapter is rated at 10GB.

Something I thought of, the enclosure says it is a 3.2. My PC has no ports better than 3.0 I don't think. The case is from 2017. I would still think it would be backwards compatible and 3.0 has to be faster than 40MB?

 

[Aeacus]

I did notice it will start at above 2GB transfer speed and then drop down to 40MB.

Completely normal for DRAM-less SSD, which your Crucial drive is.
Review: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crucial-p3-ssd-review

What is DRAM-less SSD? A short video to watch:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybIXsrLCgdM

the enclosure says it is a 3.2.

That doesn't tell nothing.

Is it USB 3.2 Gen1
Is it USB 3.2 Gen2
Is it USB 3.2 Gen2x2
?

Since USB 3.2 Gen1 = USB 3.0.
Same up to 5 Gbps transfer speeds.

and 3.0 has to be faster than 40MB?

USB 3.0 (or USB 3.2 Gen1) has up to 5 Gbps transfer speeds. Which = 625 MB/s.

 

[emitfudd]

Completely normal for DRAM-less SSD, which your Crucial drive is.
Review: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crucial-p3-ssd-review

What is DRAM-less SSD? A short video to watch:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybIXsrLCgdM



That doesn't tell nothing.

Is it USB 3.2 Gen1
Is it USB 3.2 Gen2
Is it USB 3.2 Gen2x2
?

Since USB 3.2 Gen1 = USB 3.0.
Same up to 5 Gbps transfer speeds.


USB 3.0 (or USB 3.2 Gen1) has up to 5 Gbps transfer speeds. Which = 625 MB/s.

The product page says this:

"SPEED: USB 3.2 supports data transmission speeds of up to 10Gbps for steady and efficient data transfer. Backward compatible with USB 3.1 and USB 3.0 at respective speed limits."

It doesn't say what gen. It does say USB 3.2 type C if that matters.

I am still confused. The review you linked says the Crucial P3 is rated at 3500 read/ 1900 write. 40 is a far cry from that.

 

[emitfudd]

This sucks because I could have used my 20 year old Seagate HDD external enclosure instead of spending the money on these products.

 

[USAFRet]

I am still confused. The review you linked says the Crucial P3 is rated at 3500 read/ 1900 write. 40 is a far cry from that.

"DRAM-less"

Sustained speed is NOT a concept with drives like this.

Once the internal cache is full, it slows WAY down.

And this is something they purposely do not advertise. All they tell you is the big initial sequential numbers. Better for advertising.

And for your use....dramless drive, multiple USB adapters and cables and enclosures....what you see is what you get.

 

[USAFRet]

This sucks because I could have used my 20 year old Seagate HDD external enclosure instead of spending the money on these products.

That SSD is good in burst applications .
Short file transfers would be far better than to your HDD.

 

[Aeacus]

SPEED: USB 3.2 supports data transmission speeds of up to 10Gbps

Then it's USB 3.2 Gen2.
USB revisions explained: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/usb-3-2-explained

I am still confused. The review you linked says the Crucial P3 is rated at 3500 read/ 1900 write. 40 is a far cry from that.

Do note that 3500/1900 read/write are peak performance and not sustained.

It's like when you game and you say that the highest FPS you'll get, is 200 FPS, while in reality, average FPS is 60. That's a huge diff.

As of your issue, my concern is about the enclosure itself. Usually, USB enclosures have poor speeds, regardless the drive you use in it. And USB cables may have their rated value printed higher than actual bandwidth is.

But on the flip side, DRAM-less SSD is cheap. So, a win for the wallet?

 

[emitfudd]

EDIT:

How did you measure the speed? By transfer speed you mean what exactly? random read, write or sequential read or write ?

update usb and chipset drivers
update BIOS of motherboard
your P3 itself could be the problem, check for firmware updates

the cache after 64GB of transfer would be full and the SSD would go with about 480Mbit

try a differen usb cable without adapter: USB-A to USB-C, be sure it´s an USB 3.2 gen2 data cable

40MegaByte or Megabit?

above 2GB would be 16Gigabit/s, fastest speed would be about 3Gbit

keep in mind, that your SSD could get hot in a short time and would throttle
or while copying/moving files which are small, the transfer speed would also not be really high

I was transferring 70GB worth of files. The enclosure barely got warm enough to notice. Reiterating I can't try a different cable. I am using the one that came with the enclosure and I don't have a USB C port on my PC so I have to use the adapter BUT it is also rated at 10Gbps. I will check for firmware updates. My internal Samsung 980 Pro's run at normal speeds so would a BIOS update make any difference here?

 

[emitfudd]

If the enclosure is the issue that is sad. I bought it on Amazon with a 4.6 star rating across 13K reviews. I also googled best external enclosures and this model came up as the best option for most people. I expected more but at this point it doesn't matter. It took 1/2 hr to transfer the files I just needed to back up some stuff.

 

[Aeacus]

My internal Samsung 980 Pro's run at normal speeds

Now i wonder 🤔 , you have PCI-E Gen4 drives on your MoBo. If so, your MoBo supports PCI-E Gen4 M.2 slots? And if so, does your MoBo back I/O panel has USB type-C port? Since your MoBo would be relatively new and it should have type-C port back there. (Heck, even my old Z170 chipset MoBo, that has PCI-E Gen3 M.2 slots, has one type-C connector on the back I/O.)

I bought it on Amazon with a 4.6 star rating across 13K reviews.

One can not trust retail customer feedback.

E.g Apevia Galaxy PSU has nice 4.4 rating on amazon,
link: https://www.amazon.com/Apevia-ATX-GX650W-Galaxy-Certified-Semi-Modular/dp/B094278HKG

Would you buy that PSU? If not, then why not?

 

[USAFRet]

One can not trust retail customer feedback.

QFT.

Amazon user reviews are worse than useless.

 

[emitfudd]

Now i wonder 🤔 , you have PCI-E Gen4 drives on your MoBo. If so, your MoBo supports PCI-E Gen4 M.2 slots? And if so, does your MoBo back I/O panel has USB type-C port? Since your MoBo would be relatively new and it should have type-C port back there. (Heck, even my old Z170 chipset MoBo, that has PCI-E Gen3 M.2 slots, has one type-C connector on the back I/O.)


One can not trust retail customer feedback.

E.g Apevia Galaxy PSU has nice 4.4 rating on amazon,
link: https://www.amazon.com/Apevia-ATX-GX650W-Galaxy-Certified-Semi-Modular/dp/B094278HKG

Would you buy that PSU? If not, then why not?

You my friend, are a genius. I don't know why I overlooked the motherboard. It does have one USB C port. I tried it and got 700MB (bytes not bits) consistently during a 50GB transfer. That's almost a 20x increase in speed!

Maybe it was the USB to USB C adapter? Maybe the way my front panel is connected to my motherboard isn't ideal? Either way I am up and running now. Thanks!

 

[Aeacus]

You my friend, are a genius. I don't know why I overlooked the motherboard. It does have one USB C port.

Maybe it was the USB to USB C adapter?

Most likely.

Maybe the way my front panel is connected to my motherboard isn't ideal?

Your Corsair 780T (fancy case btw), has two USB 2.0 ports (black) and two USB 3.0 ports (blue) on the front I/O. So, i don't think you have connection issue there. Especially since there is only one way to connect those front I/O ports.
Unless you connected the enclosure to the black (USB 2.0) port.

Corsair 780T was one of the PC cases that i considered buying for myself as well. But in the end, i went with Corsair 760T V2 Black, since it has more practicality over 780T. Sure, it's fan controller isn't as versatile as 780T has it, but it supports 3x 140mm on the top and side panel swings open, rather than completely detaching into upwards motion. Still 780T is one nice full-tower ATX case. A rare case nowadays.

You can look my build specs + pics from my sig.
Skylake build - inside Corsair 760T V2 Black.
Haswell build - inside Corsair 750D Airflow Edition.

 

[popatim]

I have the exact same enclosure and the exact same issue with it. On a usb2 or 3 port the top speed is 40Mbs. I blame the interface chip since I get the same behavior on 3 different PC's. At first I thought Microcrap had replaced my driver but it was fine and my other usb3 devices worked fine

 

[SkyNetRising]

Maybe it was the USB to USB C adapter?
Maybe the way my front panel is connected to my motherboard isn't ideal?

You haven't listed model name of your motherboard. You should have specified this information in your 1st post.
None of us have any idea, what USB speeds your motherboard is capable of.

I'm also a bit surprised, nobody has asked you for this information so far.

 

[emitfudd]

I have the exact same enclosure and the exact same issue with it. On a usb2 or 3 port the top speed is 40Mbs. I blame the interface chip since I get the same behavior on 3 different PC's. At first I thought Microcrap had replaced my driver but it was fine and my other usb3 devices worked fine

Interesting.

 

[emitfudd]

You haven't listed model name of your motherboard. You should have specified this information in your 1st post.
None of us have any idea, what USB speeds your motherboard is capable of.

I'm also a bit surprised, nobody has asked you for this information so far.

ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero. I just googled it to see what speeds it is capable of and comically enough the USB C port isn't even listed. It says there is a mix of USB ports with max speed up to 10Gbps.

 

[SkyNetRising]

ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero. I just googled it to see what speeds it is capable of and comically enough the USB C port isn't even listed.
It says there is a mix of USB ports with max speed up to 10Gbps.

Manual - Back I/O ports

8 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (7 x Type-A + 1 x USB Type-C®)
4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (4 x Type-A)

There's also onboard USB 3.2 Gen 2 Front panel connector.

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/...68_ROG_CROSSHAIR_VIII_DARK_HERO_UM_V3_WEB.pdf

 

[Aeacus]

I just googled it to see what speeds it is capable of and comically enough the USB C port isn't even listed. It says there is a mix of USB ports with max speed up to 10Gbps.

One glance to the rear I/O and USB type-C is visible, with "SS10" tag next to it. So, it is 10 Gbps port.

Direct link if image doesn't load: https://dlcdnwebimgs.asus.com/gain/86D57962-C44C-4AF2-A5E4-D58F2AFF70B5/w1000/h732

This is the fastest and easiest way to find it out. Albeit, not all MoBos include USB logos next to the ports to show their speed. So, MoBo manual is 2nd best way to confirm it for sure.