Storage

[usncva]

Can anyone help me with this problem? My new computer has USB 3 capability and I want to purchase an external drive to back up my 1T internal hard drive. I know there are USB 3 external hard drives but they tend to be pricey. I am looking at an external sata to USB 3 enclosure which are cheaper for the drive and the enclosure. My question is, if I hook my enclosure to my sata output on the computer, will I still get the USB 3 speed to my enclosed hard drive? Someone told me that the enclosure has a controller in it that ups the speed to match the USB 3 output. Anyone help? Thanks

 

[sminlal]

An external "SATA to USB3" enclosure holds a SATA drive and has the circuitry to let it communicate with a USB3 socket on the back of the enclosure. You connect the enclosure to your computer using a USB 3 cable which you plug into your computer's USB 3 port. The SATA connections on your computer won't play any part in using such a drive.

Assuming you use a USB 3 cable and your computer has a USB 3 port, this will run at USB 3 speeds which, like SATA, is faster than the hard drive - this means that the connection won't be a bottleneck the way USB 2 is.