USB 3.0 hard drives vs. SSDs

[r_manic]

I just realized, with USB 3.0 becoming more mainstream (though more motherboards and devices definitely need to support it), shouldn't people strapped for cash go for that, instead of SSDs, especially when the former can hold much more data?

 

[sminlal]

USB provides a faster connection, but it doesn't do anything to make the disk itself faster. A mechanical hard disk in an external USB 3.0 enclosure will be almost as fast as a mechanical hard disk connected via SATA or eSATA - but neither of those is as fast (for random I/Os, anyway) as an SSD connected to SATA.

Going from USB 2 to USB 3 is like increasing the speed limit of a road from 30MPH to 120MPH. Sure, the speed limit is faster, but a moped will still be slower than a Porsche.

 

[leon2006]

Initial benchmark show USB3-HD matching but not surpassing HD- on SATA Interface.

SATA will remain the interface for HD specially for RAID setup. SATA3 will be a lot better than USB3 for Drives/Raid Setup.

SSD will remain the top dog vs mechanical drive HD regardless of the interface.