USB 3.0 Vs SSD External storage on Mini laptop - Same speeds?

[Divergent Droid]

I am getting a new Windows 10 tablet with 4 gigabyts of system ram, an Intel Cherry Trail 1.84 ghz Quad Core processor and Intel HD graphics and 64 gb flash (that's where Windows is installed) two 2.0 USB ports and one 3.0 usb. (China tablet for 250 US not 700 dollar Surface) I plan to use the unit as a mini laptop / portable gaming system.

Since I won't have space to install much on the 64 gig flash due to Windows taking up at least half of it, I plan to store all my stuff on a mechanical external drive - However for games and programs that I will Run, I plan to install them to Another drive either Flash or SSD based for faster read/write access than the mechanical drive.

My question then is.. which is faster (and which should I buy) Say a 265gb Flash or a 256gb SSD?

I know as a internal drive the SSD is much faster but in this instance.. wouldn't the speeds be exactly the same because I'd have to run the games through the 3.0 USB and that will limit my SSD speed down to 3.0 USB speeds.. hence.. no reason to buy the SSD at the higher prices at all because the flash is cheaper and will preform exactly the same.. correct?

Thank you for your time and answers!

 

[popatim]

I dont think you took any time to research how fast usb3 is.

 

[giantbucket]

256G Flash drive uses cheap grades of flash memory
256G SSD uses higher grades of flash memory

higher grade = better performance, higher speed, more consistent behaviour, more expensive

 

[Divergent Droid]

I dont think you took any time to research how fast usb3 is.

I thought 3.0 was faster than a mechanical drive.. thats why i'm asking like I did. It's Not?

If it's not and that port will be the limit of my access speeds, then even another USB 3.0 1tb 7200 rpm mechanical drive should still play my games well? Is that what you are saying?

 

[popatim]

256G Flash drive uses cheap grades of flash memory
256G SSD uses higher grades of flash memory

higher grade = better performance, higher speed, more consistent behaviour, more expensive

Even more important - an SSD will have complex error correction while a flash drive usually has very little to none.


@ Divergent - that was actually a prompt for you to google it and learn something new...

USB3 is wicked fast. While a fast SSD would be bottlenecked to around 430MB/s and Flash/SD card would be limited by its native speed. Put in a 50MB/s Flash device on usb3 and it will still be 50MB/s. Remember , you get what you pay for. Fast flash is not nearly as cheap as the slow stuff. Read reviews for speed tests, you are primarily concerned with random reads and writes for gameplay and sequential reads will effect your loading times.

 

[Divergent Droid]

See.. I have done some research but i'm getting conflicting or confusing answers. ( or perhaps I'm confusing myself.. ha!)

I guess I should state, i dont really want to buy any flash or ssd if I don't have to. I'm not using a 3.0 USB flash drive, but a (currently) a 7200 rpm mechanical external drive running through the 3.0 port - I guess thats my question.. which drive if any will work better through that 3.0 port - I am assuming here that the 3.0 port is the thing thats gonna limit my external hard drive speed if the drive isn't faster than the 3.0 port.

Since you say 3.0 is wicked fast, I assume you mean faster than all the above.. a stick type flash drive, an ssd drive and the mechanical drive - which means it wont be a factor in what drive I choose.

I can go cheap with a 40 dollar mechanical drive and be just as good as if i chose a stick flash or ssd - correct?

See, I'm just looking to run the games and apps off of any external that will work well.. it doesn't have to be an ssd or flash if the mechanical drive will work just as well.

 

[popatim]

USB# is good up to around 450MB/s. There will be some overhead & latency but drives should run at near their native speed as long as its under the 450MB/s max. Just like usb3 cant make a flash drive faster, a fast drive cant make usb3 faster either.

So as long as your HDD is USB3 natively, you have a usb3 cable, and connects to a usb3 port, you should see a max transfer rate from your HDD thats really close to being an internal drive. My 4 yr old seagate gives me 100MB/s, my similar internal drive post similar numbers.

Plugging in a usb2 drive into a usb3 port will not get you this top speed, in this case you would be limited by the max speed of the drives usb2 port. It all runs at the speed of the slowest thing in the chain: drive, enclosure, cable, or port on the pc.

I would connect the drive you already have (unless its usb2)and then download and run AS-SSD on it (stop it after the second test unless you want to see where harddrives really slow down) If your max transfer is about 100MB/S then the drive would not operate much faster than an internal drive.

Which means - go ahead and use it. Otherwise, yeah, grab a cheap usb3 drive.

Please keep in mind the big external drives are naturally faster then the small pocket sized drives.

 

[Divergent Droid]

Thanks! That's the clarification I needed.

Seems I was under some mistaken impressions.

Since your last post I decided to test the mechanical external drive. I installed Crysis I didn't expect it to work but to my surprise.. I'm playing Crysis off the drive very nicely. I can't tell it's not on my internal drive. While i'm waiting on my new tablet pc to arrive, I'm using a friends old AMD 150 ghz A6 processor with 4 gigs of ram.. my new tablet should be faster - I just discovered he has all 2.0 USB ports, .. and the game is playing Great. Wow. Yeppers.. I should be good to go..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I read about the new 3.1 Generqation 2 specification they are starting to use which is easily twice as fast as 3.0.. I cannot imagine even needing 3.1 if there are No flash drives, ssd's or mechanical drives that can match those speeds - Tell me.. in that case.. what is the point of a faster usb port speed if nothing can fully use it?

 

[popatim]

Perhaps a hub with 5 ssd's on it. LoL
The hardware will eventually catch up. Thats the nice thing about pc's - they're always getting better.

 

[Divergent Droid]

Perhaps a hub with 5 ssd's on it. LoL
The hardware will eventually catch up. Thats the nice thing about pc's - they're always getting better.

Ah.. well, when I can get a hard drive as fast as the 3.0 ( or 3.1) port speed - I'll be in heaven. I'm 48, sadly, I'll probably be 80 when they pull that off. LOL.. Thanks again!

Since this is Solved, you can close this thread if you like.

DD.