Windows 7: SATA drive in USB3.0 Enclosure

meddylad · 15 Apr 2011

Hello - i have a 2.5" Momentus drive (model ST9500420AS, 500GB 16MB cache) and was wondering would get USB3.0 speeds by using an external connector, a USB3.0 cable and my laptop which has built in USB3.0 ports (and the Renesas driver), so i can use it as a portable drive

pooch · 15 Apr 2011

Quote: Originally Posted by meddylad

Hello - i have a 2.5" Momentus drive (model ST9500420AS, 500GB 16MB cache) and was wondering would get USB3.0 speeds by using an external connector, a USB3.0 cable and my laptop which has built in USB3.0 ports (and the Renesas driver), so i can use it as a portable drive

Yes but all parts must be USB3 compliant

Zepher · 15 Apr 2011

No, you won't get the full USB3 speed (USB3 spec is higher than normal drives can transfer) but it will be faster than USB2.

GeneO · 15 Apr 2011

I have a Momentus in a USB 3.0 enclosure and connect it through the same NEC/Renesas USB3.0 chip . it runs at full speed and is not limited by the USB 3.0 interface. However the hard drive will only do 45 MB/s on the outer part of the platter and 35 MB/s averaged across the platters so don't expect much more than USB 2.0 speeds. Your drive is newer than mine so should fare a bit better.

cloud8521 · 15 Apr 2011

i would actually expect something closer to around 70MB/s

when i used my drive (its a monster of a drive btw) i got 130MB/s what that was with its cache off

whs · 15 Apr 2011

I made a comparson USB2/USB3 with the same enclosure on the same system. My USB3 was about 30% faster than USB2. But I would guess that you get different results with different hardware.

seekermeister · 15 Apr 2011

Quote: Originally Posted by GeneO

I have a Momentus in a USB 3.0 enclosure and connect it through the same NEC/Renesas USB3.0 chip . it runs at full speed and is not limited by the USB 3.0 interface. However the hard drive will only do 45 MB/s on the outer part of the platter and 35 MB/s averaged across the platters so don't expect much more than USB 2.0 speeds. Your drive is newer than mine so should fare a bit better.

I get a lot better than that with my external drive, even though it is a slow RPM drive, and it is connected via eSATA 2.0. Is USB 3 that much slower than eSATA?

cloud8521 · 16 Apr 2011

Quote: Originally Posted by seekermeister

Quote: Originally Posted by GeneO

I have a Momentus in a USB 3.0 enclosure and connect it through the same NEC/Renesas USB3.0 chip . it runs at full speed and is not limited by the USB 3.0 interface. However the hard drive will only do 45 MB/s on the outer part of the platter and 35 MB/s averaged across the platters so don't expect much more than USB 2.0 speeds. Your drive is newer than mine so should fare a bit better.

I get a lot better than that with my external drive, even though it is a slow RPM drive, and it is connected via eSATA 2.0. Is USB 3 that much slower than eSATA?

well like i said, i did get 130 MB/s

pooch · 16 Apr 2011

Quote: Originally Posted by seekermeister

Is USB 3 that much slower than eSATA?

no its very similar

meddylad · 16 Apr 2011

Im using AS SSD to run benchmarks but im gettin a strange result on my external usb3 drive. The sequential starts off at 30mb/s but then slowly drops to 1.4mb/s and stays at this speed - i cant see why it would be doing this.

Aslo, considering im using usb3 with all the correct componets, i thought i would be getting more than 30mb/s, considering the drive is a 7200rpm with 16mb cache

Out of curiosity, would the actual adapter circuit board (where the sata connects to the usb) be slowing it down or is that irrelevent

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