Does USB 3.0 matter for external enclosure for stock Macbook Pro 2012 HDD

[migs.migeezie]

I have a Mid 2012 Macbook Pro (9,1) and I just purchased a SSD and Im thinking of using the current 5400 rpm 500 GB hard drive as a portable external drive for media and/or back up and im trying to figure out which enclosure to get.

My concern really lies in whether or not I will get increased speeds using USB 3.0 or just stick with a USB 2.0 enclosure. I ran Black magic speed test while it was in my macbook pro and im getting around 64 MB/s write and 89 MB/s read.

The reason I ask is mainly because the reviews Ive been reading on a lot of USB 3.0 drives are mixed while there are a few USB 2.0 drives that have some great reviews and are quite inexpensive.

So will there really be that much of a real world difference between 2.0 and 3.0 Or does anyone have suggestion on which enclosures would be a good fit.

I believe the internal HDD is a Hitachi Travelstar HTS547550A9E384 according to a model search.

Any help would be great.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

It does matter, since USB 2.0 only offers around 37 MB/s sequential read or write speeds, USB 3. enclosures (be sure to read up on them when researching, there is a thread about some of them being compared with an SSD and those tested almost all delivered at least S-ATA 1.5 Gbps (S-ATA I) speeds, which would be more than enough for a 5,400 RPM HDD) will be faster than USB 2.0 enclosures.

 

[migs.migeezie]

Ok great thanks. Yeah I've been searching through the threads trying to find suggestions on USB 3.0 enclosures. Ill keep looking.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Does USB 3.0 matter for external enclosure for stock Macbook Pro 2012 HDD"

YES. It matters A GREAT DEAL.

Suggestion:
Pick your enclosure FIRST, then find a drive to go in it.

You want an enclosure with either an
ASMedia 1051e controller chip
or an
ASMedia 1053 controller chip.

Both of these support the new high-speed UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) for faster performance on UASP capable systems.

If you are looking for a 2.5" enclosure, this one looks to be good:
http://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/store/U32-M.html

Have you considered using a USB3/SATA "docking station"?
If so, check out the "stand up" and "lay-flat" docks by plugable.com (available at amazon.com)

I use a plugable.com "lay-flat" dock with an Intel 520 series SSD, attached to my Mac Mini. I get read speeds of 410mbps and writes of 247mbps. Pretty good for an external device via USB3!

 

[migs.migeezie]

If you are looking for a 2.5" enclosure, this one looks to be good:
http://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/store/U32-M.html

I did look at that usb enclosure and although the price is what made me not go into too much more depth on it. But I'll look into it more.

Have you considered using a USB3/SATA "docking station"?
If so, check out the "stand up" and "lay-flat" docks by plugable.com (available at amazon.com)

The main reason I hadnt looked at these docks is really I was looking at portability and using it as a drive for all my media and art files while on the go. But the more i think of it, and considering i have plenty of desktop external drives to do backups on at home, I should really just go with something that is fast and portable for my media.

I just didnt want to waste a perfectly good harddrive thats hardly been used. But I appreciate the help.