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Any reason for an external USB 3.0 SSD?

Austin00 said:
I'm doing exactly this and have not found a SATA III USB 3 enclosure at all (in the UK) for the samsung 830 256GB SSD i have in my old 2010 13" MBP.

I've settled (for now) on an icybox enclosure that is SATA II. ~250Mbps will be sufficient for holding a lightroom library and other bits and bobs.

Seems like we'll have to wait :(
Click to expand...

I have an Orico 2598SUS3 USB3 enclosure check their website or send them an email about the SATA speed. They constantly come out with new products. The quality is good+ and the prices are reasonable.

www.orico.com.cn/en
 
ive been reading this thread amongst others and im still pretty confused.
with a 5400RPM drive and USB3 enclosure, wont the drive be the bottleneck? so would putting a 5400 drive in a thunderbolt enclosure be a waste?
would the same go for 7200?
 
linds15 said:
ive been reading this thread amongst others and im still pretty confused.
with a 5400RPM drive and USB3 enclosure, wont the drive be the bottleneck? so would putting a 5400 drive in a thunderbolt enclosure be a waste?
would the same go for 7200?
Click to expand...

All HDDs will be a bottleneck when using USB 3.0.
 
Got my Envoy Pro enclosure in the post today (had bought it back then together with the 512GB SSD drive for the rMBP)

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MAU3ENVOYPRO/

This enclosure takes the custom SSD that ships with the rMBP, NOT an off-the-shelf standard SSD drive. Was skeptical about running an SSD over USB 3.0, but I needn't be. These are the speeds I got, and I'm very happy with them:
 

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kdoug said:
Waiting for my rMBP and somebody mentioned installing an SSD in external USB 3.0 enclosure. Are there any speed advantages or are you bottlenecked with USB?
Click to expand...

Call me stupid, but I need to ask.
You have a retina. Those come with internal SSD's. So you have a fast drive, but I assume you want more space (You're talking about lightroom libraries and such).
So what do you need? Speed, speed and more speed (yes to SSD in USB3 or TB enclosure) or space, space, space (a huge rotating hard disk in an USB3 enclosure, which works as fast as if it were internal)?

RGDS,

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puma25uk said:
Got my Envoy Pro enclosure in the post today (had bought it back then together with the 512GB SSD drive for the rMBP)

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MAU3ENVOYPRO/

This enclosure takes the custom SSD that ships with the rMBP, NOT an off-the-shelf standard SSD drive. Was skeptical about running an SSD over USB 3.0, but I needn't be. These are the speeds I got, and I'm very happy with them:
Click to expand...

Sweet...
That thing looks smaller than my first ever USB storage dongle (it was 128MB and cost around 2$/MB)

RGDS.
 
MaxPower72 said:
I have an Orico 2598SUS3 USB3 enclosure check their website or send them an email about the SATA speed. They constantly come out with new products. The quality is good+ and the prices are reasonable.

www.orico.com.cn/en
Click to expand...

I have one too, and I hate it. It looks nice but its huge for a 2.5" case. They could have easily shaved an inch or side from each side. :mad:
 
SIIG Enclosure and Samsung 840 Pro

I've just got a SIIG JU-SA0H11-S1 enclosure, which has the Asmedia ASM1051E + J Micron JM20330 chip sets. I've paired it with a Samsung SSD 840 Pro 256GB.

Fresh out of the box I'm getting: Read 305mb/s and Write 260mb/s. This is in comparison to my rMBP 15": Read 449mb/s and Write 395mb/s

Lightroom and Photoshop are working very well with this pairing and I can't see any slow down.

That's less and £200 and around double the memory equivalent of a Thunderbolt drive.
 
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USB 3 bottleneck is about 250mb/s, which is about the limit of SATA II. SATA III goes up to 500mb/s, so that's the max of most ssds these days. So, internally it would be a bit fast. But, it's still plenty fast.
 
freyqq said:
usb 3 bottleneck is about 250mb/s
Click to expand...

stop repeating this

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puma25uk said:
Got my Envoy Pro enclosure in the post today (had bought it back then together with the 512GB SSD drive for the rMBP)

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MAU3ENVOYPRO/

This enclosure takes the custom SSD that ships with the rMBP, NOT an off-the-shelf standard SSD drive. Was skeptical about running an SSD over USB 3.0, but I needn't be. These are the speeds I got, and I'm very happy with them:
Click to expand...

Here are my results using that same enclosure and the 128GB drive from my 13" rMBP

pYe2LCT.jpg
 
Other than Chipset - what determines performance?

Lots of interesting info in this thread...

As of fall 2013, in the absence of a roundup of best USB 3.0 enclosures for SSDs (that explicitly support SATA III/6Gbps), I'm looking for advice on:

(1) The fastest SATA III to USB 3.0 enclosure
(2) Reasons behind the variability in speeds I experience with so-called SATA III to USB 3.0 enclosures (the chipset? other optimizations?)

In a nutshell, I took my Intel 330 120GB SSD & tested it in a bunch of enclosures, using Blackmagic Speed Test for the sake of simplicity.

Here are some numbers I get (in MB/s):

Anker USB 3.0/eSATA enclosure (AK-68UP25EN-BRSU): 176.4/134.2

Seagate GoFlex Slim USB 3.0 interface: 250.5/152.5

SIIG SATA 6Gbps to USB 3.0 enclosure (JU-SA0H11-S1): 257.9/149.6

Newer Technology Voyager S3: 396.1/136.4

Note the whopping ~400MB/s for the Voyager S3, which uses the same ASMedia chipset (1051e) as the SIIG enclosure above (which tops out at ~250MB/s).

Furthermore, Lloyd Chambers gets almost 450MB/s speeds with the OWC Elite Pro Mini enclosure, which supposedly also uses the ASMedia 1051e chipset (http://macperformanceguide.com/Reviews-OWC-MercuryElite...)

My question is: what other factors/optimizations are at play here that make the Voyager S3 & OWC Elite Pro Mini so much faster, despite the same chipset as the SIIG?

Since I'm running OS X, I'm assuming it's not UASP (last I read, UASP is not supported in OS X).

I'm thinking of giving either the OWC or this Oyen Digital MiniPro, which supposedly has an (even better) ASMedia 1053e chipset in it, a shot: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VKTJGW/ref=ox_sc_a...

Basically I want to replace my SIIG (supposedly SATA 6Gbps) and Seagate Slim enclosures with a portable one that'll give me the performance I'm seeing with my Voyager S3 (~400MB/s read speeds).

Many thanks in advance!
 
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While USB 3.0 theoritical speed is 5 Gbit/sec, it still has a # I/O operarions limitation that even a slow SSD surpasses. Still faster than a hard drive. eSATA or Thunderbolt are both better overall, especially for 4k read/writes.
 
fullertonted said:
While USB 3.0 theoritical speed is 5 Gbit/sec, it still has a # I/O operarions limitation that even a slow SSD surpasses. Still faster than a hard drive. eSATA or Thunderbolt are both better overall, especially for 4k read/writes.
Click to expand...

To an extent, yes, sure Thunderbolt is better. But not so much for random reads (where the drive is likely limiting?):

USB 3.0 SIIG (ASMedia 1051e) enclosure w/ Samsung 830 SSD:

Sequential 207.32
Uncached Write 401.47 246.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 366.75 207.50 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 81.19 23.76 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 568.66 285.81 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 529.14
Uncached Write 242.70 25.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 653.50 209.21 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1845.25 13.08 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 731.58 135.75 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Seagate Thunderbolt interface w/ Samsung 830 SSD:

Sequential 281.69
Uncached Write 572.14 351.28 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 419.40 237.30 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 120.41 35.24 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 567.28 285.11 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 808.58
Uncached Write 900.22 95.30 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 456.40 146.11 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2189.62 15.52 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 841.53 156.15 MB/sec [256K blocks]

But Thunderbolt is just not catching on...

My overall point is that there are USB 3.0 enclosures that are drastically better than others, and I'd love to understand exactly what makes what enclosure faster. A shootout of USB 3.0 enclosures would be immensely helpful. There just aren't many Thunderbolt enclosures, & eSATA is not a standard interface for most laptops. Hence my interest in USB 3.0, despite the fact that I own a rMBP. That said, I'd love to see some great TB enclosures. That Seagate TB interface, as well as the Buffalo MiniStation TB enclosure, heated up like crazy though... makes me nervous.
 
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sarangiman said:
To an extent, yes, sure Thunderbolt is better. But not so much for random reads:

USB 3.0 SIIG (ASMedia 1051e) enclosure w/ Samsung 830 SSD:

Sequential 207.32
Uncached Write 401.47 246.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 366.75 207.50 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 81.19 23.76 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 568.66 285.81 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 529.14
Uncached Write 242.70 25.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 653.50 209.21 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1845.25 13.08 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 731.58 135.75 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Seagate Thunderbolt interface w/ Samsung 830 SSD:

Sequential 281.69
Uncached Write 572.14 351.28 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 419.40 237.30 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 120.41 35.24 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 567.28 285.11 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 808.58
Uncached Write 900.22 95.30 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 456.40 146.11 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2189.62 15.52 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 841.53 156.15 MB/sec [256K blocks]

But Thunderbolt is just not catching on...

My overall point is that there are USB 3.0 enclosures that are drastically better than others, and I'd love to understand exactly what makes what enclosure faster. A shootout of USB 3.0 enclosures would be immensely helpful. There just aren't many Thunderbolt enclosures, & eSATA is not a standard interface for most laptops. Hence my interest in USB 3.0, despite the fact that I own a rMBP. That said, I'd love to see some great TB enclosures. That Seagate TB interface, as well as the Buffalo MiniStation TB enclosure, heated up like crazy though... makes me nervous.
Click to expand...

It's going to be hard for you to pin point exactly what makes a certain enclosure faster. There are many components in them besides the controller.

The best way is to read multiple reviews and just pick out the one with the best results.
 
hello to all
sorry if I'm intruding, this is my first post but the MacRumors forum has always been a great source of information for me.
Inspired by what I read in this post these days I made a setup with SSD entirely bus powered as follows:

Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO
USB 3.0 case: StarTech.com S2510BPU33 with ASMedia ASM1053 Controller

Here a nice benchmark. I hope will be useful to someone:

bench.jpg


I want to emphasize that the bus usb 3.0 feed properly the 500GB SSD.

Thank you
 
tasters said:
hello to all
sorry if I'm intruding, this is my first post but the MacRumors forum has always been a great source of information for me.
Inspired by what I read in this post these days I made a setup with SSD entirely bus powered as follows:

Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO
USB 3.0 case: StarTech.com S2510BPU33 with ASMedia ASM1053 Controller

Here a nice benchmark. I hope will be useful to someone:

Image

I want to emphasize that the bus usb 3.0 feed properly the 500GB SSD.

Thank you
Click to expand...

Hi tasters,

Welcome to the forums, and thanks for contributing!



That is FAST!
 
Interesting! Thanks for testing. USB 3.1 is apparently on the way, which is suppose to be twice as fast as USB 3.
 
Here is my speedtest with my intel SSD. the SSD has read/write speed of 500+
so the usb enclosure is the bottleneck here, but i bought it for 15 dollars.


E8ykwa0.jpg
 
Interesting tasters. I'll have to check out that enclosure. It appears to be reaching the speeds of the Oyen MiniPro, which has an ASMedia 1053e chipset, with my Samsung 1TB 840 EVO drive:

OyenMiniPro-BlackMagic.png


The Seagate Slim drive enclosure, with its ASMedia 1053 chipset, doesn't quite reach those high speeds (same drive):

SeagateSlim2013_ASMedia1053-BlackMagic.png


So it's curious that the Startech with its 1053 chipset can reach 1053e level speeds...

tasters said:
hello to all
sorry if I'm intruding, this is my first post but the MacRumors forum has always been a great source of information for me.
Inspired by what I read in this post these days I made a setup with SSD entirely bus powered as follows:

Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO
USB 3.0 case: StarTech.com S2510BPU33 with ASMedia ASM1053 Controller

Here a nice benchmark. I hope will be useful to someone:

Image

I want to emphasize that the bus usb 3.0 feed properly the 500GB SSD.

Thank you
Click to expand...
 
tasters said:
hello to all
sorry if I'm intruding, this is my first post but the MacRumors forum has always been a great source of information for me.
Inspired by what I read in this post these days I made a setup with SSD entirely bus powered as follows:

Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO
USB 3.0 case: StarTech.com S2510BPU33 with ASMedia ASM1053 Controller


Thank you
Click to expand...

And this just motivated me to buy the StarTech enclosure for my SSD!! i'll post speed tests in a few days.
 
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