Bootcamp - Internal HDD or External SSD?

[imacken]

From the point of view of speed of loading apps, games, etc., is an external USB3 SSD faster or slower than a spinning internal HDD for a Win10 Bootcamp install?

 

[chscag]

The internal BUS is faster. The external SSD is only going to process data at USB 3 speeds which is slower than the internal BUS speed.

 

[SaSaSushi]

An external USB3 SSD will run faster than any internal spinning drive. Getting BootCamp installed on a USB external can be a major hassle though.

I run BootCamp on an SSD in a Delock Thunderbolt enclosure which I previously used to boot my Late 2013 iMac. It's a great little enclosure and reasonably priced.

Because Thunderbolt-attached drives are recognized as SATA devices it makes installation of BootCamp a lot easier as well.

 

[imacken]

An external USB3 SSD will run faster than any internal spinning drive. Getting BootCamp installed on a USB external can be a major hassle though.

I run BootCamp on an SSD in a Delock Thunderbolt enclosure which I previously used to boot my Late 2013 iMac. It's a great little enclosure and reasonably priced.

Because Thunderbolt-attached drives are recognized as SATA devices it makes installation of BootCamp a lot easier as well.

Thanks for that. After I got the formatting sorted, I had no problem installing Windows to an external drive using Win2USB. Literally just pointed to the ISO, then the USB drive, installation started, and 10 minutes later it was done!
Would connecting to the Thunderbolt port be quicker than USB3? I know in theory it should be, but where is the bottleneck? Is the SSD faster than USB3? Or is this all a moot point as the drives themselves are the limitation?

 

[SaSaSushi]

Would connecting to the Thunderbolt port be quicker than USB3? I know in theory it should be, but where is the bottleneck? Is the SSD faster than USB3? Or is this all a moot point as the drives themselves are the limitation?

Check out this review I wrote for an Inateck UASP USB3 enclosure a few years ago where I benched it against my Delock. The USB3 enclosure was actually marginally faster.

The benefits of Thunderbolt are as I mentioned above about drives being recognized as SATA as well as support for TRIM commands and you can't upgrade SSD firmware over USB either.

 

[imacken]

Interesting, however I would have to dispute your comment about not being able to boot to Bootcamp from a USB drive. As I said in my previous post I boot from an external USB (spinning) drive no problem. I used this Inateck, and it cost about £8 with next day delivery!

 

[SaSaSushi]

Interesting, however I would have to dispute your comment about not being able to boot to Bootcamp from a USB drive. As I said in my previous post I boot from an external USB (spinning) drive no problem. I used this Inateck, and it cost about £8 with next day delivery!

In fairness, I never said you cannot boot to Boot Camp from a USB drive in this thread. I am aware that it is possible. It's just a lot easier to do so on a Thunderbolt drive. You're probably referring to the comments I made in the review I linked you to above but keep in mind I wrote that three and a half years ago and things have changed since then. 🙂

The Inateck is a really nice little enclosure and you certainly can't beat the price.

 

[imacken]

Yes, I was referring to the linked thread.
When I say I had no problem, that wasn't quite true. Once I realised I had to format the drive for GPT and have a EFI system FAT32 partition with a NFTS boot partition, it was all straightforward!
I'm going to try with a SSD tomorrow.

 

[imacken]

An external USB3 SSD will run faster than any internal spinning drive.

Completely correct. I installed Windows 10 to an external USB3 SSD this morning, and frankly it is like chalk and cheese compared to running on the internal spinner. Huge difference in load times, etc. I'm am very happy!