Filevault on mobile external hdd (5400 rpm)

[H.Finch]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of getting this external drive for my iMac + Macbook Air setup...

This one to be specific: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/H...rsche-design-usb-c-mobile-hard-drive?fnode=4c (4 tb version)

My question: I have a 2 tb external drive (with power supply etc). I have filevault enabled on that one and don't notice any negative influence from the encription. Will this be different on this new mobile drive? Which doesn’t' have its own power supply and runs at 5400 rpm?

The connection is much faster than my current usb 2, but my current drive runs at 7200 rpm...

Any insights for someone a little more technical then me would be very appreciated!

 

[Weaselboy]

Nah... it will be about the same. FV slows down data transfers a little, but not much. Having that power supply vs. not won't matter at all. Bumping up from USB2 to the new drive will be much much faster.

 

[H.Finch]

Thanks a lot for the info Weaselboy! Yeah, so basically I'm going backwards in RMP, and forwards in transfer speeds (usb). I didn' know which was most important for a drive. But good to know FV won' slow it down too much.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks a lot for the info Weaselboy! Yeah, so basically I'm going backwards in RMP, and forwards in transfer speeds (usb). I didn' know which was most important for a drive. But good to know FV won' slow it down too much.

In theory.... yes RPM matters. But in actual practice there is more to it than that. Some good 5400RPM drives are actually faster than some poorer quality 7200RPM drives.

 

[H.Finch]

Thanks again! If you have any opinion/insight on mobile (powered by usb) vs powersupply+usb I'd love to hear it.
I love clean solutions so one cable has my strong preference over two... But it would be my first mobile drive.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks again! If you have any opinion/insight on mobile (powered by usb) vs powersupply+usb I'd love to hear it.
I love clean solutions so one cable has my strong preference over two... But it would be my first mobile drive.

Those powered desktop drives are usually a bit faster, but I have always found the mobile drives are plenty fast. That's all I ever use for the reason you mentioned.