Is Internal SSD Faster than an external Thunderbolt SSD?

[EricBrian]

I was wondering, since I don't know the internal speed of my MBP, what would be faster.... Internal SSD or external Thunderbolt SSD?

Thanks
Eric

 

[BanterClaus]

Somebodies going to probably instantly disprove me here but:

Internally it will be limited to 6 Gbit/s as it uses SATA3.

Externally, through Thunderbolt, it should be able to go up to 10 Gbit/s.

I'm not sure if it actually works like this though.

 

[dukebound85]

Somebodies going to probably instantly disprove me here but:

Internally it will be limited to 6 Gbit/s as it uses SATA3.

Externally, through Thunderbolt, it should be able to go up to 10 Gbit/s.

I'm not sure if it actually works like this though.

Usually internal is faster BUT like you mentioned, the threshold of TB exceeds the sata interface

I would imagine it being quite similar in performance but I have yet to try it personally

 

[terraphantm]

Should be about the same speed -- if the thunderbolt drive has a SATA3 controller built in (instead of Sata2).

If the thunderbolt SSD happens to be one of those PCIe SSDs, then it could be faster.