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Is It Worth Getting a USB 2.0 Enclosure for my Hard Drive to use for Time Machine?

AndrewMRiv

AndrewMRiv

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 29, 2013
151
0
I am getting my iMac in the mail today and I am moving off of a Hackintosh (just turning it into a Gaming PC purely now).

I would like to use the 3tb HDD that was in the Hackintosh as a Time Machine Backup and was looking into different enclosures. I figured that my backup didn't need to be lightning fast since it's just purely going to be a time machine drive so would it be worth it to buy a cheap $20 USB 2.0 Enclosure for the 3.5" Sata Drive? Or should I get something that is USB 3.0 compatible?

Thank you.
 
AndrewMRiv said:
would it be worth it to buy a cheap $20 USB 2.0 Enclosure for the 3.5" Sata Drive?
Click to expand...
It would probably be quite workable with USB 2.0. After all, people have been using USB 2.0 connections for Time Machine backups for years, without issues.
 
AndrewMRiv said:
I am getting my iMac in the mail today and I am moving off of a Hackintosh (just turning it into a Gaming PC purely now).

I would like to use the 3tb HDD that was in the Hackintosh as a Time Machine Backup and was looking into different enclosures. I figured that my backup didn't need to be lightning fast since it's just purely going to be a time machine drive so would it be worth it to buy a cheap $20 USB 2.0 Enclosure for the 3.5" Sata Drive? Or should I get something that is USB 3.0 compatible?

Thank you.
Click to expand...

USB 3.0 is much faster, spend a few more bucks on the 3.0 enclosure. With a decent enclosure, you'll see close to your drives native speed in the USB 3 enclosure. USB2 is dog slow.
 
You can get a USB 3 3.5" enclosure on amazon.com for like $38. Considering that price difference, I am really not sure why you would want to subject yourself to USB 2.
 
theSeb said:
You can get a USB 3 3.5" enclosure on amazon.com for like $38. Considering that price difference, I am really not sure why you would want to subject yourself to USB 2.
Click to expand...

Can you please send me a link?

Maybe I've just been a bit unlucky. I've been mostly finding 2.5" 3.0 enclosures. The two USB 3.0 3.5" enclosures did not offer USB 3.0 speeds on Macs for whatever reason which sort of discouraged me.:(
 
AndrewMRiv said:
Can you please send me a link?

Maybe I've just been a bit unlucky. I've been mostly finding 2.5" 3.0 enclosures. The two USB 3.0 3.5" enclosures did not offer USB 3.0 speeds on Macs for whatever reason which sort of discouraged me.:(
Click to expand...

What do you mean by not offering USB 3 speeds? Post a link to these enclosures.

I just went to Amazon and searched for USB 3 3.5" enclosure.
 
I think that one from Macsales is 2.5" only. At least I did not see where it mentioned 3.5".

Newegg has several to choose from both enclosed and open dock. The open dock models allow for swapping, better cooling and many can handle 2.5" and 3.5" drives.

Link

Apparently the link only works from a mobile device.
 
Last edited:
velocityg4 said:
I think that one from Macsales is 2.5" only. At least I did not see where it mentioned 3.5".

Newegg has several to choose from both enclosed and open dock. The open dock models allow for swapping, better cooling and many can handle 2.5" and 3.5" drives.

Link
Click to expand...

If you'll scroll down to the bottom you'll see that it's for 3.5" SATA drives. As already stated, I have several of them.

----------
AndrewMRiv said:
Thank you very much! This looks great. The most helpful post. Thank you.
Click to expand...

You're welcome. They work great for me.
 
AndrewMRiv said:
I am getting my iMac in the mail today and I am moving off of a Hackintosh (just turning it into a Gaming PC purely now).

I would like to use the 3tb HDD that was in the Hackintosh as a Time Machine Backup and was looking into different enclosures. I figured that my backup didn't need to be lightning fast since it's just purely going to be a time machine drive so would it be worth it to buy a cheap $20 USB 2.0 Enclosure for the 3.5" Sata Drive? Or should I get something that is USB 3.0 compatible?

Thank you.
Click to expand...

You are right in the you need not care how fast the TM disk is. You let it run 24x7. There is even some advantage to slowing it down so it uses less available bandwidth.

However you might want to use the drive from some other purpose some day and USB3 is more future proof and not really much most expensive.

But for your current use case USB 2.0 is fast enough, except for the initial backup that you run on day one. That will take a few hours. But you can use the computer normally while it runs, no big deal.
 
AndrewMRiv said:
Can you please send me a link?

Maybe I've just been a bit unlucky. I've been mostly finding 2.5" 3.0 enclosures. The two USB 3.0 3.5" enclosures did not offer USB 3.0 speeds on Macs for whatever reason which sort of discouraged me.:(
Click to expand...

Consider a dock instead, very handy & cost effective:

http://amzn.com/B003UI62AG
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I agree that USB 3.0 docks are a cost-effective and convenient alternative.

I went with this dock for about $60. (in Japanese)

Not sure they sell ones similar in the states but the best thing about it for me is that it supports two drives and they can be 3.5", 2.5" or GoFlex.

It also functions as a disk duplicator when the USB cable is disconnected, allowing one drive to be copied to another.
 
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