Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Upgrading External HDD to USB 3.0

A

afrocleland

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 24, 2012
58
0
Glasgow
Hey,

I've got an old 5200rpm 500GB laptop HD I stuck an enclosure on that I use as an external disk. It's only USB 2.0 just now, but was going to buy a cheap USB 3.0 enclosure from ebay/amazon and see if it speeds things up. Is that realistic?

Cheers
 
That shouldn't be a problem, but...

.... you didn't say _how old_ the HDD is. If it's _really_ old, it may still have an "ATA type" interface (40 pins), rather than SATA. You need to know this _before_ you buy a new enclosure for it.

Having said that, if it has the standard SATA interface, you might also consider a USB3/SATA "docking station". These typically cost about $25 (US). To see what's avaialble, go to amazon.com and enter "usb3 sata dock" in the search box -- you should get many hits.

The advantage of the docking station is that you can swap drives as needed. I've been using these gadgets for a while now, and if you don't absolutely have to have a small external enclosure for portability, they beat a "closed-in enclosure" hands down.
 
And you will likely not see any performance gains as the old drive is likely the throughput bottleneck, not USB 2.0 . You won't see data rate improvements unless you throw an SSD or new 7200 rpm drive in there.
 
afrocleland said:
Hey,

I've got an old 5200rpm 500GB laptop HD I stuck an enclosure on that I use as an external disk. It's only USB 2.0 just now, but was going to buy a cheap USB 3.0 enclosure from ebay/amazon and see if it speeds things up. Is that realistic?

Cheers
Click to expand...

It will almost be the same cost to buy a new external USB 3.0 complete drive. 500gb USB 3.0 drives are almost being given away.
 
opinio said:
It will almost be the same cost to buy a new external USB 3.0 complete drive. 500gb USB 3.0 drives are almost being given away.
Click to expand...


Amen. Use older, slower, smaller drives as paperweights or doorstops. I would not bother with less than 1TB 7200 drives.
 
I have several laptop drives I use in a USB3 drive dock. All 5200 rpm. They perform quite well, but as others note, a large 7200 RPM drive will be much faster. If the external case has a UASP chip, even better.

Best single HD performance I know of personally is a 4TB HGST Deskstar (5 platters) in a UASP enabled case.
 
thedeske said:
I have several laptop drives I use in a USB3 drive dock. All 5200 rpm. They perform quite well, but as others note, a large 7200 RPM drive will be much faster. If the external case has a UASP chip, even better.

Best single HD performance I know of personally is a 4TB HGST Deskstar (5 platters) in a UASP enabled case.
Click to expand...

To be honest, its not that old. It's just an external one that i bought about 3 years ago. It's a SATA. I had to replace its enclosure after I broker the usb port on the original. So we thinking at 5400rpm will bottleneck with a USB 3.0?
 
fredr500 said:
But so are USB 3.0 enclosures:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/HGST/0STOUROEXT3/

$1.75 each, but shipping is a bit hefty, so buy a few to bring average cost down. Includes AC adapter and a USB3 cable.
Click to expand...
This note:
OWC Note:
Use of a previously formatted drive inside the HDST Touro Desk Pro will require the drive to be reformatted. Also, moving a hard drive from the HDST Touro Desk Pro to another enclosure or machine will require the drive to be reformatted. Please back up your data accordingly before doing so.
Click to expand...
Makes the enclosure a bad idea. I want enclosures where I can move drives freely to a different brand enclosure without losing data.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back