Will USB to Thunderbolt adapter cut down on external drive load times

[primo16]

Hi long time reader first time poster,

I have a macbook pro with retina 15 inch and I play games using boot camp

Im going to pick up an external drive, too cheap to go with a thunderbolt one
so im just going to get a USB 3.0 drive

My question is if I get the USB to thunderbolt adapter will transfer speeds and load times (if i put games on the drive) be faster and if so how much faster?

Thanks

 

[simsaladimbamba]

1. There is no USB to Thunderbolt adapter, or Thunderbolt to USB adapter, unless you mean the Seagate GoFlex System.

2. USB 3.0 is plenty of fast, no need for a Thunderbolt connection.

3. Even 7.200 RPM HDDs do not saturate a USB 3.0 connection.

 

[pgiguere1]

Nope, I'm not sure such an adapter exists and even if it does you'll still be limited by USB 3.0 speed.

Anyway if you're buying a mechanical external hard drive (not a SSD), speed is about the same on either USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt, since the drive's write/read speed will be the bottleneck, not the cable.

Just go with a regular USB 3.0 drive, it's plenty fast.

 

[takeshi74]

My question is if I get the USB to thunderbolt adapter will transfer speeds and load times (if i put games on the drive) be faster and if so how much faster?

You can easily answer this yourself no matter what the device(s) or interfaces. The chain will only be as fast (at best) as the slowest link.

As posts above indicate, the drive is likely the bottleneck.

 

[yusukeaoki]

USB3< TB

Just get a TB external drive.
I have 2x Lacie 2TB Thunderbolt HDD and it works great.

 

[Stetrain]

Honestly if you're just going to get a plain mechanical external hard drive (not SSD or multiple drives in a single enclosure) then you probably wouldn't even be able to measure the difference between Thunderbolt and USB 3.