Hi all,<\/p>\n
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been speed testing USB 3.0 as an alternative to eSATA. I’ve got some results to report!<\/p>\n
For spinning media, USB 3.0 is basically as fast as SATA. I tested several 2.5″ laptop drives from 5400RPM and 7200RPM for sustained writes, and the USB 3.0 caddy added no significant overhead. Here are the results:<\/p>\n
Seagate 320GB 7200RPM: SATA – 291GB\/hr, USB 3.0 – 288GB\/hr
\nHitachi 320GB 5400RPM: SATA – 272GB\/hr, USB 3.0 – 272GB\/hr
\nHitachi 500GB 5400RPM: SATA – 303GB\/hr, USB 3.0 – 302GB\/hr<\/p>\n
As most people will be backing up to spinning hard disks, I can conclude that USB 3.0 is as good as eSATA.<\/p>\n
However, for SSDs, the story is different. USB 3.0 seems to bottleneck:<\/p>\n
Kingston 128GB SSD: SATA – 793 GB\/hr, USB 3.0 – 350GB\/hr
\nG.Skill Falcon 128GB SSD: SATA – 479GB\/hr, USB 3.0 – 200GB\/hr<\/p>\n
I find it weird how USB3.0 doesn’t just cap the transfer rate, but degraded the G.Skill’s transfer rate.<\/p>\n
I also have a Patriot SSD that I haven’t yet tested, so I look forward to doing that and seeing if the results alter.<\/p>\n
Conclusion: USB 3.0 is great for spinning media. Weird for SSDs. I need to investigate more.<\/p>\n
Have a great weekend all!<\/p>\n
Linus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"