usb2 HDD faster than 30Mb/sec ?

[mikerr]

Just done a test on my external drives using HDTach, and they all produce a flat line showing the limiting factor is usb2, not the drive.

No surprise there, but I was surprised at how much slower it is:

2 different style IcyBoxes are both 25Mb/sec, but my newer PackardBell usb drive is 30Mb/sec.

30Mb/sec x 8 = 240Mbps ... usb2 is supposed to be 480Mbps, have I lost 1/2 due to USB overhead, or are there faster external usb HDD interfaces out there?

[dave87]

If you have a sata port on your pc, get a sata hdd, and a sata icy box - connect em that way.

All the benefits of an external hdd with all the speed of an internal one. The icybox even comes with an external sata bracket.

Dave

[arthurleung]

USB2 HDDs tops at 30Mbps, that is due to the chipset. 1394 although having a theoretical limit of 400Mbps which is slower than USB, have a faster trasfer rate (typically about 35~40MB/s).

I've stopped using USB external and go for SATA Support hot-plug and damn fast. I don't even need to buy an icybox because I have a molex socket on the front panel to get power to the hdd

Works with IDE hdds too with IDE->SATA converter

[mikerr]

Thanks - I just wanted to know if I had a "slow" USB chipset on the external boxes, but
it seems 30MB/sec is normal.

Given that these drives show 50-60Mb/sec when mounted internally, I'm losing 1/2 the
drive's speed.

I like the eSATA idea, I have lots of PATA drives though, I wonder i the IDE->SATA converters have dropped in price...

[latrosicarius]

If you have a sata port on your pc, get a sata hdd, and a sata icy box - connect em that way.

All the benefits of an external hdd with all the speed of an internal one. The icybox even comes with an external sata bracket.

Dave

Well, definitly not ALL the benefits of an external HDD. People use USB drives for two reasons: (1) data backup, and (2) portability.

Data backup, yes, the SATA will handle, but portability, no. How many other people have external SATA jacks on their PC?

[dave87]

Well, definitly not ALL the benefits of an external HDD. People use USB drives for two reasons: (1) data backup, and (2) portability.

Data backup, yes, the SATA will handle, but portability, no. How many other people have external SATA jacks on their PC?

Icybox comes with a bracket to turn a standard SATA port to the external variety, though I agree - if you connect it to another pc it may not have a eSata port, but then you've got the usb 2 interface aswell. I can only see people using the drive a minority of times with other systems if its purely for backup