What's the point of USB 3.0 HDD Enclosures?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I've slowly migrated to USB 3.0 external enclosures for my HDDs.

Running HD Tune, my 3.5" USB 2.0 gets 29.8 MB/s average.
My four 2.5" USB 3.0 HDDs all get around 28 MB/s.

USB 2.0 gets 480 mbps, so that's 68 MB/s. That's still more than half of what these drives are capable of.

So, barring SSDs, what's the point of having USB 3.0? It seems like an SSD is the only kind of drive that can even remotely take advantage of the USB 3.0 interface. Or hell, even a regular SATA interface.

 

[Sleepingforest]

The theoretical performance and the actual usage performance unfortunately have a bit of a gap. Part of the problem is probably the difference in disks. Maybe you should try getting a couple of 7200 RPM drives for that USB 3.0 enclosure?

 

[Termie]

I've done a lot of testing on USB 2.0 versus USB 3.0.

The actual transfer limits of USB 3.0 are around 200MB/s, while that of USB 2.0 is about 40MB/s. The theoretical specs are not very accurate. A typical 2.5" hard drive can certainly exceed the limits of USB 2.0 (I hit over 100MB/s with a 7200rpm 2.5" drive using my USB 3.0 enclosure), but only an SSD can exceed the limits of USB 3.0.

It seems like there's something wrong with your USB 3.0 drives. They are not operating at USB 3.0 speed.

 

[Steltek]

Are you sure your enclosures are actually USB3.0? I've seen a few cheapo ones that were labeled and advertised as being USB3.0 enclosures, but the connectors (while colored blue) actually had USB2.0 pin configurations and not USB3.0.

 

[Rifter]

Im thinking your USB 3 enclosures arnt really USB 3, or there is an issue with your USB 3 drivers.

I have both USB 2 and USB 3 hard drive docks I use for backups weekly with a few 2TB drives I have kicking around. Transfer speeds on my old USB 2 dock are ~25MB/sec, on the USB 3 dock they are consistently 60-90MB/sec.

 

[Atreidin]

Im thinking your USB 3 enclosures arnt really USB 3, or there is an issue with your USB 3 drivers.

I have both USB 2 and USB 3 hard drive docks I use for backups weekly with a few 2TB drives I have kicking around. Transfer speeds on my old USB 2 dock are ~25MB/sec, on the USB 3 dock they are consistently 60-90MB/sec.

I've seen similar numbers with the same drive moved between USB 2 and USB 3 enclosures.

 

[jaqie]

Your enclosures have craptastic controllers in them, the controllers are at fault. Good usb3 enclosures can handle way more bandwidth, and a good enclosure will get you 99% of what the drive gets natively, or in the case of a system with crappy onboard sata, a whole lot more. Some people with good enclosure controllers and bad sata port controllers are reporting a huge increase in performance when switching to a usb3 enclosure.

 

[lagokc]

Im thinking your USB 3 enclosures arnt really USB 3, or there is an issue with your USB 3 drivers.

I have both USB 2 and USB 3 hard drive docks I use for backups weekly with a few 2TB drives I have kicking around. Transfer speeds on my old USB 2 dock are ~25MB/sec, on the USB 3 dock they are consistently 60-90MB/sec.

Has anyone else noticed that a lot of the USB3 controllers and drivers are... immature? You'd think they'd have most of the bugs worked out by now but apparently even Intel is still having issues.

 

[Tsavo]

My USB 3 drives average out to 130 MB/s for large single file transfers.

Renesas USB chip.

 

[Rifter]

Your enclosures have craptastic controllers in them, the controllers are at fault. Good usb3 enclosures can handle way more bandwidth, and a good enclosure will get you 99% of what the drive gets natively, or in the case of a system with crappy onboard sata, a whole lot more. Some people with good enclosure controllers and bad sata port controllers are reporting a huge increase in performance when switching to a usb3 enclosure.

I agree with this, and its why I spent $60 on my USB 3 dock instead of grabbing a cheap $20 one.

 

[TheStu]

My 1TB 2.5" USB3 Toshiba external averages 100MB/s R/Ws. What's interesting is that instead of a regular SATA drive plugging into a board in the case, the PCB on the drive itself is custom and has a USB3 connector on it.

 

[geniusloci]

USB2 docks are intolerable. USB3 docks are actually usable.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Goddamn it. So I guess I have *four* crappy-ass enclosures.

1. The USB 3.0 plug - that weird one that kind of looks like two plugs side by side - is that required? USB 3.0 can't have just a standard looking USB rectangular port?

2. So that I have a cheapo 5400 RPM 2.5" drive. That should *definitely* be getting over 30 MB/s with the right interface, right?

3. I have a Western Digital Passport 2TB drive. 2.5", actual USB 3.0 weird plug thing, and it still gets 30MB/s... I have the Asus UX32VD.

 

[jaqie]

1) yes, no in order 2) yes 3) somethings wrong there, check for true usb3 and proper port and pins and non broken usb3 cable, could also be a bad chip on mobo reverting to usb2 but thats rare

 

[KeithP]

3. I have a Western Digital Passport 2TB drive. 2.5", actual USB 3.0 weird plug thing, and it still gets 30MB/s

I have the same drive connected to a MacBook Pro. I have never benchmarked it but it is significantly faster than my 7200 RPM 3.5" external FW800 drives on the same system. Something is definitely wrong on your system.

-KeithP

 

[Torn Mind]

Big difference shows up in Clonezilla when I use my Canvio in a USB 2.0 port vs. and USB 3.0 port in terms of getting backups done.

 

[Zap]

Has anyone else noticed that a lot of the USB3 controllers and drivers are... immature? You'd think they'd have most of the bugs worked out by now but apparently even Intel is still having issues.

Yeah, I have a Seagate USB 3.0 drive that works fine on everything (so far), but some random 3rd party enclosures that act really weird. On some boards they don't spin up, on others drive inside sounds like it is dying (the "ka-chunk, ka-chunk" noises), on others Windows just says it isn't working properly... then magically it will work.

I agree with this, and its why I spent $60 on my USB 3 dock instead of grabbing a cheap $20 one.

How do you know the more expensive one is actually better? ???

 

[Termie]

Yeah, I have a Seagate USB 3.0 drive that works fine on everything (so far), but some random 3rd party enclosures that act really weird. On some boards they don't spin up, on others drive inside sounds like it is dying (the "ka-chunk, ka-chunk" noises), on others Windows just says it isn't working properly... then magically it will work.

I have experienced all of these problems using my motherboard's ports, plus even worse issues with the front USB ports on my case.

Not very impressive rollout of a technology that is several years old now.

 

[mfenn]

Goddamn it. So I guess I have *four* crappy-ass enclosures.

1. The USB 3.0 plug - that weird one that kind of looks like two plugs side by side - is that required? USB 3.0 can't have just a standard looking USB rectangular port?

2. So that I have a cheapo 5400 RPM 2.5" drive. That should *definitely* be getting over 30 MB/s with the right interface, right?

3. I have a Western Digital Passport 2TB drive. 2.5", actual USB 3.0 weird plug thing, and it still gets 30MB/s... I have the Asus UX32VD.

The fact that you're experiencing problems with 4 drives, including a real WD one, indicates to me that the issue is with your computer, not with your drives. Do you have a desktop or a friend with USB 3.0 ports?

 

[Tsavo]

I've slowly migrated to USB 3.0 external enclosures for my HDDs.

Running HD Tune, my 3.5" USB 2.0 gets 29.8 MB/s average.
My four 2.5" USB 3.0 HDDs all get around 28 MB/s.

USB 2.0 gets 480 mbps, so that's 68 MB/s. That's still more than half of what these drives are capable of.

So, barring SSDs, what's the point of having USB 3.0? It seems like an SSD is the only kind of drive that can even remotely take advantage of the USB 3.0 interface. Or hell, even a regular SATA interface.

Try updating your USB 3 drivers.

http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=USB3.0&p=3&s=111

 

[jaqie]

Yeah, I have a Seagate USB 3.0 drive that works fine on everything (so far), but some random 3rd party enclosures that act really weird. On some boards they don't spin up, on others drive inside sounds like it is dying (the "ka-chunk, ka-chunk" noises), on others Windows just says it isn't working properly... then magically it will work.

Not enough power for the drive.

Either the controller board is limited somehow (usb3 powered not wall wart powered) or you are using a wall wart that is just not able to supply enough to give a stable voltage for drive spinup. Try a wall wart that works with that drive on another controller for sure.

You'd be amazed how many wall warts that come with things are incapable of powering up most drives.

 

[piasabird]

What about ESATA?

Wonder if Thunderbolt will catch on? It is suppose to be able to carry both Video and Data at the same time and be faster. I was wondering if USB3 actually worked at the speed they say it works at. Keep in mind that USB? has a speed but the more devices you use cuts down on that speed. I wonder if we can get Anand to do some testing on this???

So are these 2.5" drives 7200 rpm???

Most 2.5" drives are slower.

I saw a device in a couple places that is basically a hot swappable 1xPCIe SSD Device.

 

[lagokc]

What about ESATA?

Good: Fast, seems to have fewer issues than USB, smart enough to tell drives to spin down when not needed (a lot of USB enclosures just leave the drive spinning 24/7 which isn't great for consumer drives)

Bad: can't supply power so you need a seperate power cable

 

[bryanl]

Goddamn it. So I guess I have *four* crappy-ass enclosures.

1. The USB 3.0 plug - that weird one that kind of looks like two plugs side by side - is that required? USB 3.0 can't have just a standard looking USB rectangular port?

2. So that I have a cheapo 5400 RPM 2.5" drive. That should *definitely* be getting over 30 MB/s with the right interface, right?

3. I have a Western Digital Passport 2TB drive. 2.5", actual USB 3.0 weird plug thing, and it still gets 30MB/s... I have the Asus UX32VD.

1: USB 3.0 needs the additional wires provided by the second part of the connector. Without those wires, transmission will occur only on the other wires and be no faster than USB 2.0 speeds. Look at a USB 3.0 port of your computer and note the 5 pins near the front. There are no such pins for USB 2.0 ports.

2, 3: 30 MB/s indicates operation in USB 2.0 mode, which could be caused by incorrect installation of the USB 3.0 driver or poor connections with those front USB 3.0 pins on the port (which seems unusually common).

 

[bryanl]

Yeah, I have a Seagate USB 3.0 drive that works fine on everything (so far), but some random 3rd party enclosures that act really weird. On some boards they don't spin up, on others drive inside sounds like it is dying (the "ka-chunk, ka-chunk" noises), on others Windows just says it isn't working properly... then magically it will work.

How do you know the more expensive one is actually better? ???

This marking

or this marking

on the AC adapter. Don't accept less. If the manufacturer cared enough to provide a UL approved adapter, it likely cared enough about the quality of the interface circuitry.

Also some enclosures may use USB 3.0 - SATA bridge chips that are not compatible with all ports.