SSD Compared to "Main" SSD?

boleyd

Well-known member
My ONLY disk storage is a built-in 1tb SSD. I see SSDs on Amazon fo $90 (1tb) that connect via USB. Are the USB connected SSDs noticeably slower than in the "on board" SSD I presently have installed?

Another related question is determining the speed of my SSD ports. The advertisement mentions various USB port types and speed. Is there a way to discover actually what I have?

Just nervous depending on a single storage device.

The PC is an "off-the-shelf" product with a terabyte SSD. It appears to one of those minimalist boards with no expansion ports. I am quite satisfied with the performance but backup is an issue. About 50% of on-board 1tb SSD is used. With Trainz stuff the largest application/program.
 
A usb port is going to be about the same speed the the sata ports on your motherboard that you hook up 3.5 inch sata ssd card or regular hard drives (about 6gb/sec bandwidth and 600mb/sec transfer speed). Nvme M.2 Cards are usually from 3000 up to 7000mb/sec transfer speed. Look around on your mother board and see if you have a second nvme port. You'll know it when you see three screw holes in a line with a nvme plug at the end. All motherboards come with sata plugs along the lower right edge as that is where you normally plug hard drives. If all you need is something for back up get a sata ssd card for internal or an external card. You can also get larger nvme drives as well. I have a 2tb nvme in my computer along with a 1tb sata ssd and 2 regular hard drives I've had for years. Hope this helps.

Jack
 
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My ONLY disk storage is a built-in 1tb SSD. I see SSDs on Amazon fo $90 (1tb) that connect via USB. Are the USB connected SSDs noticeably slower than in the "on board" SSD I presently have installed?

Another related question is determining the speed of my SSD ports. The advertisement mentions various USB port types and speed. Is there a way to discover actually what I have?

Just nervous depending on a single storage device.

The PC is an "off-the-shelf" product with a terabyte SSD. It appears to one of those minimalist boards with no expansion ports. I am quite satisfied with the performance but backup is an issue. About 50% of on-board 1tb SSD is used. With Trainz stuff the largest application/program.

If it is a fairly recent motherboard then it will have usb 3 or even later. These are fine with an external SSD however it may also have a USB 2 port which is visually identical so see if there is any documentation like a user manual or anything that came with the PC. Otherwise suck it and see. An external USB 2 port isn't impossible.

Cheerio John
 
THANKS - researching the Gigabyte site shows the board but doesn't label any ports as others do. Really odd.
Anyhow, it is recent and probably ok. I have no choice. I'll grab a USB/SSD and see what happens.
Dick
 
THANKS - researching the Gigabyte site shows the board but doesn't label any ports as others do. Really odd.
Anyhow, it is recent and probably ok. I have no choice. I'll grab a USB/SSD and see what happens.
Dick

You only need USB 2 speeds for keyboards and mice so you may have a mixture. There is benchmarking software around if it seems slow on one port.

Cheerio John
 
Generally USB 3 ports on motherboards, laptops etc. have a blue centre tab whereas a USB 2 ports are black. While USB C has its own distinctive shape and would be even better, unfortunately USB 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 cannot be distinguished physically and you would need the spec of the host hardware. Peter
 
If your board has a USB C connection, you'll find that port is a bit faster than the standard SATA port on the motherboard. I currently have my data hard disks connected externally via a USB C enclosure and the access time is quite acceptable with no lag even when loading large amounts of data.
 
Hi,
I find that a reliable way to discover compatible upgrades is to use the Crucial scanner.
the result will (obviously) suggest Crucial products, but will give you which type of (for example) SSD to buy.
i‘ve just done that and bought a 2.5 inch 1Tb SSD. I then cloned the original C:\ drive (disc) using their software.
very straightforward (and SSD drives on sale just now)
 
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