USB vs SATA performance of HDD

[Santy]

I wanted to know if I will have a significant speed advantage of connecting my 2TB Seagate USB 2.0 HDD directly to SATA on my PC. I never carried the drive away from the rack so I was wondering by doing so, if I could

(1) gain some speed (if possible)
(2) save a USB port
(3) avoid power adaptor
(4) get rid of messy wires

So I opened up the plastic enclosure today, shoved it into the HDD bay, wired it on SATA and compared the speed. I am shocked to know how faster it is now. :yahoo:

Tested other drives as well during the experiment. Configuration of PC used is in my signature. Used CrystalDisk Mark software for testing.

Seagate GoFlex USB 2.0 HDD 3.5", 2TB connected on USB 2.0 port
That's too slow. I should have been a very patient person to have lived with it.

Seagate GoFlex USB 2.0 HDD 3.5", 2TB connected on USB 3.0 port
Hmm. Unexpected. The USB 3.0 architecture seems to help the older 2.0 interface drives to perform better (atleast with large files, sequential read/write). Random access speed is almost same.

This is a test on a USB 3.0 pen drive 16GB
Not so much of difference from previous test in sequential read/ write but for short bursts of random read/ write, it definitely shines. But I am not clear why 512k random write is so slow. Tried twice but with same results. Smaller files write speed is pathetic. :sad:

Going back to the Seagate drive, now it is directly mounted in the PC. Large file sequential read/ write speed is amazing. Around 300% faster. Perfect for storing large video files. I am so glad with the result that I just packed its plastic enclosure and accessories and kept it aside. Ofcourse not much of difference in accessing or writing small files, but there aren't any on this drive.

Now for the speed test on my WD Caviar Black 1 TB drive
Sequential performance with large files is not so different but some improvement in read speed of random data observed. However, random write speed is almost 3 times faster for smaller files.

Finally tested my OCZ SSD which simply beat the living daylights out of all other contenders here. No wonder my PC boots to start screen in 6 seconds flat.

 

[Amp_Nut]

Hi Santy,

What did you pasy for the OCZ SSD ?

 

[Santy]

Hi Santy,

What did you pasy for the OCZ SSD ?

A shade less than 4k...
That works out to be Rs. 66 per GB. In contrast WD Green 2TB would be just Rs. 3 per GB of space! So Disk Drives are here to stay, atleast for another decade.

 

[spirovious]

Thanks for doing that tests,so USB 2.0 can gain some speed when connected to USB 3.0,that's interesting find.

 

[greenhorn]

why not go eSATA? I'm using a 7200rpm 2.5" drive over eSATA, and its faster than my Laptop's built in 5400rpm drive

 

[Santy]

why not go eSATA? I'm using a 7200rpm 2.5" drive over eSATA, and its faster than my Laptop's built in 5400rpm drive

The performance gain must be due to the fact that your external drive spins faster not because of eSATA. eSATA is only a connector /cable type not a different technology.

I am not sure if I can connect my USB drive through eSATA. If I remove the USB dock in order to connect an eSATA cable, I wont have power supply to the drive. Please correct me if I am wrong. In any case I wish to keep the HDD inside the PC and get rid of everything else that came along with it

EDIT: Again, I think I cannot connect eSATA cable on HDD with standard SATA port

 

[greenhorn]

um, of course the 7200rpm drive will be faster than my 5400rpm drive. My point was not to say that eSata is faster, but rather it is just that with eSATA, you get the full speed of the disk - ie the interface will not be the bottleneck, while at the same time retaining the convenience of a USB drive. You can get yourself an ESATA enclosure for your drive, and an eSATA bracket for your PC.
If your plan was to connect the hard disk internally, why bother buying a USB hard disk in the first place ?

 

[Santy]

If your plan was to connect the hard disk internally, why bother buying a USB hard disk in the first place ?

Because my USB HDD was bought 3 years back (for media player) and PC was built 3 months back.

 

[ranjeetrain]

Great experiment and amazing discovery. Three cheers for you to have heart to do such experiments. What surprises me most is that you are able to run a USB disk as an internal SATA. It has been believed that USB disks don't come witt SATA controllers. They just have an USB interface.

Can you post some pictures of the innards and how did you get it to work. Will be extremely helpful for many people.

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

Great experiment and amazing discovery. Three cheers for you to have heart to do such experiments. What surprises me most is that you are able to run a USB disk as an internal SATA. It has been believed that USB disks don't come witt SATA controllers. They just have an USB interface.

Can you post some pictures of the innards and how did you get it to work. Will be extremely helpful for many people.

All USB hard disk and i mean all, whether needing external power supply or not are actually desktop/laptop grade hard disks which have a USB to SATA connection inside.

Rule of thumb: if the hard disk does not require a power supply, its a 5400 RPM Laptop 2.5" hard disk
if the hard disk requires a power supply, its a 5400 RPM Green 3.5" Hard disk

 

[ranjeetrain]

All USB hard disk and i mean all, whether needing external power supply or not are actually desktop/laptop grade hard disks which have a USB to SATA connection inside.

Rule of thumb: if the hard disk does not require a power supply, its a 5400 RPM Laptop 2.5" hard disk
if the hard disk requires a power supply, its a 5400 RPM Green 3.5" Hard disk

Interesting! That's nice to know.

Btw, is that information from some credible source? I haven't come across any such document stating such a thing.

 

[ranjeetrain]

All USB hard disk and i mean all, whether needing external power supply or not are actually desktop/laptop grade hard disks which have a USB to SATA connection inside.

Rule of thumb: if the hard disk does not require a power supply, its a 5400 RPM Laptop 2.5" hard disk
if the hard disk requires a power supply, its a 5400 RPM Green 3.5" Hard disk

Could you confirm that what you said will hold true for WD MyBookEssential?

They are very cheap (4 TB under 14k) and can become a great way to upgrade the drive inside my desktop/laptop?

 

[Santy]

@ranjeet
Thanks but its not something new I found. All USB drives use the same internal HDD drives only that is meant for desktop or laptop.

Ofcourse, it would not make sense for anyone to do what I did, unless their requirement is same as mine (ie after having bought USB drive, not making use of its mobility, wish to get rid of the wires and power cables and gain speed by direct mount on SATA inside PC).

This is how my USB drive looks
1,2,3 marked below are actually SATA data ports.
4,5,6 are for powering the drive and all PSUs will have this SATA power connector.

Check this video for removing the HDD from its enclosure.

 

[Santy]

Could you confirm that what you said will hold true for WD MyBookEssential?

They are very cheap (4 TB under 14k) and can become a great way to upgrade the drive inside my desktop/laptop?

Sure its possible. Check this link to know how to open it (if you already have one)

But if you are buying, you can straightaway buy an internal HDD instead, I guess?

 

[ranjeetrain]

But if you are buying, you can straightaway buy an internal HDD instead, I guess?

Sure, I can, but the prices come in the way. I wonder how can WD sell an 4TB external drive which is a 4 TB internal drive + SATA to USB converter + a nice casing all for US$ 177.99 whereas the same hard drive alone costs about 2 times the money.

There is more to it than meets the eye?

 

[Santy]

Sure, I can, but the prices come in the way. I wonder how can WD sell an 4TB external drive which is a 4 TB internal drive + SATA to USB converter + a nice casing all for US$ 177.99 whereas the same hard drive alone costs about 2 times the money.

There is more to it than meets the eye?

Yes ranjeet. In some cases, the USB Drive seems to be cheaper than Internal ones for same capacity. I have also wondered why. Most likely, the internal drive must be faster. But price difference is not that much as I see.

On Amazon, WD 4 TB USB drive is $177 and Seagate 4TB drive is $192

WD Black is high performance drive so it may not be fair to compare that with the one inside a typical USB drive.

 

[haisaikat]

I am not sure if I can connect my USB drive through eSATA. If I remove the USB dock in order to connect an eSATA cable, I wont have power supply to the drive. Please correct me if I am wrong. In any case I wish to keep the HDD inside the PC and get rid of everything else that came along with it

EDIT: Again, I think I cannot connect eSATA cable on HDD with standard SATA port

The solution is eSata-p

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESATAp

eSATAp ( Power over e-Sata ) to eSATA + USB Mini B 5 pin Cable, 1m - 3.0Gbit/s | eBay

 

[greenhorn]

um, the internal disk is a 7200 rpm one with a decent cache. Not sure about the speed and the cache of the one in the external hard disk. Perhaps santy can confirm.
Again, the warranty periods are different too, and they make a world of difference.

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

I have opened up a few hard disks, so i know. Also it makes business sense. The price difference might be due to discounts, any way 20$ is not a big margin.

 

[sam9s]

Finally tested my OCZ SSD which simply beat the living daylights out of all other contenders here. No wonder my PC boots to start screen in 6 seconds flat.

Thanks for OCZ benchmark, I wanted to have a latest SSD bench mark to compare it with my Intel X-25M bought 2 years back, if it was still holding good enough and I see it is. Though point to note is the 4K(Random) results, which is what happens most of the time, not sequential/