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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Thunderbolt 2 or USB 3.0 for external JBOD? | |
Michael H wrote:
Need to add some type of external storage for my 2015 imac. I have a base level late 2015 with plans to use external storage for most things.
I've been ready to pull the trigger on a OWC 4 Bay Thunderbolt 2 enclosure, but I've been thinking about it a bit more. at this point I am probably over thinking things, but would a good USB enclosure at half the cost be as effective? The point I'm wrapped around is the actual drive transfer speed. I think I hit throughput limits of drive speed on a 7200rpm drive transfer well under USB 3.0 limits. I'm not overly concerned with Daisy chain of thunderbolt. Only JBOD for now, no raid planned. Am I missing anything? USB 3 gives me some additional system options where today Thursday Dermot is primarily Apple....Show more →
Michael: Thunderbolt is measurably faster than 3.0. The caveat, of course, is that real-world usage and data types will have an effect on the actual speed you experience with Thunderbolt (or 3.0 for that matter). That being said, the difference between Thunderbolt and 3.0 is especially noticeable when accessing data from external drives, as you plan to do. And while it may be true that your drive transfer speed overall may inhibit things a bit, I would imagine you'd still be better off running Thunderbolt.
Indeed, when running Thunderbolt 2 using one of the better SSD drives, the difference in speed is pretty dramatic. MacWorld conducted a speed comparison between the two using an SSD and found:
"Thunderbolt was much faster on these SSD tests than it was with the spinning hard drive, and it was faster than USB 3.0 in all six tasks, though to varying degrees. It was 35 percent faster than USB 3.0 at writing our 10GB folder of files, 17 percent faster at reading those files, 14 percent faster at reading our large 10GB file, and a scant 6 percent faster at writing that file. Aja System Test showed more differences, though. The Thunderbolt-connected drive posted a write score of 355 MBps and a read score of 370 MBps, as compared to the 193.2 MBps write and 167.6 MBps read scores USB 3.0 posted using Aja System Test."
Hope this helps.
- Steve
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