thunderbolt vs usb 3.0 (mechanical disk)

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Level 1

54 points

thunderbolt vs usb 3.0 (mechanical disk)

I decided to buy portable hard disk for my macbook pro 15" retina and initially I chose for Thunderbolt interconnection but I thought usb 3.0 is better because problem is r/w time of HD (about 100-150 MB/s); Thunderbolt is ok for flash units but with mechanical disk means "to throw out money on the air".

What do you think? Can you suggest me portable disk for 2 TB usb 3.0 ?

MacBook Pro with Retina display

Posted on Apr 26, 2014 7:20 AM

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Answer 1

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,114 points

Apr 27, 2014 11:42 AM in response to Rickyleroy

I use USB3 external drive all the time. If you want it to be fast you need to have 2.5" drvie that has a speed of 7200 RPM. An SSD would be even better. I have used slow drives (5400) with USB3 and it is slow due to the drive. The system is only as fast as the slowest part. I like getting my own enclosures and my own 2.5" drive and installing in the enclosure. Most ready made external 2.5" drives use the slow HDD.

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