SSD External > USB 3 or SATA ?

WaveLab
1

Hi all

I’m want to buy a SSD 1TB external drive.

Should it run on USB 3 or SATA ? Which is the best for Cubase setup.

Here is my current setup:


I run c: SSD and then record to d: RAID and samplestream from e: also RAID drives

Here is my system specs:

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1

CPU
Intel Core i7 3770K @ 3.50GHz
Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology

RAM
32.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)

Motherboard
Intel Corporation DH77KC (CPU 1)

Graphics
SAMSUNG (1600x900@60Hz)
SAMSUNG (1600x900@60Hz)
1023MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 440 (ASUStek Computer Inc

Storage

In C: 238GB PLEXTOR PX-256M3 ATA Device (SSD)

In RAID E:
1397GB Seagate ST31500341AS SCSI Disk Device (SATA)
1397GB Seagate ST31500341AS SCSI Disk Device (SATA)

In RAID D:
1397GB Seagate ST31500341AS SCSI Disk Device (SATA)
1397GB Seagate ST31500341AS SCSI Disk Device (SATA)

Other :

2794GB Western Digital WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0 ATA Device (SATA)
931GB Hitachi HGST TOURO S USB Device (USB (SATA)

Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NS90 ATA Device
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NS90 ATA Device

Audio
RME HDSPe AIO

2

Either USB 3 or SATA is fine. Recent Mobos have been phasing out SATA as USB 3 is plenty fast. I have such a mobo, but threw a SATA connector in as I had a spare SATA port and already had 2 external SATA drives. If I didn’t already have these, I’d probably go the USB 3 route.

-Tom

3

Really? :astonished: Does that mean that internal SATA drives are a thing of the past?

4

And if that’s the case, I’d hope they have some means to keep the connections secured, as USB tends to easily get loose.

5

For external, eSATA is the best, as has exactly the same performance as internal SATA, mainly because the only thing that is different is the connector!

Transfer rates for USB may be fast, but SATA does not have the protocol overhead of USB, which is a shared bus that needs to periodically refresh its connection configuration.

What is your motherboard?

I would not expect that to be anywhere near all of them going that way. There are still going to be many uses for configurable workstation MBs.

6

If your motherboard doesn’t have eSATA sockets, you can buy cheap eSATA III rear-panel brackets (example) and cables (example), though you will need to power your drive externally.

7

The latest X99 MBs from Asus and Gigabyte even have SATA Express on them, which operate as SATA III or 2-channel PCIe, the latter giving up to 16Gb/s.

Yes, there will be a range of MBs that will cater for those who don’t need mass low-latency IO, but the rest are certainly far from forgotten!

8

Got 2 X SSD’s over USB 3

Must say it’s working very well !! Large projects even in 88.2 / 32