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Sentinel
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join:2001-02-07
Florida

Sentinel

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USB 3.0 real world throughput?

I had an external HD that can do USB 3.0 but most I ever got out of it was roughly 70 Mb/s. Better than I ever got when connected to a USB 2.0 port but nowhere near the theoretical max that USB is supposedly capable of. I figured it was old and probably manufactured at the beginning of the USB standard so maybe a new could do better.

So yesterday I got a new WD external HD and copied a large amount of files of different sizes and best sustained rate I got was roughly 70 to 80 Mb/s.

So my question is: In the real world usage what speed to most people get when transferring files via USB 3.0? I just want to make sure that I am getting a normal and average speed because if not then I might have something wrong or not set up correctly.

MacGyver

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MacGyver

I have a USB 3.0 2.5" enclosure with a Toshiba MK3261GSYG 320 GB hard drive in it. Copying a large 3 gig file to it yields a transfer rate of 100-120 MB/s.

Then I decided a more real world test. Copy 12,647 MB out of my downloads folder from my WD Black 1 TB to said USB3 hard drive. I got files of all shapes and sizes in there, some fragmented for sure. Took 4 minutes exactly, yielding a transfer rate of 52.7 MB/s.
Sentinel
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join:2001-02-07
Florida

Sentinel

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Yep, that sounds about what I'm getting. So I guess I have everything configured right. Must just be that USB 3.0 is just not as fast as I thought it would be. Info pdf for this external driver says "up to 5gb/s" so I thought I would get somewhere around a couple of hundred MB per sec; but no such luck.
Bachinator
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70 MB/s sounds about right in the disk in the enclosure is a SATA 2 on USB 3.

I ran some tests using a Vantec USB 3.0 dock. In all but one of the tests the disk was freshly formatted in order to test the interface speed without fragmentation of the file system skewing the test.

Testing done with CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64, posted the sequential read/write results.

Seagate ST9320325AS 320GB 2.5" SATA 2: Read 73 MB/s, Write 73 MB/s

Seagate ST31000524AS 1TB 3.5" SATA 3: Read 122 MB/s, Write 121 MB/s

Same 1TB Seagate ST31000524AS but with 836GB of data on disk: Read 99 MB/s, Write 96 MB/s

Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB 3.5" SATA 3: Read 189 MB/s, Write 182 MB/s

For comparison, an identical Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX mounted in the case, connected to a SATA 3 interface: Read 195 MB/s, Write 183 MB/s
Sentinel
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join:2001-02-07
Florida

Sentinel

Premium Member

I am using an older Seagate external drive which is sealed so I have no idea what kind of HD is inside it. But since it is older I will make the assumption that it is SATA but I have no idea if it is 3 or 6 speed. The new external that I am getting roughly the same speed from though, is a WD and it is current brand new production. So I would assume that that would possibly have a SATA 3 drive in it. Specs for the drive from their website say "up to 5GB/s" transfer rate. I am getting nowhere near that.
asdfdfdfdfdf
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Keep in mind that the transfer rate is theoretical maximum of the interface. A hard drive will never be able to reach anything approximating the theoretical maximum of 5Gb/s. Hard drive performance with recent drives is a bit better than with older drives. I think what you are seeing is reasonable and I don't see any cause for concern that something isn't working right.

aurgathor
join:2002-12-01
Lynnwood, WA

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When you transfer files, the likely path is the following:
Internal SATA HD -- SATA cable -- SATA controller -- CPU -- Windows' USB stack - USB3 host controller -- USB3 cable -- USB3 controller -- USB3 to SATA bridge -- SATA HD.

So in essence you are testing a complex system, not just a single interface, and you would need to test each piece separately to figure just who or what is responsible for the less than advertised throughput.

Testing HDs is relatively easy, just get a copy of something like HD Tune Pro, you can assume that the cables are good, but testing the rest individually may require equipment most people do not have.

For the record, I tested one of my USB 3.0 enclosure (couldn't find the others) and I got 74 - 76 MB/s when copying from a HD (3 TB WD Red) and about 72 - 74 MB/s when copying from an SSD. Go figure...

BTW, copying from the internal HD to the internal SSD yielded about 145 - 150 MB/s.

beerbum
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join:2000-05-06
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I know that many who see those 100 - 120 MB/s reported speeds think that they seem slow..

Remember most apps report MegaBYTE(s) per second, and in today's connected world we are used to seeing transfer rates of 50, 70, and 115 Mbps - Megabits per second..

So that 100 MB/s translates to about 839 Mbps and your 120 MB/sec comes to about 1 Gbps. In no way should that be considered "slow".

_in theory_ a file transfer at the usb 3.0 "max" speed of 5 Gbps would roughly be reported at about 590 MB/s by windows explorer..

Now for me.. the real world file transfers I am seeing when sending files from my windows desktop via 1 Gbps ethernet, down to an external 2 TB Seagate Expansion Disk connected via USB 3.0 to my Asus RT-N65U router are in the neighborhood of about 114-123 Mbps..

Which is decent compared to the previous drive, a 1.5 TB Western Digital "Green" drive connected to the same router with USB 2.0 .. On a good day I would see 20-24 Mbps.. Have large files to move? start transfer, go shopping, come back in a few hours, see transfers still chugging along.. Go read a book or two while waiting for transfers to complete.