Who has used an SSD enclosure either 2.5" or m.2?

3    10 May 2021 06:23 by u/Lethn

I'm thinking of getting one because I'm going to finally go HDD free when I get a new case etc. for my PC and move everything over but I want to make a backup just in case and figured for the storage space I can get an external enclosure and maybe an m.2 to make everything a lot less big and clunky. Or maybe I could get a standard 2.5" SSD drive with an enclosure then slot that in as an extra hard drive when I'm done? What's everyone's experiences been with the new stuff? Do the enclosures or even purely external SSDs slow down in performance at all? Or is it now all pretty reliable and may as well be exactly the same as plugging direct into your motherboard thanks to USB?

5 comments

1 u/WinstonThe9th 10 May 2021 08:01
You'll def not want to use USB for your primary drive. USB is was slower than sata. There isn't really much difference using an ssd and using a hdd other than boot time for the majority of users. But even that varies depending on os. Ram is still a bigger factor than an ssd ever will be. That said there is no difference between the sata connector in ssds and hdds. If you want to play with an m1 card they connect with msata. Unless you have a comp that can handle msata you'll need an adaptor. Both msata and sata run at the same speed. About 6/gbps. USB 3 is speced at 5/gbps. USB always does worse than sata because sata was designed for hdd use and USB wasn't. The USB controllers don't do well and they're is more stress on the cpu. I would suggest getting a standard internal ssd with a sata connector and call it a day. Edit: Mmm just reread your post and I'm not sure exactly what you are asking. Do you want advice on sorting out your ssd? Or are you just asking if you should have a second hard drive that plugs in via USB for a back up?
2 u/Lethn [OP] 10 May 2021 08:15
Oh for the record I'm just using it for storage or maybe running games on it, I use a HDD as my primary backup but it's incredibly old now and I think I should look at buying an SSD soon in case it decides to go kaput plus I'm always happy to have fast storage. You answered my question for me generally though so I know that it won't be an ideal situation to use the enclosure for anything other than easy access to my files. The reason I was asking was that I plan on getting an enclosure so I can just safely isolate my most important backups while I work on transferring all of my components to a new case. Once I do that and I know nothing has gone wrong then I'll plug the SSD in as normal to the motherboard and put away the enclosure for safe keeping maybe in case I ever need to fiddle with the PC, at least that's the plan. Seems like a much more cost effective and sensible option than buying a whole external hard drive of some kind if I know the backup SSD will work.
1 u/WinstonThe9th 10 May 2021 08:25
Glad I could help a bit. :) I have a 3tb backup in a powered enclosure but I really only access it when I need to back stuff up. If you want to get super cool. Look into setting up a piNas. Ideally your backup should be separate from your main machine. Setting up a Nas with a pi does that and while it isn't crazy fast it'll let you copy things to and from your drive pretty easily. Another thing you could do if you did want to get that drive enclosure, is many new routers allow you to plug a hard drive into them to be used as a net work drive. That's also all easy way to configure a home back up kind of thing.
2 u/Lethn [OP] 10 May 2021 08:56
Yeah it's mainly about having something that's isolated from the main PC so if the worst should happen I'll at least have my literal life's work on there no problem, I already have backups on my HDD and it's served me well because it means if anything happens to the operating system or whatever then it's a non-issue but I should look into something a bit more sophisticated. Lately though despite all the hardware strangeness I've been experiencing Windows 10 is for the most part pretty solid and not as prone to breaking as Windows XP and 7 was sometimes back in the day even though the update system is cancer.
2 u/Ryaniskira 10 May 2021 13:26
Actually, uasp over USB 3.0 provides performance comparable to an internal sata 3 port (625MB/s vs 750MB/s respectively). With your run of the mill TLC or QLC SSD writing at ~500MB/s in short bursts, you're never going to saturate either connection, and I highly doubt any performance difference will be noticeable to the user.