external 2.5" drive connector hot?

[P4-630]

When I use an external 2.5" drive connected to my laptop, the connector gets pretty warm/hot, the drive itself is not hot at all, is this normal?
Once my current drives in my laptop are full I'm planning on buying a 2.5" 500GB/1TB samsung 850 evo and install games on it as external drive, or is that a bad idea?

I'm using such as this connector:

 

[Jetster]

How many games you need installed at one time?

 

[P4-630]

How many games you need installed at one time?

Well.. most of them
And games these days can get very large in filesize.

 

[Jetster]

IMO I wouldn't use an external drive for active programs. Maybe data folders but really a 1Tb or 500Gb SSD should be enough for games galore. I'm not saying it wont work but you bound to have disconnect issues

 

[P4-630]

IMO I wouldn't use an external drive for active programs. Maybe data folders but really a 1Tb or 500Gb SSD should be enough for games galore. I'm not saying it wont work but you bound to have disconnect issues

How about the connector that gets hot when I connect a 2.5" HDD or SSD?
This is normal? Could I run games from it safely?

 

[Jetster]

Don't know how hot. Some heat is probably normal. You should be able to hold onto it continually

 

[Bill_Bright]

the connector gets pretty warm/hot... is this normal?

That depends on what warm/hot really means. If your room and table top is sitting at 70°F, and your connector is at 80°F, that would be noticeably warmer to the touch but nothing to worry about.

Do you feel it would burn you if you left your hand on it for a bit?

I would zap it with a IR Thermometer and take an actual reading. Don't have one? Ask Santa for one. These are great for things like this, or checking heat sinks, frying pans, grills, the wall, foreheads (NOT eyes!!!) and more. Note according to most Public Safety organizations, the maximum temperature of the water coming out of our faucets should not exceed 120°F. And plastics melt at temperatures considerably higher than that. It takes approximately 2 hours of exposures to temperatures of 113°F (45°C) to get a 2nd degree burn. So I would not worry about it unless the temperatures were at or above 110°F (43.3°C).

 

[P4-630]

I found this on toms hardware about running games of external ssd:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2189031/external-ssd-gaming.html

One guy says: "Data on an external SSD pushed through the USB port is slow anyways."

USB 3.0 speed is 640MBps, so it seems BS to me what this guy says.

 

[Bill_Bright]

USB 3.0 speed is 640MBps, so it seems BS to me what this guy says.

Technically, the guy is right - but just barely.

To be precise the "maximum theoretical bandwidth" for USB 3.0 is actually up to 5 Gbps or "625 MBps" (8 bits per byte so 5/8 = .625). Again, that's for USB 3.0 and he does not specify USB 3.0. But that's insignificant compared to 640 - so not the point.

But having said that, the "maximum theoretical bandwidth" for SATA III (the SSD's most likely interface) is up to 6Gbps (or "750MBps") so there is a little bottle neck with an external USB connected drive as opposed to connecting an internal SSD directly through the SATA III interface. But restricting the bottleneck a little further, there will also be some loss in bandwidth through the enclosure's USB to SATA adapter.

Now whether these result in any "noticeable" difference in performance is a whole nother ball of wax as the drive's own R/W performance, system RAM, bus speeds and the CPU play a role in a drive's overall performance too - not to mention, once the file is loaded into RAM, the drive is no longer in the game.

Finally, one more factor that may matter. With an internal connected drive, there is only one SATA device per SATA interface ensuring the SATA connected drive has access to that full 6Gbps bandwidth. Depending on the motherboard and how the user has connected the external USB drive, it could be sharing that 5Gbps bandwidth with other USB devices through a single USB controller.

So, if using an external USB drive, ensure it is connected to it's own USB controller and not an internal or external hub with other connected devices.

 

[P4-630]

there will also be some loss in bandwidth through the enclosure's USB to SATA adapter.

I will be using this to connect the SSD to a USB 3.0 port on my laptop:

I will not use an enclosure so I don't think there will be any loss then.

Edit: Samsung 850 evo 500GB has 540MB/s read and 520MB/s write, I should be fine then.

 

[Jetster]

USB 3.0 is 70 Mb/s SSD is 400 Mb/s this is actual speed. USB never delivers anywhere close to theoretical speeds but SSD comes close if you have SSD to SSD

 

[P4-630]

USB 3.0 is 70 Mb/s SSD is 400 Mb/s this is actual speed. USB never delivers anywhere close to theoretical speeds but SSD comes close if you have SSD to SSD

Thats USB 2.0 what you are talking about...

"The now-aging USB 2.0 standard can theoretically transfer data at a very high 480 megabits per second (mbps), or 60 megabytes per second (MBps).
That's impressive, but not as much as the newer USB 3.0, which can handle up to 5gbps(640MBps)—over ten times as fast as the 2.0 maximum."

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2360306/usb-3-0-speed-real-and-imagined.html

 

[Bill_Bright]

I will not use an enclosure so I don't think there will be any loss then.

There is always a loss when you add a connector/junction in between two devices.

Understand a USB to SATA cable is basically the same thing as using an enclosure. With your cable, the SATA connector is "enclosed" inside molded plastic. In an enclosure, the SATA connector is inside the box. Same difference!

Whether you use a cable or an enclosure, your computer (motherboard, CPU and the OS) must still move the data to and from memory though a USB controller to the SATA interface and then the drive. When using an internal SATA connection, your computer need only move the data through the SATA interface and then the drive.

 

[Jetster]

Thats USB 2.0 what you are talking about...

"The now-aging USB 2.0 standard can theoretically transfer data at a very high 480 megabits per second (mbps), or 60 megabytes per second (MBps).
That's impressive, but not as much as the newer USB 3.0, which can handle up to 5gbps(640MBps)—over ten times as fast as the 2.0 maximum."

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2360306/usb-3-0-speed-real-and-imagined.html

Oh wait excuse me USB 3.0 105Mb/s ................USB 2.0 38Mb/s

Ive done way to much testing. Try it for yourself. My point is with USB there is way more loss then with a SATA lane. Not to forget handshake issues

 

[P4-630]

Oh wait excuse me USB 3.0 105Mb/s ................USB 2.0 38Mb/s

Ive done way to much testing. Try it for yourself. My point is with USB there is way more loss then with a SATA lane. Not to forget handshake issues

Hmm too bad, then it's just not an option to use an external SSD for gaming

 

[Jetster]

One of the issues with a laptop. No room to add things

 

[Athlon2K15]

That's horseshit, I can show you every external SSD I have coming within 10% of internal performance via USB 3.0

 

[P4-630]

One of the issues with a laptop. No room to add things

Yeah I know, I do have room for 2 drives but are both SSD already, then I had to buy a 1TB SSD before but they were quite expensive a while ago.

I may buy a PC next year then.

 

[P4-630]

That's horseshit, I can show you every external SSD I have coming within 10% of internal performance via USB 3.0

Hmm.. is there some hope again?
Can you show some benchmarks @AthlonX2 ?

 

[Athlon2K15]

Hmm.. is there some hope again?
Can you show some benchmarks @AthlonX2 ?

Sure ill post a few drives I have sitting here

 

[P4-630]

I may have another option as well, I have a thunderbolt port as well, which I never used before.
Maybe I could get a thunderbolt to SSD adapter?

 

[Athlon2K15]

and for shits and giggles a Thunderbolt SSD

 

[Jetster]

Well shit yea that would be better. (The Thunderbolt)

Athlon so that's a USB SSD? I never actually test one which is it?

And can you do a large file transfer and screen shot?

 

[P4-630]

So what kind of adapter would I need then to make this work with a 850 evo SSD?

 

[Athlon2K15]

Well shit yea that would be better. (The Thunderbolt)

Athlon so that's a USB SSD? I never actually test one which is it?

And can you do a large file transfer and screen shot?

Those are all Internal SSDs put inside a rather cheap USB 3.0 Enclosure from Kingston.

So what kind of adapter would I need then to make this work with a 850 evo SSD?

Honestly at this point I would just buy a USB 3.1 Gen II enclosure and use that, make sure it has the Type A connector. This way you get the latest chipset for the best speed.