Performance

USB 3.0

As there is no way to saturate the USB 3.0 bandwidth with a normal hard drive, I have also used a 2.5 inch Sandforce based SSD to see what the noir S is capable of. As you can see, with a normal hard drive there is a noticeable increase in performance, while an SSD manages to tickle the most out of the device. Thus either way, you will notice the added benefit of USB 3.0.


ATTO shows us a very similar picture. The traditional hard drive is no longer handicapped by a slow USB 2.0 connection and manages to push an excellent 40 MB/s read and write, while the SSD maxes out at around 180 MB/s.

USB 2.0

Just a quick look at the USB 2.0 performance with HDTach and ATTO, you can see in the graph below that the read performance is on par with the faster cases with this standard. This makes the noir S a good choice if you do not yet have USB 3.0, but plan to upgrade in the future.



The write performance is as expected as well. While this number depends on the drive used or even the mainboard it is connected to, it is save to assume, that you won't notice a real world difference between the noir S and most other USB 2.0 devices in this regard.