What's faster? A SSD card or a NVMe with a USB 3 enclosure?


  1. Posts : 132
    Windows 10 & Ubuntu Studio
       #1

    What's faster? A SSD card or a NVMe with a USB 3 enclosure?


    Unfortunately I do not have a PCIe slot available
    But I have a SATA port available. And many USB 3 ports too.

    Thank you guys :)
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 4,173
    Windows 11 Pro, 22H2
       #2

    The information supplied is not enough to answer that. We need to what the SSD card uses. For example, if the SSD card holds a SATA based SSD, this would limit maximum read / write speeds rather dramatically compared to an NVMe based drive. An NVMe based drive connected via USB 3 could potentially be significantly faster.

    If you are planning to use the SATA ports rather than an SSD on a card, then SATA is a slower option.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 2,068
    Windows 10 Pro
       #3

    I just built a small USB 3.2 Gen 2 USB enclosure with an NVMe drive, you can see the thread here
    Crucial P2 1TB NVMe drive in External USB 3.2 enclousure

    Using USB3.2 Gen 2 (either TypeA or TypeC), I was getting about 1,050MB/sec read and 950MB/sec write on my PCIe Gen 3 NVMe drive. So about 1/2 of what it can do if it were in an M2 slot on my mobo.

    So, technically it's 2x as fast as a standard SSD in a SATA port.

    I went with external because
    1. It was just a fun test and gives me an ultra fast portable drive.


    If it were going to just sit in my machine 24x7...I would just use a SATA SSD. With write caching, etc.....unless all you do is copy files 24x7...the difference isn't going to be really impactful.
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 132
    Windows 10 & Ubuntu Studio
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Wow, this is great info!
    I will be using this to host my Steam folder.

    Thanks a lot guys! :)

    DPC
      My Computer


 

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