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Powered USB HDD - vs Self powered USB -- load on computer ?
Hi there
Intuitively one might think using Powered (from the mains) external USB HDD's would require more power from the computer as well compared with those small self powered units.
I've no way to measure this but I'm sure the small units might consume MORE power as the computer has to supply all the power for Disk rotation and the USB I/O controller.
I only ask this because I need to put two large powered USB units (both with 2 X 3 TB Raid 0 HDD's in each unit) on to a USB 3 Hub.
The two HDD units seem to perform perfectly well whether connected to the chargeable port on an HP laptop or the "non chargeable" ones.
The RAID 0 is powered by the HDD itself (internal Hardware RAID) --used RAID 0 for speed -- don't need to mirror etc - I've enough backup if the whole thing goes bonkers. !!
The files on these HDD's are serving music and video so not intensive used -- don't seem to have any problem streaming media from the laptop.
Any engineers out there - curious over what is the actual load (power wise) on the computer if a POWERED USB HDD is used compared to a Self powered one. Note the Hub I'm using is not also powered.
Cheers
jimbo