Determine max speed thruoghput of USB HDD

kelper · Mar 23, 2024

Is there a way to find the theoretical throughput of my laptop USB 3.0 Laptop port and of my USB 3.0 USB HDD so I can see if there is a bottleneck and whether a newer HDD might be faster.

So, to clarify, I don't want to measure the speed, I want to know what each USB thing is capable of and which versions of the USB protocols it supports.

SlicEnDicE · Mar 23, 2024

If you grab an external SSD that supports USB3.0 and beyond and UASP and your system has proper UASP driver installed, you will get around 500-560MB/s raw transfer speeds over USB3.0.

I have done this many times. No need to benchmark anything.

kelper · Mar 23, 2024

But there are several versions of USB 3. I'm not sure which I have. I did say I didn't need to benchmark! But I only get 90 MB per second.

SlicEnDicE · Mar 23, 2024

With what external device?

kelper · Mar 23, 2024

A Maxtor M3 PPortable 1TB

SlicEnDicE · Mar 23, 2024

Then your speed is really good.

kelper · Mar 23, 2024

After a little research, I find that "USB 3.2 Gen 1, also known as USB 3.0, supports a maximum data transfer rate of 5 Gbps (gigabits per second) or approximately 625 MBps (megabytes per second).

So I might benefit from an external SSD with same or higher spec. Isn't it crazy that 3.2 Gen 1 is the same as 3.0?

Helmut · Mar 23, 2024

That speed is good for that type of USB powered HDD mechanical drive, no worries.
The limitation is the type of drive not the version of USB 3.

Berton · Mar 23, 2024

What I see with speeds in computing, and learned a lot time ago in a course at the local college and at work, is the use of B and b. Most speeds rated at Xbps are bits per second, not B for Bytes.
8 bits = 1 Byte.
K = Kilo M = Mega G = Giga T = Tera

SlicEnDicE · Mar 23, 2024

kelper said:
After a little research, I find that "USB 3.2 Gen 1, also known as USB 3.0, supports a maximum data transfer rate of 5 Gbps (gigabits per second) or approximately 625 MBps (megabytes per second).

So I might benefit from an external SSD with same or higher spec. Isn't it crazy that 3.2 Gen 1 is the same as 3.0?

You'll get max 500MB/s in practice on USB3.0. I haven't tested latest USB speeds though...The limitation is in the actual disk drive type and speed though.

Berton · Mar 23, 2024

SlicEnDicE said:
The limitation is in the actual disk drive type and speed though.

Quite possible if comparing 5400RPM and 7200RPM HDDs. Most of the 2.5" HDDs I've work with on Notebooks have been 5400RPM but the 3.5" on Desktops usually have been 5400RPM on older ones and 7200RPM on newer ones. NAS units also vary as to what drives are used. Capacities of the HDDs vary between the 2 speeds. The speed should be on the drive label but have had to look up the model number for some, especially for 2.5" which has a smaller label. My Desktops with SSD main drives seem to like the faster HDDs for data storage.

SlicEnDicE · Mar 23, 2024

Berton said:
Quite possible if comparing 5400RPM and 7200RPM HDDs. Most of the 2.5" HDDs I've work with on Notebooks have been 5400RPM but the 3.5" on Desktops usually have been 5400RPM on older ones and 7200RPM on newer ones. NAS units also vary as to what drives are used. Capacities of the HDDs vary between the 2 speeds. The speed should be on the drive label but have had to look up the model number for some, especially for 2.5" which has a smaller label.

The speed isn't even determined that much by the capacity but the amount of platters in the disk and ofc the rotation speed. A well optimized drive can read and write from/to all layers at the same time in one revolution.

Bug locker · Mar 23, 2024

kelper said:
After a little research, I find that "USB 3.2 Gen 1, also known as USB 3.0, supports a maximum data transfer rate of 5 Gbps (gigabits per second) or approximately 625 MBps (megabytes per second).

So I might benefit from an external SSD with same or higher spec. Isn't it crazy that 3.2 Gen 1 is the same as 3.0?

Hey.
1) About the real speed of your system , you can benchmark it e.g with mini tool partition wizard.
2) I have an external SSD NVME with a max speed up to 1.1GB/s (benchmark). But with the small size files its little bit slow.
Small files are the worst case for any mass work. Also check the policy settings of your disks.

Anibor_11 · Mar 23, 2024

kelper said:
Is there a way to find the theoretical throughput of my laptop USB 3.0 Laptop port and of my USB 3.0 USB HDD so I can see if there is a bottleneck and whether a newer HDD might be faster.

So, to clarify, I don't want to measure the speed, I want to know what each USB thing is capable of and which versions of the USB protocols it supports.

To take advantage of the full capability of a USB 3.0 (USB 3.2 Gen 1x1) link, use a SATA SSD, not any HDD.

garlin · Mar 23, 2024

Someone on Tom's Hardware cracked one open, and it's a Samsung ST1000LM025. Seagate purchased Samsung's HDD division, and inherited the old product line.

I couldn't find a benchmark for the LM025, but there's one for LM024. And it's a pokey laptop drive. The LM025 may be better, but obviously it lags equivalent Seagate-designed HDD's.

PassMark - Seagate ST1000LM024 - Price performance comparison

You're hitting 90 MB/s, which matches this benchmark.

Determine max speed thruoghput of USB HDD

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