Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

are usb hard drives as fast as internal

Mar 29, 2007 9:38AM PDT

i was wondering this because on the mac mini i dont want to buy a large hard drive right away if the performance would be the same i will just put media on there

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
No.
Mar 29, 2007 11:05AM PDT

USB 2.0 at top speed is 480 megabits per second. Let's look at the transport speed of SATA. 1,500 megabits per second. While only theoretical it does slow the drive to about 1/2 of the internals.

Bob

- Collapse -
thx
Mar 31, 2007 10:28AM PDT

thank you