CrystalDiskMark 2.2
First up, CrystalDiskMark.| CrystalDiskMark sequential read speed | ||
|---|---|---|
| MB/s, higher is better | ||
| ASUS U3S6 USB 2.0 | Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 3Gbps | ASUS U3S6 USB 3.0 |
| 37.9 | 146.45 | 146.4 |
Hello, USB 3.0. Sequential-read performance is identical to SATA's. What we can infer is that the bottleneck is with the drive and not the USB 3.0 controller.
USB 2.0's bandwidth limitations are clearly evident, as it benchmarks at around 25 per cent of USB 3.0's speed. Need to move large files across from external storage? USB 3.0 appears to fit the bill.
| CrystalDiskMark random read speed (512K) | ||
|---|---|---|
| MB/s, higher is better | ||
| ASUS U3S6 USB 2.0 | Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 3Gbps | ASUS U3S6 USB 3.0 |
| 27.89 | 63.42 | 60.34 |
Random-read performance falls just a little behind SATA's but it's over 2x as fast as USB 2.0's.
| CrystalDiskMark random read speed (4K) | ||
|---|---|---|
| MB/s, higher is better | ||
| ASUS U3S6 USB 2.0 | Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 3Gbps | ASUS U3S6 USB 3.0 |
| 0.93 | 0.89 | 0.93 |
The small-size random-write speed is predicated by the drive more than the conduit. Spindle-based drives by their very nature are slow at this test and no interface is going to help radically boost performance.
Write
| CrystalDiskMark sequential write speed | ||
|---|---|---|
| MB/s, higher is better | ||
| ASUS U3S6 USB 2.0 | Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 3Gbps | ASUS U3S6 USB 3.0 |
| 37.01 | 137.3 | 130.45 |
The sequential-write performance, too, is SATA-like.
| CrystalDiskMark random write speed (512K) | ||
|---|---|---|
| MB/s, higher is better | ||
| ASUS U3S6 USB 2.0 | Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 3Gbps | ASUS U3S6 USB 3.0 |
| 34.13 | 90.7 | 92.43 |
And randomised writing is a touch faster.
| CrystalDiskMark random write speed (4K) | ||
|---|---|---|
| MB/s, higher is better | ||
| ASUS U3S6 USB 2.0 | Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 3Gbps | ASUS U3S6 USB 3.0 |
| 1.71 | 1.73 | 1.71 |
But we know why the 4K is slow. It's that damn spindle.
