Best external SSD or HD

[jdjinn]

Hi, 

 

I have no idea about this devices since I rarely use them. But all the sudden friends, family asked me about which one to buy.

 

I searched for pages to compare external SSD and HD like cpu.userbenchmark dot com but found nothing besides infomercial pages with the usual top 10. And some official pages wont show the read and write rate of many models.

 

what are the best external HD and  what is the best external SSD?

 

If you have a link to a good list, I would be very grateful.

 

tnx

 

 

 

 

[GoodEnough]

28 minutes ago, jdjinn said:

Hi, 

 

I have no idea about this devices since I rarely use them. But all the sudden friends, family asked me about which one to buy.

 

I searched for pages to compare external SSD and HD like cpu.userbenchmark dot com but found nothing besides infomercial pages with the usual top 10. And some official pages wont show the read and write rate of many models.

 

what are the best external HD and  what is the best external SSD?

 

If you have a link to a good list, I would be very grateful.

 

tnx

 

 

 

 

what do you mean by best? best as in the total amount of space or speed. or maybe best as in price to performance ratio?

[Chiyawa]

Well, there's no best SSD or HDD, it all boils down to what you are going to use it for.

 

External SSD: SSD are rigid and are not prone to damage due to shock or vibration. If you are clumsy, then SSD will be the best for you. It is also fast, so you can copy a very large file in a short time compare to HDD. Capacity is not great, though, so you can't just store a lot of your media files into it. They are also relatively expensive compare to HDD. You can check some of the SSD these companies has to offer:

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD: https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/portable-drives/sandisk-extreme-usb-3-1-ssd#SDSSDE60-250G-G25

WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD: https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/portable-drives/wd-black-p50-game-drive-usb-3-2-ssd#WDBA3S5000ABK-WESN

G-Drive Mobile SSD: https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/portable-drives/g-technology-g-drive-mobile-usb-3-1-ssd#0G06052-1

Seagate Barracuda Fast SSD: https://www.seagate.com/as/en/consumer/backup/barracuda-fast-ssd/

Seagate Ultra Touch SSD: https://www.seagate.com/as/en/consumer/backup/ultra-touch-external-drives/

 

External HDD: External HDD thrives in one thing: Capacity. You can get a portable HDD with more than 2TB quite easily. External HDD is cheaper too as it has a very low cost per GB ratio. The two major downside of a portable HDD is speed and vibration shock.

WD Black P10 Game Drive: https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/portable-drives/wd-black-p10-game-drive-usb-3-2-hdd#WDBA2W0020BBK-WESN

WD My Passport: https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/portable-drives/wd-my-passport-usb-3-0-hdd#WDBYVG0010BBK-WESN

Seagate Backup Plus Portable: https://www.seagate.com/as/en/consumer/backup/backup-plus/?sku=STHP4000401

 

Desktop NAS or Cloud: Well, these are slightly bigger, but they have pretty much the best capacity and some of them are quite expandable. They are not portable, meaning you can't carry them around, though, but they do offer networking or personal cloud storage, just need to set them up correctly and you can have 'external' storage through network. Suitable for those who has too much files to store and those who wants to access their files anywhere from Internet:

WD My Cloud Home: https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/cloud-storage/wd-my-cloud-home#WDBVXC0020HWT-NESN

WD My Cloud Home Duo: https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/cloud-storage/wd-my-cloud-home-duo#WDBMUT0040JWT-NESN

Sysnology DS218play: https://www.synology.com/en-uk/products/DS218play

Sysnology DS118: https://www.synology.com/en-uk/products/DS118

 

USB flash drive: USB flash storage device do come a long way as 'competing' external storage. They are very small and comes in tiny package, can be easily keep in your pocket, and has some good storage capability. They are not as fast as external SSD, however, but they offer the best plug and play option: Just plug it in, no cable required. Some do have options to connect to your smart phone through micro USB or USB-C.

Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3: https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-drives/datatraveler-100-g3-usb-3-0-usb-flash-drive

Kingston DataTraveler MicroDuo (This one has USB-C and USB-A connector): https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-drives/datatraveler-microduo-3c-usb-flash-drive

SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Type-C (This one has USB-C and USB-A connector): https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/usb-flash-drives/sandisk-ultra-dual-drive-m30-usb-3-1-type-c#SDDDC2-016G-A46

SanDisk Cruzer Blade: https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/usb-flash-drives/sandisk-cruzer-blade-usb-2-0#SDCZ50-016G-A46

 

Hope these helps you a little.

 

Below are just an additional method to create your own external storage through an external enclosure. It is quite easy to swap the storage media, making it quite versatile option for anyone who wants lots of storage or different storage for different purpose.

 

SATA 2.5 inch: By using a standard SATA 2.5 inch external enclosure, you can attach a laptop size 2.5 inch HDD or 2.5 inch SATA SSD to it and connect the enclosure to your system. You can swap the disk in and out making it an ideal solution to your external storage and cheaper in the long run (for you only need to buy HDD or SSD only rather than spend more on external HDD or SSD).

Orico 2.5 inch Transparent Type-C Hard Drive Enclosure: http://www.orico.cc/us/product/detail/3260.html

 

M2: If you want a more smaller option for external SSD, M2 enclosure is pretty much ideal. Although it might be expensive as this cost a lot, but still, it is an excellent external SSD option and the storage media and be swap. Though you have to be careful on the storage media you put in, as not all enclosure support M2 SATA and M2 NVME drives simultaneously.

Orico Mini Clip-open M.2 SSD Enclosure (this enclosure only support NVME drive): http://www.orico.cc/us/product/detail/3401.html

 

Last but not least, MicroSD: Modern MicroSD card is super small, yet they pack some good capacity and speed. The only problem you need is the MicroSD card reader. Depending on the MicroSD card reader, support for capacity and speed will vary, but you still be able utilised almost every MicroSD card.

Kingston MobileLite Plus MicroSD card USB reader: https://www.kingston.com/en/memory-card-readers/mobilelite-plus-microsd-reader

[LunaP0n3]

Samsung also does portable SSDs.

Their "T" line of T5s and the recently released T7s are light, 10Gb/sec capable and can connect straight up to a smartphone right out of the box. (Not to mention small)

They tend to be quite expensive per GB though.

The T7 touch has a fingerprint reader if you're looking for some security.

[jdjinn]

On 5/19/2020 at 9:38 PM, GoodEnough said:

what do you mean by best? best as in the total amount of space or speed. or maybe best as in price to performance ratio?

 And Chiyawa 

 

Hi,

Sorry for not being more precise.

Well, best for a family need, it is to back up what they keep in their private PCs: some paperwork, many family memories. Some resistance to accidental drops.

it must be reliable, fast for sharing family memories and some 2 to 4 terabytes capacity.  

 

A friend needs it for constantly adding new files in many format files and since he is working from at least 4 places: resistance to accidental drops and constant connecting and disconnecting. Also 2 to 4 tb.

 

most seller here just write  space and company  (ADATA, TOSHIBA, SEAGATE) no reference to model nor write/ read speeds. some write 2,5" (3,0) What makes me guess its the size and USB port.

 

On 5/20/2020 at 6:58 AM, LunaP0n3 said:

Samsung also does portable SSDs.

Their "T" line of T5s and the recently released T7s are light, 10Gb/sec capable and can connect straight up to a smartphone right out of the box. (Not to mention small)

They tend to be quite expensive per GB though.

The T7 touch has a fingerprint reader if you're looking for some security.

Those models Arent available in my area.

 

Are those marks worth for quality  (ADATA, TOSHIBA, SEAGATE)? Any specific model of your preference?

 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by jdjinn
added a question