Performance Tests
All tests of the StarTech USB 3.0 enclosure and the adapter card were run using the following hardware:
- Intel Core i5 661 Processor
- EVGA H55 Motherboard
- Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 2x 2GB
- 64GB Western Digital SiliconEdge Blue SSD
- Corsair Obsidian 800D Chassis
- BFG 550w Power Supply
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Despite the fact that a 2.5" drive doesn't really fit securely in this enclosure, I still installed a 64GB WD SiliconEdge Blue SSD in it as I wanted to test the upper bandwidth limits of the interface. The enclosure would be able to run any standard spinning hard drive at full speed, but the solid state drive should give us an idea of where bandwidth tops out.
We used the following benchmarks to measure performance: HD Tune 2.55, CrystalDiskMark 2.22 and ATTO Disk Benchmark.
A real-world file transfer test was also performed, similar to the one we usually run on our notebook reviews. For the file transfer test we used two different set of files. The first comprised 557 small MP3 files amounting to 2.56GB in total. The second was a single 2.52GB .RAR file. The test consists simply of copying said files from the computer to the USB 3.0 enclosure and back, measuring how long this process takes on each system.
This test, along with the above benchmarks were also run using the same Western Digital SSD installed inside the case as a standard SATA device to show the difference in speed between SATA and USB 3.0.
