Buying an SSD to use externally

JonDavies · 8 Nov 2012 at 16:12

Hi Everyone.

I want to buy a 128GB SSD to mainly carry my music around with me externally and connect via USB. I am waiting for a cheaper Thunderbolt adaptor but until then I will have to restrict the speed via USB.

I was looking at the Samsung 128GB 830 Series SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" SSD Laptop Kit.

This comes with an SSD to USB adaptor but has no information whether it is USB 3.0 or not.

Does anyone have this drive and used the adaptor for use as an external SSD or know if there is a better option? And whether it works with Macs.

Cheers, Jon

Sir SpankalotUK · 8 Nov 2012 at 16:38

I grabbed 1 of the 60gb vertex2 drives, dropped it into a OCuk usb3 enclosure and it performs really well, especially on a usb3 port. I might look at a cheaper ssd for more space, but those samsung ssd's are fast. I had a recent build with 1 and couldn't fault it.

JonDavies · 9 Nov 2012 at 08:44

It doesn't look like those Samsung ones need an enclosure. They 'look' fairly robust.

Could you have used yours as an external drive with no enclosure?

rpstewart · 9 Nov 2012 at 11:10

I'd still go with an enclosure. Regardless of how rugged the SSD looks the connectors are still exposed and hence vulnerable.

PhillyDee · 9 Nov 2012 at 11:16

rpstewart said:
I'd still go with an enclosure. Regardless of how rugged the SSD looks the connectors are still exposed and hence vulnerable.

This. They are only rated at (IIRC) 100 connections.

ubersonic · 9 Nov 2012 at 11:32

Just throwing this out there, if you only want to carry a music collection around then a pair of 64GB USB sticks will be cheaper and easier to transport.