Desktop External vs Portable External?

[InfernoUk]

I was looking to replace my non SSD hard drives with an external drive to save case space.

Looking around, a 4TB desktop external seems to be the same price as a 4TB Portable external, with the portable there is no need for power supply and its obviously less intrusive.

Both are USB 3.0...so whats the point in buying a desktop external? I dont understand its benefit if it isnt faster?

Thanks for any clarification on this!

 

[Zefan]

The USB version isn't the best measure of performance for external magnetic drives. Transfer speeds for the drives such as these is going to be significantly lower (under 200MB/s) than USB 3 (640MB/s), therefore the speeds experienced will be dictated by other factors.

It depends on the manufacturer and model, but with almost no doubt a "desktop" device will be using a 3.5" drive, while a "portable" will be using a 2.5" drive. Performance and mean time before failure will likely be affected by this, as well as any differences in cache size and rpm, but this will come down to which specific models you are comparing.