External USB 3.0 + Pro tools

ShortWarning · 23 Apr 2012 at 10:02

I wasn't really sure which section to put this in but I've gone with storage.

My old MAC G4 is becoming increasing difficult to work with (it's dog slow and crashes a lot).

Anyway, my main computer is an xps I7. I figured, it's pretty quick (a hell of a lot quicker my MAC) so I may as well install pro tools on that.

I would have pro tools installed on my Crucial M4 but I was looking at putting everything else (sample files, recordings, plug ins etc) to an external drive.

My question is this. Would a USB 3.0 drive be quick enough for this? The price of HDDs are expensive enough as it is, I don't want to fork out for an internal 2.5" 2TB drive.

Thanks.

Phage · 24 Apr 2012 at 10:10

USB 3.0 is rated up to 5Gb/ps, but is more likely to run much lower at 400Mbps. Similarly Sata 6 runs at 6Gbps, but runs at 568Mbps.
http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/24772.aspx
I'd guess that you'd not notice the difference in normal usage.

ShortWarning · 24 Apr 2012 at 10:35

Thanks for the reply.

My MAC currently uses some old IDE drives. It's not likely to be any slower than that is it?

Phage · 24 Apr 2012 at 10:57

No - Probably feel faster !

ShortWarning · 24 Apr 2012 at 11:01

Awesome, thanks for the info!

Sasahara · 24 Apr 2012 at 11:24

I get well over 100 MB/s sequential reads/writes from a USB 3 HDD so it going to be about 2-5 times faster than your G4 which is practically junk now. :/