So in this post we shall be doing some benchmark tests on a crucial internal ssd using an external usb enclosure. Enclosures are a great option to turn an internal ssd into and external portable ssd, or just connect an internal ssd on a different machine for data transfer.
The ssd model used is: CT1000MX500SSD1 1000.2 GB
We shall be testing the speed in an usb enclosure (Orico USB 3.0 SSD enclosure).
The usb enclosure is using usb 3.0 which is equivalent to USB 3.2Gen1 with bandwidth = 5Gbps (625 MB/s). Each connection element introduces its own share of latency and slows down the maximum bandwidth by a certain percentage. So an ssd connected externally using an enclosure cannot be expected to run as fast as an ssd connected internal to motherboard sata ports.
The details of the ssd were checked with crystaldiskinfo:
CrystalDiskInfo Crucial MX500 1TB Internal SSD
Before starting the tests, we make sure that the usb connection is using SuperSpeed (USB 3.2 Gen 1) and this can be verified using the tool called USB Device Tree Viewer
USB Device Tree Viewer Crucial-MX500 1TB SSD with Enclosure
CrystalDiskMark tests
We run 2 rounds of indentical tests. Before taking a look at the detailed test results here is a summary with approximate numbers:
| Drive | Seq Read (MB/s) | Seq Write (MB/s) | Random Read (MB/s) | Random Write (MB/s) |
| Crucial MX500 1TB + Enclosure | 400 | 350 | 28 | 38 |
| Seagate One Touch 5TB | 130 | 130 | 1 | 5 |
For comparison sake we added the seagate one touch 5tb external hdd that we tested in a previous post. An ssd on an enclosure is still a lot faster than an external hdd.
Round1 :
CrystalDiskMark Crucial MX500 1TB SSD with USB Enclosure
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 x64 (C) 2007-2021 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World: https://crystalmark.info/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes
[Read]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 397.558 MB/s [ 379.1 IOPS] < 21038.84 us>
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 393.013 MB/s [ 374.8 IOPS] < 2666.59 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 169.342 MB/s [ 41343.3 IOPS] < 749.28 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 27.695 MB/s [ 6761.5 IOPS] < 147.58 us>
[Write]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 360.472 MB/s [ 343.8 IOPS] < 23171.45 us>
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 339.897 MB/s [ 324.2 IOPS] < 3082.51 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 167.770 MB/s [ 40959.5 IOPS] < 756.20 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 38.719 MB/s [ 9452.9 IOPS] < 105.53 us>
Profile: Default
Test: 1 GiB (x5) [E: 52% (482/931GiB)]
Mode: [Admin]
Time: Measure 5 sec / Interval 5 sec
Date: 2023/04/27 15:17:10
OS: Windows 10 [10.0 Build 19045] (x64)
Round 2:
CrystalDiskMark Crucial MX500 1TB SSD with USB Enclosure
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 x64 (C) 2007-2021 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World: https://crystalmark.info/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes
[Read]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 400.912 MB/s [ 382.3 IOPS] < 20856.40 us>
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 395.012 MB/s [ 376.7 IOPS] < 2652.65 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 168.497 MB/s [ 41137.0 IOPS] < 753.08 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 26.875 MB/s [ 6561.3 IOPS] < 152.12 us>
[Write]
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 360.784 MB/s [ 344.1 IOPS] < 23153.06 us>
SEQ 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 338.291 MB/s [ 322.6 IOPS] < 3096.74 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 32, T= 1): 169.859 MB/s [ 41469.5 IOPS] < 746.88 us>
RND 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 38.623 MB/s [ 9429.4 IOPS] < 105.80 us>
Profile: Default
Test: 1 GiB (x5) [E: 52% (482/931GiB)]
Mode: [Admin]
Time: Measure 5 sec / Interval 5 sec
Date: 2023/04/27 15:25:43
OS: Windows 10 [10.0 Build 19045] (x64)
Conclusion
The speed numbers look pretty decent and are close to the rated speed of SATA 3 interface (around 600 MB/s). I personally use this setup to record gameplays at 150 fps or higher using OBS studio.
It can be used as a decent portable storage solution as purchasing an internal ssd with an enclosure can be cheaper than an actual external ssd with usb cable. If you need even higher speeds in an external ssd solution use an nvme ssd inside an nvme enclosure with usb 3.2gen2 connector (SuperSpeedPlus). That should be able to deliver speeds really close to 10 Gbps ( 1250 MB/s ).
