ANSWERED Difference in HDD speed?

[rintintin]

Ive heard some conflicting information on using an HDD to play backups on RGH.

Some people say that 3.5" internals are noticeably faster than 2.5"s and also USB. I've also been reading up on installing a 3.5" HDD internal/external by using the modified SATA port where the HDD enclosure sits on phat consoles.

Anyone have benchmarks?

1) I know that:
External/ 360's USB 2.0 is 60MB/s
Internal/360's eSata is 150MB/s

but would the difference in read speed between 2.5 and 3.5 be noticeable? The difference between USB2 and SATA?

2) I know that the only place it would be noticeable would be for loading times. It obviously doesn't speed up the processor or add RAM, but it would be a lifesaver for games like Skyrim that require a lot of loading.

3) I understand that DLC and things I purchased pre-RGH will only work off internal or has that been fixed?

Not too big a deal, I was just curious. I have a 3.5" WD 2.0TB drive and I wanted to have it be my only HDD for all my content (backing up my 360/XBOX1 games) while still playing my DLC/XBL games I bought. If USB is fine, I'll probably just slap it into an enclosure, but if eSata is even the slightest bit faster, it may be a fun project to do the external eSata hack on it

 

[ochbay]

its not just about the speed it also has to do with the size of the chache which makes things load quicker...i believe lol

 

[Dimrain13]

I always use a 5400 RPM i know there's better but it loads great

 

[rexdale]

sata is faster than usb. Also 2.5 or 3.5 inch doesnt really tell u anything about speed. What you want to look at is the RPM and cache, with rpm being more important imo. 7200 is faster than 5400, but i wouldn't sweat over it, 5400 should be fine

 

[eyesonly]

Interesting question.

Does a game load noticeably faster on the sata port then on the usb port.

 

[Dimrain13]

Interesting question.

Does a game load noticeably faster on the sata port then on the usb port.

It does.

 

[bagofcrap24]

i havnt tried the internel 3.5 sata port however i am pretty sure that i have read elsewhere that the 360 USB port runs pretty slow.

i can confirm this, i used to use a 2TB WD Elements External HDD, glitch in 5secs, but it would take a further 30-60 seconds for FSD to load, purely waiting for this USB drive to spin up and seek.
got fed up of it so got myself a 750GB WD Scorpio Blue and replaced the 120GB HDD in the Top Caddy, still glitches in 5 secs, but only take 10secs for bootanimation and straight into FSD & games load much quicker

all i can say is using SATA port on console is a hell of a lot quicker than USB

 

[MightyShots]

IMO i dont think the size of the HDD or wether its external or internal affects the glitch process.

 

[itchyf1ngaz]

first of all you cannot install a 3.5 sata hard drive as internal. only external like a usb like someone noted. i recommen going with a 7200 rp,. seek time is better and boot times are better. i had a 5400. and it is slow compared to a 7200. and yes i did see a difference, hard drive capacity size doesnt really matter. ita ll preference from there. go with a 2.5 sata 750gb 7200rpm. youll thank me later

 

[onedumblonde]

I've got fsd and dlc on an internal for fast access when booting. All of my backups however I've got on a 2tb 3.5 external. Never had a problem with a game loading or any issues related to either of the hdd's