Anyone have experience with one of the "very cheap" 1 and 2 TB
portable SSD drives offered on ebay for 30-40 US$ price range?
They claim to be USB 3.0 or 3.1, but a few people have commented they
are more like USB 2 in speed.

Charlie Hoffpauir <invalid@invalid.com> wrote:

> Anyone have experience with one of the "very cheap" 1 and 2 TB
> portable SSD drives offered on ebay for 30-40 US$ price range?
> They claim to be USB 3.0 or 3.1, but a few people have commented they
> are more like USB 2 in speed.

Give URLs to examples, or the URL for your eBay search, so *we* which
ones you are asking about. You could be asking about USB thumb drives,
or USB SSD drives in a case. Read, and especially write speeds, affect
the speed of the device. The cheap ones won't tell you those specs yet
those are often bought by consumers that only look at the USB speed, and
don't look at the drive's own speeds. Only look at those that report
read/write speeds. Sometimes you have to go to the manufacturer's site
to get the specs. Generally, the higher the write speed, the more
expensive the USB drive.

USB3.x requires support on both ends of the cable (computer and device).
We cannot see if the comments reported the purported USB speeds on both
endpoints.

Where is the product seller using eBay? Do they have inventory in your
region (pick your country/region for shipping location instead of
anywhere) , or are they shipping from their home country and have long
delays getting through customs? What's their reputation rating? Did
you review the ratings to eliminate the boob reports? Did they have a
bad spell during which they had negative feedback, or have they been
consistently been at the same feedback level? How many transactions
have they had under that seller name? What's the shipping cost? Are
you a verified buyer, so you are covered by eBay's Buyer Protection
plan? Are you paying via Paypal, or some other means (credit card)?
None of this is known to use who you are asking for purchase assistance,
only to you, so far.

If you search at Newegg and Amazon, are the prices there similar, or
much higher (remember to include shipping costs)?

Way too many unknowns to address your inquiry.

On Mon, 19 Jul 2021 12:18:36 -0500, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

>Charlie Hoffpauir <invalid@invalid.com> wrote:
>
>> Anyone have experience with one of the "very cheap" 1 and 2 TB
>> portable SSD drives offered on ebay for 30-40 US$ price range?
>> They claim to be USB 3.0 or 3.1, but a few people have commented they
>> are more like USB 2 in speed.
>
>Give URLs to examples, or the URL for your eBay search, so *we* which
>ones you are asking about. You could be asking about USB thumb drives,
>or USB SSD drives in a case. Read, and especially write speeds, affect
>the speed of the device. The cheap ones won't tell you those specs yet
>those are often bought by consumers that only look at the USB speed, and
>don't look at the drive's own speeds. Only look at those that report
>read/write speeds. Sometimes you have to go to the manufacturer's site
>to get the specs. Generally, the higher the write speed, the more
>expensive the USB drive.
>
>USB3.x requires support on both ends of the cable (computer and device).
>We cannot see if the comments reported the purported USB speeds on both
>endpoints.
>
>Where is the product seller using eBay? Do they have inventory in your
>region (pick your country/region for shipping location instead of
>anywhere) , or are they shipping from their home country and have long
>delays getting through customs? What's their reputation rating? Did
>you review the ratings to eliminate the boob reports? Did they have a
>bad spell during which they had negative feedback, or have they been
>consistently been at the same feedback level? How many transactions
>have they had under that seller name? What's the shipping cost? Are
>you a verified buyer, so you are covered by eBay's Buyer Protection
>plan? Are you paying via Paypal, or some other means (credit card)?
>None of this is known to use who you are asking for purchase assistance,
>only to you, so far.
>
>If you search at Newegg and Amazon, are the prices there similar, or
>much higher (remember to include shipping costs)?
>
>Way too many unknowns to address your inquiry.
Here is a link to the drives I was looking at. SSD, not thumb drives.
Several are listed, and none of the cheap ones specify manufacturer or
actual speed. My question is really if anyone has actually purchased
one of these, and if so, what was their experience.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1312&_nkw=external+ssd+hard+drive&_sacat=0

I've looked at the user comments, and most don't even refer to SSD
drive purchases, and those that are positive, I'm doubting are valid.

On 2021-07-19 1:14 p.m., Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Jul 2021 12:18:36 -0500, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
>> Charlie Hoffpauir <invalid@invalid.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone have experience with one of the "very cheap" 1 and 2 TB
>>> portable SSD drives offered on ebay for 30-40 US$ price range?
>>> They claim to be USB 3.0 or 3.1, but a few people have commented they
>>> are more like USB 2 in speed.
>>
>> Give URLs to examples, or the URL for your eBay search, so *we* which
>> ones you are asking about. You could be asking about USB thumb drives,
>> or USB SSD drives in a case. Read, and especially write speeds, affect
>> the speed of the device. The cheap ones won't tell you those specs yet
>> those are often bought by consumers that only look at the USB speed, and
>> don't look at the drive's own speeds. Only look at those that report
>> read/write speeds. Sometimes you have to go to the manufacturer's site
>> to get the specs. Generally, the higher the write speed, the more
>> expensive the USB drive.
>>
>> USB3.x requires support on both ends of the cable (computer and device).
>> We cannot see if the comments reported the purported USB speeds on both
>> endpoints.
>>
>> Where is the product seller using eBay? Do they have inventory in your
>> region (pick your country/region for shipping location instead of
>> anywhere) , or are they shipping from their home country and have long
>> delays getting through customs? What's their reputation rating? Did
>> you review the ratings to eliminate the boob reports? Did they have a
>> bad spell during which they had negative feedback, or have they been
>> consistently been at the same feedback level? How many transactions
>> have they had under that seller name? What's the shipping cost? Are
>> you a verified buyer, so you are covered by eBay's Buyer Protection
>> plan? Are you paying via Paypal, or some other means (credit card)?
>> None of this is known to use who you are asking for purchase assistance,
>> only to you, so far.
>>
>> If you search at Newegg and Amazon, are the prices there similar, or
>> much higher (remember to include shipping costs)?
>>
>> Way too many unknowns to address your inquiry.
> Here is a link to the drives I was looking at. SSD, not thumb drives.
> Several are listed, and none of the cheap ones specify manufacturer or
> actual speed. My question is really if anyone has actually purchased
> one of these, and if so, what was their experience.
>
> https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1312&_nkw=external+ssd+hard+drive&_sacat=0
>
> I've looked at the user comments, and most don't even refer to SSD
> drive purchases, and those that are positive, I'm doubting are valid.
>

I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot bamboo pole, not only may they be
only USB 3, but they may not be as advertised capacity but actual
rebranded smaller drives.

Caveat Emptor.

Rene

Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Jul 2021 12:18:36 -0500, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
>> Charlie Hoffpauir <invalid@invalid.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone have experience with one of the "very cheap" 1 and 2 TB
>>> portable SSD drives offered on ebay for 30-40 US$ price range?
>>> They claim to be USB 3.0 or 3.1, but a few people have commented they
>>> are more like USB 2 in speed.
>> Give URLs to examples, or the URL for your eBay search, so *we* which
>> ones you are asking about. You could be asking about USB thumb drives,
>> or USB SSD drives in a case. Read, and especially write speeds, affect
>> the speed of the device. The cheap ones won't tell you those specs yet
>> those are often bought by consumers that only look at the USB speed, and
>> don't look at the drive's own speeds. Only look at those that report
>> read/write speeds. Sometimes you have to go to the manufacturer's site
>> to get the specs. Generally, the higher the write speed, the more
>> expensive the USB drive.
>>
>> USB3.x requires support on both ends of the cable (computer and device).
>> We cannot see if the comments reported the purported USB speeds on both
>> endpoints.
>>
>> Where is the product seller using eBay? Do they have inventory in your
>> region (pick your country/region for shipping location instead of
>> anywhere) , or are they shipping from their home country and have long
>> delays getting through customs? What's their reputation rating? Did
>> you review the ratings to eliminate the boob reports? Did they have a
>> bad spell during which they had negative feedback, or have they been
>> consistently been at the same feedback level? How many transactions
>> have they had under that seller name? What's the shipping cost? Are
>> you a verified buyer, so you are covered by eBay's Buyer Protection
>> plan? Are you paying via Paypal, or some other means (credit card)?
>> None of this is known to use who you are asking for purchase assistance,
>> only to you, so far.
>>
>> If you search at Newegg and Amazon, are the prices there similar, or
>> much higher (remember to include shipping costs)?
>>
>> Way too many unknowns to address your inquiry.
> Here is a link to the drives I was looking at. SSD, not thumb drives.
> Several are listed, and none of the cheap ones specify manufacturer or
> actual speed. My question is really if anyone has actually purchased
> one of these, and if so, what was their experience.
>
> https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1312&_nkw=external+ssd+hard+drive&_sacat=0
>
> I've looked at the user comments, and most don't even refer to SSD
> drive purchases, and those that are positive, I'm doubting are valid.

I had to go through quite a few pages on Amazon before
it showed up. Only one reviewer, at $45.

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-External-Type-C-Laptop-2TB-Blue/dp/B0944732P2

"Color: A-2TB-Silver Verified Purchase

Literally doesn't work. Feels hollow. Don’t buy.
"

Since there are no apparent screws in the picture, I
don't think you can open that example up for a look.

In the past, there was the odd item, that they had glued
a weight to give the item "gravitas" :-) The "feels hollow"
comment means they didn't bother gluing in the weight
on that one.

Some products in the past, did glue in a weight, because
of complaints it "didn't stay on my table". Even with rubber
feet, sometimes a weight makes it more practical.

If that product was intended to be a "casing without drive", then
the screws in the housing would hint that it's a carrier only.
They could sell a carrier for $35 for example.

*******

For $200, you could get something like this.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandisk-extreme-pro-v2-portable-ssd-review/2

2TB flash based
2000MB/sec read/write cabling interface

USB-C / USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 <=== Maybe on new computer, Anandtech claimed this
standard was "obsolete as soon as it came out".
but if ya got it, use it...

Actual write rate 1326 MB/sec (7x SATA HDD, 3x SATA SSD)

That's an example of a legit item. USB-C
connector ensures it has powering options so
that power to run the flash will not be limited.

I have no PCs here with USB-C, but it would be
easy enough to add a card to the machine. But not
all standards are available. If I wanted a
"USB 3.2 Gen 2x2", that probably is not all that
common at the moment. And besides, the more exotic options,
require engineering-level research, to even understand if
what you're buying, is the right item.

Thunderbolt is 40gbit/20gbit/10gbit. USB4 has
some portion of that "set". The USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 is
20Gbit/sec. AKA "2.5GB/sec minus encoding overhead",
whatever that works out to.

The next level down, could be USB 3.2 Gen 2, cable
works at 1GB/sec, writes happen at 700MB/sec.

Paul

Thanks for all the comments. I ended up buying this from Amazon today,
and same day delivery got it to me this afternoon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0874XJL6M?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

My PC has only USB 3.0 capability, and connected to it, HDTune says
161.8 Avg MB/sec. That's a bit disapointing, since an old JMicron 120
GB in an enclosure I bought tests at 256.1 MB/sec.
I'll probably test it on my laptop, which is only a couple of years
old and has USB-C capability, to see if that makes any difference....

OK tests the same on my Thinkpad with a USB-C connection.

Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
> Thanks for all the comments. I ended up buying this from Amazon today,
> and same day delivery got it to me this afternoon.
>
> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0874XJL6M?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details
>
> My PC has only USB 3.0 capability, and connected to it, HDTune says
> 161.8 Avg MB/sec. That's a bit disapointing, since an old JMicron 120
> GB in an enclosure I bought tests at 256.1 MB/sec.
> I'll probably test it on my laptop, which is only a couple of years
> old and has USB-C capability, to see if that makes any difference....
>
> OK tests the same on my Thinkpad with a USB-C connection.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-t7-portable-ssd-review/2

"We wrote 84GB of data to the T7 (roughly double that of the
1TB model) at a rate of 867 MBps before the TurboWrite cache
filled and degraded to a final speed of 337 MBps on average
from that point on."

It's a DRAMless TLC drive, with a pseudo-SLC cache for writes.
When the SLC cache section is full, the drive then uses the TLC
cells, which is slower on write. When the SLC is "drained" into
the TLC, the SLC speed returns. This means the drive writes twice
when you put files on it, but there's an opportunity while
this is happening, to re-arrange the data a bit.

This means if you had USB3.2 Rev2 1GB/sec, it writes at 867MB/sec
for a while. And if you had USB3.2 Rev1 500MB/sec, it might write
at four hundred and change for a bit.

The thing is, the various flavors of USB have more or less overhead.
USB2 is polled, and the ACKs would not be piggybacked.
USB2 is half-duplex.

USB3 is closer from a wiring perspective, to PCIe, as there
is a separate TX pair and RX pair. This means ACKs could be pipelined
in the reverse direction while data is moving in the forward
direction. There is the UASP protocol (where the word SCSI
fits in there somewhere). USB3 is available on the Type A legacy
connector (where the connector has a total of 9 pins, 4 legacy,
and 5 pins for TX/RX/Gnd-Guard.

The USB-C has a lot more pins than the USB3 Type A. And the
drive you selected, is one short of the highest rate so far (Rev2x2).
I don't know when USB4 is incoming, as it might be a bit better
again. What I don't know is if USB4 has 40Gbit/sec Thunderbolt or not.
And that's where my interest in USB declines, is once we go over
1GB/sec (=10Gbit/sec), I don't know how any of it works with certainty.
The specs are thousands of pages, there are ifs/ands/butts, making
it harder to predict what you get as a user. Like, how will
I know if the item you bought, is going to get the power it
needs ?

*******

USB3 as provided by plugin cards for desktops, they have
a little trick up their sleeve. What mine does, is sometimes
the PCIe x1 card, the PCIe interface negotiates Rev2 lane rate,
but other times, it decides to run at half the speed, the
Rev1.1 lane rate. And that's when you get that "disappointing"
200MB/sec USB3 rate from, it's the PCIe malfunctioning. Now,
try and find a utility that tells you straight-up, that this
is what happened. I have to bench the damn thing and figure it
out that way. If I'm lucky, yet another reboot fixes it.

Paul

Charlie Hoffpauir <invalid@invalid.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 19 Jul 2021 12:18:36 -0500, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
>>Charlie Hoffpauir <invalid@invalid.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone have experience with one of the "very cheap" 1 and 2 TB
>>> portable SSD drives offered on ebay for 30-40 US$ price range?
>>> They claim to be USB 3.0 or 3.1, but a few people have commented they
>>> are more like USB 2 in speed.
>>
>>Give URLs to examples, or the URL for your eBay search, so *we* which
>>ones you are asking about. You could be asking about USB thumb drives,
>>or USB SSD drives in a case. Read, and especially write speeds, affect
>>the speed of the device. The cheap ones won't tell you those specs yet
>>those are often bought by consumers that only look at the USB speed, and
>>don't look at the drive's own speeds. Only look at those that report
>>read/write speeds. Sometimes you have to go to the manufacturer's site
>>to get the specs. Generally, the higher the write speed, the more
>>expensive the USB drive.
>>
>>USB3.x requires support on both ends of the cable (computer and device).
>>We cannot see if the comments reported the purported USB speeds on both
>>endpoints.
>>
>>Where is the product seller using eBay? Do they have inventory in your
>>region (pick your country/region for shipping location instead of
>>anywhere) , or are they shipping from their home country and have long
>>delays getting through customs? What's their reputation rating? Did
>>you review the ratings to eliminate the boob reports? Did they have a
>>bad spell during which they had negative feedback, or have they been
>>consistently been at the same feedback level? How many transactions
>>have they had under that seller name? What's the shipping cost? Are
>>you a verified buyer, so you are covered by eBay's Buyer Protection
>>plan? Are you paying via Paypal, or some other means (credit card)?
>>None of this is known to use who you are asking for purchase assistance,
>>only to you, so far.
>>
>>If you search at Newegg and Amazon, are the prices there similar, or
>>much higher (remember to include shipping costs)?
>>
>>Way too many unknowns to address your inquiry.
> Here is a link to the drives I was looking at. SSD, not thumb drives.
> Several are listed, and none of the cheap ones specify manufacturer or
> actual speed. My question is really if anyone has actually purchased
> one of these, and if so, what was their experience.
>
> https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1312&_nkw=external+ssd+hard+drive&_sacat=0
>
> I've looked at the user comments, and most don't even refer to SSD
> drive purchases, and those that are positive, I'm doubting are valid.

I had to sort the search result by lowest to highest to see the "cheap
ones" first. Without a brand and model for the SSD inside, you don't
know what you're buying. No one can show you benchmarks on an unknown.
Expect the slowest write speeds with the unspecified products. In other
words, they're crap. They obviously didn't manufacture the device, put
someone's SSD inside (maybe), hope buyers only see "USB 3", don't give
any read/write specs, and don't identify whose SSD they stuck inside.
Why would they hide that information? Because they're selling crap!

Figure it like toilet paper: you'll need a lot more wadded up cheap
stuff than the more expensive high-quality rolls.

I had to scroll quite a bit down until I hit a name brand unit, and that
started at $47. No idea if that is cheap to you, or not. When I tried
to get specs on the SAMSUNG PORTABLE SSD T5 500GB (MU-PA500B) at
Samsung's site, they only noted one speed -- which would be the read
speed since that's the fastest. 540 MBps (4320 Mbps) is okay for read,
but more important is write speed. Maybe drilling into their site would
reveal read and write speeds, or better would be to do an online search
on "<brand> <model> benchmarks". You do plan on writing to the USB SSD,
right?

Use the "Brand" filter to narrow the search to named brands (that are
drive manufacturers, not resellers slapping their sticker onto someone
else's drive). The URL you gave was far too general. You asked about
1TB and 2TB SSDs, but you didn't bother to specify that in your eBay
URL. In fact, you confounded SSD with "hard drive" (which means HDD).

Instead I started with the eBay search:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=usb%203.1%20ssd%20drive%201tb

Then I added the following filters:
Condition = New
Buying Format = Buy It Now
Item Location = USA only
Capacity = 1TB (later pick 2TB if you want to pay the higher price)

For brands, I filtered on : Crucial, Samsung, Seagate, and Western
Digital. Although Crucial doesn't make anything, they do spec their
suppliers to what they specify. My preference is Samsung, with WD as a
secondary, but I included other name brands. That got me down to 43
results. I then pick read speed of 530 MB/s (usually write speed goes
up with read speed), which excluded all those that didn't specify any
speed. I was down to 4 products: 2 from Crucial, 2 from WD. Alas, the
matches were for product pages that list multiple capacities, so I had
to go to each product page to select 1TB.
Prices were:

Crucial: $140 (gray or clear)
WD: $160

So, just what do YOU consider "cheap"? Yep, a turd is cheap. Quality,
reliability, and decent speed will costs more ... a lot more. The
Crucial and WDs have 3 year warranties. The Crucial and WD sellers have
over 23,000 transactions with over 99% positive feedback. Feedback only
goes back a year. The seller (same for all 4 SSDs) has been a member
since Jan 2015.

If I go to newegg.com to start a search on "usb 3.1 ssd 1tb", items sold
by Newegg (instead of someone else using Newegg as a frontend e-store),
and in-stock items (if they're out of stock, don't expect the product to
become available again), picked the same brands, and selected both USB
3.0 and 3.1 (you didn't state a preference), the half dozen matches
ranges from $139 to $168, so not a lot different than at eBay.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100011694%208000%20600415867%2050001077%2050001306%2050001305%2050001455%204131%20601186559%20600038520

If I search at Amazon, prices start at $129, but go WAY up with far
faster read speed (I didn't bother to pick one to research its write
speed). Fast[er] read is nice, but users will complain if write speed
is slow.

On Mon, 19 Jul 2021 18:46:56 -0500, Charlie Hoffpauir
<invalid@invalid.com> wrote:

>My PC has only USB 3.0 capability, and connected to it, HDTune says
>161.8 Avg MB/sec. That's a bit disapointing, since an old JMicron 120
>GB in an enclosure I bought tests at 256.1 MB/sec.

SATA Power 15-pin Y-Splitter Cable Adapter Male to Female for HDD Hard
Drive New
Item number 233683000111
Total Item price $1.95

Three connections: Bit odd, as its dual USB2, half the USB portion of
the cable for PWR the other DATA Trx;- the SATA (long DATA/PWR)
interface is the other end.

Used a $30 SATA 256G SSD to test it, and it's an amazing $2 solution
for running at USB2 molasses for light duty. Anything faster I pull a
SSD out of the PC and swap for regular SATA speeds. Varies with 4 1T
SSD units I've bought, 90MB/s being my best and 50-60MB/s with the
likes of that $30 256M HP SSD or my last SSD purchase, a $75 1T
Crucial MX500 series SSD.

Of course one of sides removed from desktop PCs' cases, isn't a
laptop, nor even near a breeze for getting into an assembled PC case
with sides intact. Function over form aside from a PWR down and up
when swapping.

I really bought the $2 cable to see if it might do a sort of USB2
replacement for USB thumbdrives. Haven't setup backplane USB3, not
that testing it with the 1T class SSDs is really feasible as USB3 to
SSD adaptors are presumably higher pwr devices with only a straight
one-to-one interface. Still, that USB can do the same thing at low
speeds isn't all bad. The only caveat is heat. Run into instances of
talk, depending on some MB config builds, related equipment used on
it, some people burn up their USB3 chips on extended hgih-speed
usages.

All my USB3 or 2 adapter cards, I've two or three, are full-slotted
PCI, and I've no idea for the former deal in heat. A Sandisk USB3
thumbdrive, though, does remain toasty at 120-130F deg. if left in a
USB2, MB header-supplied front panel slot;- seems a waste, so have
taken to pulling it out when not in casual usages and modest speed
requirements.