# Is running samples from external SSD - USB 3 viable?



## SimonCharlesHanna (Nov 16, 2018)

Just weighing up my options here and wanted some advice - how much of a bottleneck does usb 3 + ssd have when streaming samples? Is it a decent option or is it still slow?


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## SimonCharlesHanna (Nov 16, 2018)

I could buy an internal but could only really afford 1tb and....my case is weird and I can't quite understand how to insert the drive.


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## Nils Neumann (Nov 16, 2018)

I don't know the specifics, but I use a external SSD via USB and don't experience any difference to my internal SSD


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## SimonCharlesHanna (Nov 16, 2018)

Nils Neumann said:


> I don't know the specifics, but I use a external SSD via USB and don't experience any difference to my internal SSD


Really? Surely the usb connection would bottleneck a bit? Well sounds good to me!


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## Michel Simons (Nov 16, 2018)

I too also use an external usb 3 ssd drive and haven't encountered any problems. Mind you, I am probably not using as many sample libraries at the same time as most people around here.


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## Nils Neumann (Nov 16, 2018)

SimonCharlesHanna said:


> Really? Surely the usb connection would bottleneck a bit? Well sounds good to me!


Not that I noticed it, I guess it is a little bit slower, but my workflow is not interrupted because of the external ssd.


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## Mike Marino (Nov 16, 2018)

You might experience some bottlenecking with larger sessions/templates. You can always opt to load more of the sample into RAM as well (depending on how much you've got available) so that you're relying a little less on pure streaming. In terms of data transfer speeds this is what each connection looks like:
USB 2.0: 480mbps
USB 3.0: 5gbps
USB 3.1: 10gbps (same for Thunderbolt)
Thunderbolt 2: 20gbps
Thunderbolt 3: 40gbps


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