Hi
I have a new Dell XPS 8960 Win11 computer. I have a new SSD enclosure which is very slow. I have used several ports (USBC & USBA) with different cables (different brands as well) and I get consistent speeds that are very slow. I also tested the speed of the connection to a hard drive & USB flash drive. All were 10x faster.
A simple file copy (4gig) has a consistent speed of 38 MB/s. EaseUS DiskMark shows a speed of 40-44 MB/s.
Given I have used 3-4 cables and different ports (USBC SS and USB3 SS) HOWEVER when I use the cables you supplied I get 10x speeds (375MB/s). Can you help me understand why there is such a difference?
Hi,
Thank you for contacting us, I am sorry this is not working as expected and I am happy to help!
Based on your description, with synthetic drive performance testing between 30-50MB/s the most likely cause is the enclosure is being detected as a USB 2 device instead of a USB 3 device. With the 375MB/s indicating the enclosure is being detected as a USB 3 5Gbps or 10Gbps device with the included cables, this points to the other cables potentially not supporting USB 3 data rates.
USB cables and ports use separate physical wires for USB 2 and USB 3 data, many USB Type-C (and Standard-A to Type-C) “charging” cables do not include the USB 3 wires limiting the cables to supporting charging and USB 2 data rates. These cables are significantly lower in cost than fully-featured USB Type-C cables and are often included with phones, tablets, and with some computers for connecting to the power adapter.
The USB Implementers Forum does not require that USB Type-C cables have their functions labeled, or that the operating system report the cable’s capability. Without labels on the specific cables it can be difficult to determine if a cable supports only USB 2 data rates or higher.
With regard to the Dell XPS 8960 desktop system, there are three front-facing USB 3 5Gbps Standard-A ports, and one front-facing USB 3 10Gbps Type-C port. Connecting the NVMe enclosure to the front-facing USB Type-C port should provide the best performance of the front-facing ports.
On the back of the computer are two USB 2 data ports, these are the lowest on the back panel in-line with the Ethernet port, these ports are optimal for USB keyboard and mouse connections. Above these are a USB 3 20Gbps Type-C port, this can support our enclosure up to 10Gbps, and to the right of these are two more USB 3 5Gbps Standard-A ports.
For this computer the optimal configuration will be to connect the USBC-NVME enclosure to either the front-facing or rear USB Type-C ports with the included USB Type-C data cable, or a USB Type-C 10Gbps data cable ( https://plugable.com/products/usbc-c100 ). Using all of this computer’s USB Standard-A ports are limited to 5Gbps, still quite fast but most NVMe SSDs can exceed 5Gbps data rates in synthetic testing ( for example CrystalDiskMark or EaseUS DiskMark ), actual file transfer speeds will vary based on the file system, the size and number of files being transferred, and sometimes the file type being copied can affect the speed of the transfer.
Please let me know if this helps or if you have any additional questions, and I will be happy to help!
Have a great day,
Pat
Plugable Technology
support@plugable.com
This is VERY VERY helpful and thank you!
Hi,
You’re very welcome, please let me know if you have any additional questions, or if there is anything else we can do to help!
Pat
Plugable Technology
support@plugable.com