What SSD disk drives work well with Asus USB 3.1?

[chrisisbd]

I'm looking for a USB SSD to use with an Asus RT-DSL68U and/or with an RT AC-86U, these both have a USB 3.1 type A connector. Many of the latest USB SSDs have USB-C connectors so they won't connect directly to the type A connector and, probably, even with an adapter, some speed will be lost. I'm not after the ultimate in speed anyway but I would like to have something that works reasonably well with the Asus routers.

So, what drives are good for this (and available here in the UK)?

 

[Tech Junky]

Adapters provide the same speed if you get the right one. Why not just use a USB-A microsd instead? All in maybe $15/ea.

 

[chrisisbd]

Well that's not what I have read elsewhere, all I have read suggests that a USB 3.2 drive with a USB-C connector only attains its best speed when connected to a system which also has a USB-C connector. As I said though I'm not after absolutely the maximum speed possible, I just want to ensure I don't get something really slow because of compatibility issues.

The speed of USB flash drives (which is what I assume you mean by " USB-A microsd") is nowhere near that of a 'real' SSD. However, part of what I'm asking is whether the USB 3.1 interface on an Asus router can use that extra speed? I.e. can an Asus router read/write from a fast[ish] SSD drive at much faster than it can from a flash drive whose maximum speeds are typically less than 100MB/s (there's a few faster than that nowadays, but they're expensive still).

 

[Tech Junky]

Well, take it from someone that hacks this stuff all the time. Your router can't handle the full 5gbls the port can provide due to the CPU/RAM being used.

You could get a USBC 32gb on Amazon under $10 that does 75MB/s and a $5 converter from C>A and it will be more than sufficient. The extra space between the drive and router is actually a good thing to keep them both cooler.

Using an SSD for this is just a waste of money. It can be done if you're dead set on doing it. Connect it after you initialize it and let the router format it and then drop your data on it.

 

[chrisisbd]

"the full 5gbls the port can provide due to the CPU/RAM being used"

Exactly! That's why I asked the question. So what *can* the router manage? Will a cheap[ish] USB SSD be faster than an expensive[ish] flash drive?

I'm off to do some simple checks, I have some (not very fast) USB flash drives and a (fairly average) USB external hard drive so tomorrow I will try them both and see if the speeds differ much.

 

[Tech Junky]

I don't have the specifics on what the router can do but, the bus speed won't hit the max anyway. This is demonstrated if you look for info on the VPN throughput as it throttles on either OVPN / WG and WG is considerably lighter weight and can hit line speed over 1gbps with the proper CPU being used. On Asus gear though WG gets capped at maybe 500mbps.

Test the port with different drives but, I would probably say keep it cheap but, not too cheap. I wouldn't use a C-10 mSD as it's pitiful for performance. I use once of these in my car for the MMI for music - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FKN4T4H/?tag=snbforums-20 - $12.99 and hits 80MB/s WR and 100MB/s R

$5 reader - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000WR3Z3A/?tag=snbforums-20

Pop this into an adapter and you're good to go. Now the other one I was mentioning was this one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N7QDO7M/?tag=snbforums-20 @ $9 / 75MB/s R/W it's small and performs decent.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YCZ2S82/?tag=snbforums-20 - I use these for a couple of things and they test out at 10gbps in the right port /I mostly use them for power though to keep higher bandwidth ports open for data transfers.

Now, if you want SSD performance in a ready to go package then consider - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MU8TZRV/?tag=snbforums-20 @ $45 it hits ~400MB/s and shows up as an SSD in PC's and not a USB drives. Now, this might be an issue with a dumb router that doesn't know better and it's not going to come close to be using all of the bandwidth provided by it. However, it can come in useful if you want to clone a backup of your PC and use it as a portable image you can use on any other PC.

 

[Tech9]

I would like to have something that works reasonably well with the Asus routers.

There is no such thing because Asus routers don't work reasonably well as NAS devices.

AC68U can do about 55Mbps, AC86U about 100Mbps. Both routers will slow down to a crawl and even crash when pushed harder as NAS.

 

[EmeraldDeer]

• I have been using a Samsung T5 with an RT-AX88U for about two years.
• I have no regrets even though most would consider it overkill.
• Heat will not go back and forth with a cable connected external drive.
• I am using the supplied USB-C to USB-A cable.
• I partitioned it into a small Entware partition and a large share partition.
• Both partitions have journaled ext4 filesystems.
• A filesystem check to a large filesystem will cause a router reboot to fail.
• There are default settings which result in filesystem checks every few months.
• I used tune2fs to configure a filesystem check of the Entware filesystem on every reboot.
• The Entware filesystem cannot be gracefully unmounted, checked and remounted.
• I used tune2fs to disable filesystem checks of the share partition altogether.
• The share filesystem can be gracefully umounted, checked and remounted.
• I never unmount the Entware and share filesystems before rebooting, even for a firmware upgrade.
• According to tune2fs, the Entware partition has 4398 GB of writes

 

[chrisisbd]

Thank you for your comments about using a Samsung T5 with an RT-AX88U.

I just compared an old[ish] rotating hard disk (320Gb laptop drive in an external USB box) with a quite modern USB stick (DataTraveler G4) and the rotating disk was *much* faster, like about 5 times faster. So it looks to me as if an 'external SSD' is what I should use. This was in an RT-AC86U.

 

[sfx2000]

Sandisk Extreme NVME?

https://www.costco.com/sandisk-nvme-1tb-extreme-portable-ssd.product.100780552.html

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD v2 and WD My Passport SSD (2020) Review

www.anandtech.com

I don't hook them up to my router, but running on Mac and Windows, they work well...