Thunderbolt

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HARDWARE By Ed Tittel Not many people know this, but Thunderbolt originated as an optical networking technology. Apple and Intel worked on its initial
[See the full post at: Thunderbolt]

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fisher75, lmacri, Norio, Lars220, rc primak, DLivesInTexas, oldfry

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Ed,

Interesting article! Although I don’t have Thunderbolt the info about the increase in speed by changing the external drive’s caching settings intrigued me so I though I’d test it out on plain old USB-3.

Test Setup:
Windows 11 (Tiny11)
Dell Inspiron 137000 laptop i-5 5200U
8 Gb DDR3 Single Channel
Samsung 850 EVO 250Gb SATA SSD

External Drive: Samsung 980 Pro NVMe M.2 Gen 4 – 1Tb in an ORICO M.2 NVMe enclosure supporting USB3.2 Gen 2.

To my surprise there was no appreciable difference in backup times. I was hoping at least maybe a 5-10% difference. I used my automated backup which records the timings to remove the human element.

With Caching OFF – Fast Removal:

10/02/23 10:42:59 Backup Started...
10/02/23 11:05:28 Backup Succeeded (G:\BEKDocs\Reflect\Boot Drive.xml).
					Summary File: F2A67157E424E5F2-00-00.html
10/02/23 11:05:28 Backup Set ended. Total Elapsed Time: 00:22:41

With Caching ON:

10/02/23 10:23:14 Backup Succeeded (G:\BEKDocs\Reflect\Boot Drive.xml).
					Summary File: 8217C4BB11400A7F-00-00.html
10/02/23 10:23:15 Backup Set ended. Total Elapsed Time: 00:23:04

Go figure but it was slower with Caching ON!

Yeah, I know I need new HW! Unfortunately, for my daily workload I can’t justify it. I used the laptop, 2015, which is only used for testing so I wouldn’t tie up my main driver which is also 6 years old.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Thanks for sharing your results with us. I’ve never seen what you report myself before, but I have read about it from time to time. Good to know that what sometimes works with newer, faster devices, ports and cables doesn’t always do that with older, slower stuff.

Best wishes,

–Ed–

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My thanks in turn to all who found this article worth reading. It’s been fascinating for me, too, to try to untangle the twisted threads that tie USB (especially USB-C) and Thunderbolt together. Best wishes to all,
–Ed–

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