Is It Sensible To Run Apps From External USB 3.0?

I'm trying to figure out if it's alright for me to use an external USB 3.0 drive as a dedicated secondary drive (to run productivity apps and store media).

To give you a bit of history, I own an HP Envy 17 with a 160GB SSD as my primary drive. I have an open slot for a secondary expansion drive, but HP didn't include a mount for it and they are asking for a ridiculous $100 for me to purchase the mount kit and have it shipped (and it needlessly includes a spare primary drive mount that I already have). Needless to say, I wanted to explore some other cost effective means to effectively use the secondary drive that I have just lying around (500GB 2.5" 7200rpm SATA II). I found a vantec USB 3.0 enclosure on newegg for $35ish (because my notebook supports 3.0), and it seems like a good deal considering the circumstances.

Now, besides the disadvantage of having the external drive take up desk space, are there any other problems with me using the external drive for my stated usage? I don't know about USB 2.0, but I figured eSata or USB 3.0 will provide high enough transfer speeds to support the running of multiple apps and data transfers from an external drive. I was thinking of an eSata enclosure at first, but I think it requires additional cables (and clutter) for power, no?

What do you guys think? Will I run into any hiccups? Would spending $65 more on getting the mount kit be more worth it if this was your situation?

 

Here's a caddy for $39.99: NEW HP ENVY 15 SSD 1.8 HDD CADDY KIT 576829-001 - eBay (item 300442499526 end time Jul-31-10 07:13:21 PDT)

 

Thanks, but it's not the same as the the secondary mount for the Envy 17. The mounts in the link you provided me only fits for the Envy 15 chassis and screw placements, while even the longest cable in the photo seems too short compared to the Envy 17 cable (the secondary mount requires a longer cable).

 

I've ran virtual machines off of a USB 2.0 hard drive. Sure it is a bit slower than having the drive built-in, but you really won't notice it unless it's something like Photoshop or some high end production software.

You can definitely run applications off of a USB 3.0 connected hard drive. USB 3.0 provides a theoretical 3.2 Gb/s whic translates to about 400 MB/s. Your hard drive will not max this out and should be able to run at full speed as long as you get a good USB 3.0 dock. Even with USB overhead, you hard drive will work at full speed.

 

What he said