usb 3.0 or gigabit ethernet attached hard drive/network storage

Is my wdmybooklive NAS attached through a gigabit Ethernet connection to my router slower than an external hard drive connected to the same router via a usb 3.0 connection?

It would seem the USB 3.0 connection would be faster with a theoretical 5.0 Gbps versus the Ethernet 1 Gbps speed but I was wondering if reality is different due to some bottlenecking or something.

Thanks.

 

Usb 3.0 (the interface) is faster, but it is a different story if the usb is on the router.

Assume the usb is faster, you will still be limited by the speed of the routers network interface (which is the max speed of the nas) .
Which router you looking at?

 

Well, I was going to get the asus rt-ac66u but it doesn't have usb 3.0 ports.

I'm thinking I'm going to be bottlenecked no matter what so it doesn't make much of a difference anyway.

If I'm transferring to/from WAN, I'm limited by my WAN speeds from my service provider. If I stream video/photo wirelessly within LAN, I'm limited by wireless speeds.

Only time this may not be an issue is when I connect my laptop directly to another usb 3.0 port on the router. That will be rare anyway.

Thanks. I think I've realized the answer to my question unless you guys disagree with me.

 

Apart from what baii wrote- routers aren't very good at handling USB harddrives. Only those with Marvell NAS-grade SoCs can achieve read/write speads of over 20MB/s.
Even the most high end and expensive routers aren't good at that- ASUS RT-AC66U according to smallnetbuilder averages over 13MB/s write and over 9MB/s read (NTFS volume)

So as it's often the case- dedicated device is far better. An average NAS like my ZyXEL NSA-310 for some $50 manages 35-40MB/s no porblems while a high end router like ASUS RT-AC66U for $180 only 25-30% of that.

 

Ok. I'm a little confused again. The asus rt-ac66u only has 2.0 usb ports (not sure why that is) so of course it would be slower.

I've seen some routers with usb 3.0 ports.In this case I would think I'd be better off with a 3.0 usb external hard drive cause I can first transfer my large quantity bulk data via a direct usb 3.0 connection from laptop to hard drive (which would be faster than Ethernet). Then after initial setup, I attached it my usb 3.0 hard drive to the router (at that point it would operate at same speed as Ethernet NAS).

Am I right?

 

USB is not limiting factor as far as router is concerned. USB 2 has a limit at around 30MB/s while no router is even close to this speed - Links E4200 v2 is the fastest with roughly 20MB/s read/write.
The only upside of USB 3 in routers is that they supply more power compared to USB 2.

So yes you could transfer files faster from a laptop to USB 3 HDD and after initial setup to the router it would still be limited by its SoC and offer speeds of some 10MB/s regardless of USB 3.

 

Thanks a lot downloads.

So you're saying when I'm connected to the router, the Ethernet NAS is faster than a usb 3.0 hard drive connected to a router with usb 3.0 even if I get the best router available?

If it was the same speed, I'd still get the usb 3.0 hard drive on the network cause I can connect it directly when I'm transferring in bulk.

Thanks.

 

Yes- that's exactly what I meant.

 

Thanks a lot. Guess I'll stick with my NAS.