Hi, I want to use my GL-AXT1800 as a portable hard drive with wifi enabled but wanted to ask if if there are statistics on the maximum read and write speeds and comparisons if you:
use a TF card
use an external HDD
use an external SSD
use a USB thumb drive
Does anyone have any suggestions? I read on the forums that SSD is the way to go, but I don't want to buy something that is overkill and want the minimum spec that meets the maximum read speed of the router.
Well the usb is rated as usb 3.0 which is 5gbps (625MBs)
Now if you have ever had a SSD hard drive and used a USB to SATA adapter you would notice that you usually pull the desired read / writes speed of a SATA 3 SSD.
A typical HDD will pull around 150MBs read / write and a USB would be slower too, unless you get a fast usb but it's just cheaper to purchase a SSD.
Also remember your upload speed will be a factor if you are to send files via the web, for Lan your ethernet adapter will be the limiting factor. 1gbs Lan will only allow 125MBs of file transfer so then you might as well just attach a traditional HDD.
So the speed / bottleneck isn't just the HDD attached, there's other factors.
If you want storage on the go then a small usb 3.0 flash drive like the cruzer fit would be a good fit or use a good class 10 rated SD card.
If you purchase a powered usb HDD (like a Seagate or WD portable HDD) then just remember they are usually mechanical and any slight knock or drop could render it defective, for that alone I would just buy a SSD. Faster offline file transfers and no worries if it's getting thrown around in a backpack for example.
Again, it really depends on your application. If you are just wanting to serve a few movies / files whilst on the go then a SD card / USB will be fine. If you want more of a permanent place to store files (lots of reads and writes) then a SSD would have more endurance, its also worth noting that you would be best suited if the SSD you get has a DRAM cache as that helps keeps sustained read/writes - have a quick Google about "DRAM Cache"
Thanks for this reply! I mainly want to transfer files wirelessly to my Vision Pro (it doesn’t have a wired connection), which is rated WiFi 6 or ax and wanted to get the fastest read speed for storage for the router. I notice with a mechanical hard drive, like the Western Digital My Passport Ultra, it transfers at best at 25-30MB/s even though the WiFi speed should be 1200 mbps or 150 MB/s
If you are looking for speed then a SATA 3 SSD will max out the usb 3.0 port. Again your bottleneck will be the network speed.
Make sure your SSD has some DRAM cache otherwise sustained read/writes will drop after a period of copying a file. A DRAM cache will basically help keep the transfer rate higher as some SSDs drop to an unbearable speed when copying, research is king but I know Kioxia SSD have DRAM, you just need to make sure you research before purchasing.