|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
88.97.21.18
I would very much appreciate your advice on the best device to power an external SSD.
For what I hope are obvious reasons I do not wish to power it from my PC's USB but no external SSDs that I have come across have their own power supplies as per 3.5" HDDs.
I have thought of maybe iFi - I-iUSBPower but iFi don't answer my emails so my doubts about its suitabilty remain. It looks to me from their webpage that it is meant to power a USB DAC so I am unsure about connectivity for a drive. Still I am sure that there are alternatives that you will come up with.
BTW, considering where I am located, UK or other European availabilty is an advantage.
Follow Ups:
You obviously need to break the USB power leads from the PC side that would normally power your SSD and 'inject' clean 5VDC into the side that goes to the SSD.
So it's not just a matter of buying a linear 5V power supply and housing your SSD in an enclosure with external power. You can cutup your USB cable or find one with the power leads already broken WITH USB-C and USB-A connectors. You're not likely to find one already made.
If it were me, I'd either build my own USB cable using USB connectors that can be purchased for DIY projects..... soldering involved. Or, look at the hub method mentioned below.
Your SSD is not a STANDARD 2.5" SATA unit but rather Samsung flash memory housed within it's tiny custom case for portability.... and connected via USB 3.1 (USB-C).
An easier solution for you would be to use a powered USB hub that gets it's power from an external 5VDC source. Plug your Samsung T3 into the USB hub using the Samsung supplied USB-C to USB-A adapter cable, plug the hub into your PC, power the hub with a quality linear power supply.
Thanks Abe, I think that the solution in your final paragraph is a particularly practical one.Just for the record, I haven't actually got a Samsung T3. I just used the image of one to show Paco what I meant about the connectivity of these devices. Still even if I don't buy that Sammy I daresay I will get a similar device. At the moment I am just looking at how to do it all as, unlike using HDDs, the cost of SSDs of a usable capacity for my music library is still such that I can't afford to just take a punt and write it off if unsuccesful. The idea is to get rid of disc spin up noise without the complexity of going down the NAS route which , aside from this specific issue, has no other clear benefit for my limited requirements.
I am, however, still left with an unknown. If, as is pretty clear to me, the cable from the drive to my PC makes a large difference to the end sound, how great is the effect going to be of routing the data via a hub or other solution? The only way to find out seems to gamble and try it.
Edits: 11/08/16
if your main idea is just to get rid of hard disc spin you really don't need to use SSD:
all you need is using Audirvana, or similars! they put your selected music from HD onto RAM before playing,
so when you are playing your music it comes from solid memory and nothing is spinning!... :)
Thanks again Paco. My problem isn't hard disk spin but spin UP. This still occurs when playing from memory (as I do) as the player does not store an entire album but loads a track at a time into the memory. So, towards the end of the preceding track, the player requests the next track to load. This causes the hard disk to spin up and a brief (under a second) noise as it does so. Thereafter the disk ceases to spin.
I use JRiver MC 22 as my player. One feature ( yet to be implemented) in the specification for 22 compared to 21 is that an entire album will be loaded into memory. Once an MC 22 build is issued with the entire album from memory feature my problem will be over. However with JRiver the specifications for a new version may be more in the way of aspirations at the beginning.
you're very welcome! what you say about JRiver astonishes me! with Audirvana
i never experienced any noise at all!! when a track is finished it downloads the next one
in total, absolute silence, and very very fast; you should try! they have a 15 days free trial...
No, the noise doesn't come from JRiver. It is a noise from the mechanism of the Seagate HDD as it spins up when it receives a command to send data for the next track. That is why I want to replace the HDD with an SSD. JRiver itself is a great piece of software.
I am very pleased for you that you are happy using Audionirvana. However it cannot be appropriate for me as it is an application solely for Apple Mac (or , more precisely, OSX). My operating system is MS Windows 10.
i see... i didn't know those drivers are noisy... my iMac internal driver is silent, as far as i'm able to notice... anyway, good luck with your investigation!
I was under the impression that you already owned the T3.
- Buy a bare SATA SSD, not one that is already in a case. Then buy your own external case that has an external 5VDC power jack. Example linked below, but there are several others to choose from. It will house a standard 2.5" SATA SSD, has a jack for external power, and a USB 3 port to attach to your PC.
- Or buy a powered USB 3 Hub
Thanks again Abe, you are a gentleman.
I have subsequently spent the last 45 minutes on line looking at just about every case for 2.5" drives with USB connection that is available in the UK. I cannot find any that take external power. All power the drive via the USB bus. So this result just takes me back to my initial problem.
The case that you kindly linked is not available via Amazon here. The nearest equivalent that they have is , again, USB bus powered.
I am only able to find cases/caddies for 3.5" drives that take a dedicated external power input. As far as I am aware SSD drives do not come in 3.5".
So , it's now time to look at powered hubs :-). However I am not keen on this as I suspect that the hub itself and the additional links it entails will degrade SQ.
Maybe I'll have to end up using NAS with , perhaps, the new dCS network bridge or maybe buy a Rossini ;-).
Many enclosures for 3.5" SATA disks will accommodate 2.5" SATA SSDs through the use of adapter brackets. And most 3.5" enclosures come with a power jack for external power, but it will be 12v instead of 5v. Some will come with the brackets, or you can buy them separately. They're just inexpensive brackets to fit 2.5" disks in an enclosure made for 3.5" disks.
Search Amazon for:
3.5 sata to usb case
3.5 to 2.5 drive bay adapter
I don't think that these dedicated usb2/3 ssds are good deals. First, you may not be able to pullthe disk for use as Sata or pcie devices.
Second, you'd probably get a speed limited controller which is cheaper for the vendor and
Third, you loose the ability to power independently.
I'd go for a regular ssd in a high quality box bought separately, with usb, eSata or Sata and separate power input. There will be a cheap regulator inside but this will be helped by a good external 5V power source.
...just for clarification. An external USB drive has only a single connector - a USB. There is no separate power port.So a power supply has to provide the voltage via pin whatever number on the USB. It therefore also has to have connectivity with the PC i.e. route the data to and from the drive and PC.
Edits: 11/07/16
Just place the drive into a box with separate usb and power connections, or use a sata box with esata and power input. You can buy a 1TB ssd for a very reasonable price and this is what I use, with different kinds of music in differenet enclosure, eSata connected.You can eve connect an external drive with sata cable with external power but you must switch this on first.
Edits: 11/07/16
Your 'solution' is incompatible and will not work with his SSD.
He's not using a drive that can take advantage of a SATA enclosure with separate power connection. He does not have a SATA SSD.
He is using a Samsung flash memory storage device housed in a tiny custom Samsung enclosure connected via USB-C and no jack for external power. The devil is in the details.
I sadi that he could use other ssds. Why should inmates pay for a pretty usbc solutions only?
not sure i understand you; anyway you can google this and see:
"5v usb linear power supply"
a lot of possibilities!
Thanks for your interest Paco. I will try to show you what I mean. Please click the link. As you can see the external SSD has ONLY a USB port. It is powered via the USB bus. There is no connectivity for a linear power supply in the normal sense e.g. a box with 230V IEC input and 5V "pin and ring" (don't know what they are offically called) output. That is why the expensive iFi product interested me as it does seem at least to provide a clean 5V on USB.
I am beginning to think that I may be on a wild goose chase as even if I found a PS with the right connectivity the additional USB required plus the unknown USB data handling within such a PS may turn out to be worse than just using the USB bus as intended.
I even thought of getting an internal SSD + PS + cabinet and building my own. Then I realised that I am too stupid to do this. At least I am clever enough to realise that I am too stupid ;-)
what about this?
Or this
The Well Tempered Computer
Thanks Paco. Your diligence is much appreciated.
That certainly looks to be on the right track.
I wouldn't use the ifi walwart but go for a good linear power supply and not one just based on an LT PS chip such as the ones found on ebay from China.
I have found that the PS does affect SQ, whatever people may say and think.
The iUSB power is actually very good but I am not sure if you are thinking of this in your post. There are now new variants but choose the ones based on a superregulator design ie opamp error detection plus series pass transistor.
If you are diy savvy, there are3 much cheaper boards/chips sold on the web. A Belleson 5V regulator plus 9V pregulator from a eBay source should do fine. There are web based comparisons of the various diy regulators on the web.
this works very well, and you can order directly from them:
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: