I’ve been using some cheap flash drives for things like installing OSs and the like, but now I’ve picked up a Dell Wyse 3040 system to play with which only has 8gb of storage. So I’m installing the OS onto a flash drive permanently (don’t worry, just for messing with, nothing of value will be lost if/when the drive craps out).

However, the performance of my cheap flash drive is terrible and installing packages & transferring files is so slow. My question is: Would getting a better drive make a meaningful difference here? If so, anyone have some recommendations of drives they like that are fast?

  • dan@upvote.auEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    You likely won’t notice much of a difference between SATA and NVMe when using the drive via USB, and many people have spare SATA SSDs, so I’d just grab a USB to 2.5" SATA cable: https://a.co/d/dQ5QXR1. You don’t need an enclosure because the drive itself is already an enclosure.

    • rjc@lemmy.worldEnglish
      01·
      11 months ago

      Don’t pay almost $20 for just a cable, pay $3 for this. it’s an enclosure you can put your 2.5in sata drive in to connect it with usb3. I have several, work like a charm https://a.co/d/8Z2VPso

      • dan@upvote.auEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        Up to you… $20 isn’t much and StarTech is a trusted brand, so it was worth it for me. I don’t trust the cheap generic brands on Amazon as much.

        • rjc@lemmy.worldEnglish
          01·
          11 months ago

          Fair point. I rolled the dice and have been happy with this one, but you’re right on both accounts. StarTech is a trusted brand and $20 is pretty affordable.