USB 2 drive- better connected to the computer or the Cloud device?

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
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I have the My Cloud 3 T connected to a gigabit switch and the laptop connected to the same switch.  Where is the optimal USB connection - to the My Cloud USB or to the computer?  

If anyone knows I’d appreciate their advice. 

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This is dependant on your usage as I would think you would still get better speeds connected directly to your computer via USB 2.0 then through a gigabit ethernet then through a USB connection. 

The WD Cloud is a bit biased towards its own brandname as through my testing of various USB 3.0 drives, only the MyBook got write speeds of 40MB/s and read speeds of 70MB/s, versus a Vantec high performance Raid USB 3.0 that got 23MB/s writes and about 35MB/s reads.

Although I cannot speculate on the speed for a USB 2.0 device through the WD Cloud, I can speculate on the USB 2.0 speed in general as you would therectically max out at  480Mb/s which works out to 60MB/s therectical; which works out to about 23-30MB/s in practice if connected directly.

Now having said that, remember that my quoting of speeds is all related to USB 3.0 and because your USB 2.0 doesn’t max out any physical limitations, you and I might be surprised at the speed that you get.

Test it out.  If the usb speed is the same as you would get connected directly, I think you would benefit having it connected to your cloud and thus not having to carry it around. 

However once you are out and about, you won’t have access to this gigabit speed but then again, the reason that you bought a cloud device was so you don’t have to carry anything. 

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Thanks.  I appreciate the time you took to answer. Seems odd to me that it is likely faster connected to the computer than the Cloud unit but that shows my ignorance.  I gather it goes from the cloud to the computer then back to the USB in the cloud. I at first thought it would just go through the Cloud directly to the USB port on the cloud divice. 

Thanks again. I wil try it out .  Mainly though the USB is for backup and I prefer to back up and then store at a second location for safety. Thus connecting directly to the computer is fine.