SSD or Ethernet through USB hub?

The Macbook Pro 2017 has two thunderbolt ports and so I can run either the ethernet cable or the SSD that has WOW on it directly into the thunderbolt port and the other through a USB hub. The SSD is usb C and the hub has a port for it.

Which do you think I should run through the hub and why? Other devices connected to the hub are a wireless mouse, keyboard and macbook charging cable.

Generally I’d be inclined to hook up the SSD, but it depends on a few things:

  • What size is the internal storage on the MacBook? I’m assuming it’s not large if you have WoW on an external SSD.
  • What connection type does your external SSD use?
  • Is your wifi connection solid?

If you can fit WoW on the internal SSD, that’s almost assuredly going to perform better than the external SSD, even if it’s a Thunderbolt model, in which case you’d be better off with the ethernet.

But WoW doesn’t benefit a whole lot from being played over ethernet unless your wifi connection is particularly unstable/weak/rocky. I played for years on wifi exclusively and never felt any difference in latency, so long as the the network I was connected to was solid.

1 Like