could you plug a network hard drive into your computer directly with an ethernet cable?

Question

would a 7200 RPM network harddrive with an ethernet port be faster than an external USB 2.0 7200 RPM hard drive if plugged directly into the computer using an ethernet cable?

Answer 1

No, USB2 runs at up to 480mb/s while a network drive can get to 100mb/s

Also most network drives require to be on a DHCP server, ie connected to a router/server to assign an IP address.

IF you have one that can use a static, manually assigned IP, it could work but ONLY if you connect it to PC on a "crossover cable"

USB will be as fast/faster and cheaper, plus simpler to install

Answer 2

Yes