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View Full Version : Anyone have USB 3.0 yet?



NMFTM
August 16th, 2010, 11:53 PM
I saw the USB2 PCI cards were selling for about $25 while USB3 cards were selling for about $45. So, I figured that I'd get a USB3 card (http://www.koutech.com/proddetail.asp?linenumber=474) and be ahead of the curve. The catch is that I needed one that had an internal USB so that I could plug my weird SD card reader into it. Which greatly narrowed my choices.

Yes, you read that right. The SD card reader actually has an external USB plug that you would otherwise need to run outside of the case and into one of the rear external USB slots on the motherboard's I/O panel. But it was really the only way to go because all of my internal serial USB ports are currently in use

The only downside is that I don't have any device that supports USB3 and nobody I know does. So even if I got a USB3 compatible flash drive (which, are surprisingly not expensive at all (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000522&IsNodeId=1&Description=USB3&name=USB%20Flash%20Drives)) it would be kind of useless because I would only be saving on the time needed to transfer the file onto it. Any other computer I put the drive into would revert back to USB2 speeds.

KingYaba
August 17th, 2010, 01:16 AM
eSATA is fine for now. I don't think I'll have USB 3.0 until I buy a new motherboard which won't be for a long time.

Zoot7
August 17th, 2010, 01:30 AM
The next computer I build will more than likely have a USB 3.0 motherboard. That won't be for another year or two yet though.

PSioNiC STRaNGLeR
August 17th, 2010, 01:41 AM
not right away buti'm sure i'll have to some day

Frogs Hair
August 17th, 2010, 02:00 AM
My next build , the current build is under a year old.

Fludizz
August 17th, 2010, 02:02 AM
my laptop has an USB3 / eSATA combined port. No use for me so far, no eSATA disks and no USB3 devices xD

TriBlox6432
August 17th, 2010, 05:25 AM
When I buy a computer with it. Not going to upgrade what I have.

chessnerd
August 17th, 2010, 05:45 AM
My primary computer is a laptop, so I can't upgrade it. My desktop isn't very powerful anyway, so I don't really want to spend the extra money on upgrading it.

However, for my next computer, it will be a must-have feature. I'm hoping to build one next year, but I'll probably just end up buying a new laptop. This one has been having issues since I got it and I fear that it will fail in some fashion during the coming months.

CharlesA
August 17th, 2010, 06:18 AM
Not bothering for the moment.

cascade9
August 17th, 2010, 06:56 AM
Currently using a motherboard with a pair of USB 3.0 ports. I havent done any proper testing, but it seems like my junk USB 2.0 flash drive does get better transfer rates on a USB 3.0 port than on a USB 2.0 port.


I saw the USB2 PCI cards were selling for about $25 while USB3 cards were selling for about $45. So, I figured that I'd get a USB3 card (http://www.koutech.com/proddetail.asp?linenumber=474) and be ahead of the curve. The catch is that I needed one that had an internal USB so that I could plug my weird SD card reader into it. Which greatly narrowed my choices.

Unless I'm right and I am getting a speed improvement from a USB 2.0 device on a USB 3.0 port, then dont bother with a PCI USB 3.0 card. PCI max bandwidth = 133MB/sec. USB 2.0 max bandwidth = 480 Mbit.sec (120MB/sec). USB 3.0 max bandwidth = 4800Mbit/sec (1200MB/sec). There is no way that you will even get close to having USB 3.0 bandwidth on a PCI slot.......

*edit- well, thats what I get for doing maths with a headache. PCI is 133MB/sec, but the rest, gah, wrong. USB2.0 = 480MBit/sec = 60MB/sec. USB 3.0 = 4800Mbit/sec = 600MB/sec.

red_Marvin
August 17th, 2010, 07:23 AM
I won't get it for the sake of upgrading, however if I find I need it, or mor likely, the computer I buy build has it by default, I will get it.

blueturtl
August 17th, 2010, 07:59 AM
I am sure by the time USB 3 is out (mainstream), we'll have something better. Just like today we have FireWire and eSATA. USB has always been terrible for data transfer. I like USB for my peripherals though.

NCLI
August 17th, 2010, 09:41 AM
Yes, my recently-built server has six of them, and four 2.0's. Haven't had a chance to use them yet, but since I don't plan on replacing my server for many years to come, I thought I might as well plan ahead.

Johnsie
August 17th, 2010, 09:43 AM
I'm waiting until the hardware/software can support them properly. There is no rush as I'm happy enough with usb2. Computers have got to a point where i don't need them to get any faster or more powerful.

julio_cortez
August 17th, 2010, 09:53 AM
Exactly. even eSata is still more than I really need, at the moment.
I'm curious to see how would USB3 flash drives perform, but I'm not that curious to rush buying an adapter or a USB3 drive yet. I'd rather buy a SS disk for my PC (but it'd be a waste anyway)..

Chame_Wizard
August 17th, 2010, 10:24 AM
USB 3.0 to the test.:lolflag:

Swagman
August 17th, 2010, 11:42 AM
My new Asus mobo has them. dunno what the difference is. Printer prints.. Keyboard works !!

julio_cortez
August 17th, 2010, 11:46 AM
dunno what the difference is. Printer prints.. Keyboard works !!

Yeah, the traditional USB 1.1 keyboard still works but..
With the new USB 3.0 keyboards you could type at the astonishing rate of 15M keystrokes per second..
AAAAARGH GOTTA HAVE USB3 NOOOOW!!

NMFTM
August 17th, 2010, 02:05 PM
my laptop has an USB3 / eSATA combined port. No use for me so far, no eSATA disks and no USB3 devices xD
I have an Esata external HD and it's nice. The weird thing is though, it also has USB2 and it doesn't work. It'll only transfer a certain amount of data and the connection will fail. And yet, on my other external HD that has both Esata and USB2 the USB2 works and the Esata will drop off.

Currently using a motherboard with a pair of USB 3.0 ports. I havent done any proper testing, but it seems like my junk USB 2.0 flash drive does get better transfer rates on a USB 3.0 port than on a USB 2.0 port.
Your probably limited by the flash drive's USB2 controller and speed of the NAND memory. I'd be willing to bet they used a much slower speed NAND memory and capable controller than what the official USB2 standard actually supports. Because they based the speed on how fast USB2 actually transfers in real life as opposed to the theoretical speeds. Not taking into account that someone would try it out on a USB3 slot.

Also, even if that wasn't true. USB3 achieves it's speed partly because it's not exactly the same standard as USB2. A female USB3 plug is deeper than a female USB2 plug and has more connecters. But, if you plug a USB1 or USB2 device into a USB3 plug it won't touch all the prongs. The controller device that regulates how data flows in and out of it is also (I would assume) different, so even if you took your USB2 flash drive and replaced the USB2 male end with a USB3 male end, it wouldn't make a difference.

Unless I'm right and I am getting a speed improvement from a USB 2.0 device on a USB 3.0 port, then dont bother with a PCI USB 3.0 card. PCI max bandwidth = 133MB/sec. USB 2.0 max bandwidth = 480 Mbit.sec (120MB/sec). USB 3.0 max bandwidth = 4800Mbit/sec (1200MB/sec). There is no way that you will even get close to having USB 3.0 bandwidth on a PCI slot.......
The USB3 card I bought was a 1x PCI-E card (not standard PCI) that has a maximum speed of 250MB/s. Although, USB3's actual transfer rates are supposted to be around 409MB/s. But, that's still pretty fast.

Superkoop
August 17th, 2010, 02:20 PM
Nope, I don't plan on bothering with it until I get a new computer either, which will probably be a couple years from now. I'm in no hurry, USB3 aren't really mainstream yet, so I see no reason to bother with it for quite a while. I highly doubt USB3 will become very popular for another few years yet anyways, it's very much so a geeky thing that most people don't have any clue about, and therefore people don't really care about it, which means it's going to take a long time for this to really become mainstream.

julio_cortez
August 17th, 2010, 04:04 PM
it's going to take a long time for this to really become mainstream.
And there's the chance that, by the time USB3 became mainstream, eSata would have already gone 6Gb/s :lolflag:
EDIT:
(it's already here (http://store.apple.com/us/product/H1113LL/A) if I have understood correctly, even if it will take a lot of time also for it to become mainstream)

Swagman
August 17th, 2010, 04:10 PM
SuperKOOP <--- Awesome band

doorknob60
August 17th, 2010, 06:13 PM
Next time I build a new computer. I'm in no hurry though, mine's working fine as it is (and USB 2.0 is completely fine with me).

Austin25
August 17th, 2010, 06:19 PM
I wish I had usb 3.0, but I have a laptop; the only way to connect one would be through the express card.

CharlesA
August 17th, 2010, 06:23 PM
Next time I build a new computer. I'm in no hurry though, mine's working fine as it is (and USB 2.0 is completely fine with me).

This is probably what I'll be doing. For now, my server and desktops are fine with USB 2.0.

Too bad doing large backups takes ages, but when you can let it run overnight, it's all good.

tjktyler
August 17th, 2010, 06:33 PM
When I upgraded my 4 year old desktop, I deliberately chose a motherboard with USB3 and SATA3.0 support. I don't want to be doing any (major) upgrades for another 4 years.
I also read that some of the new Seagate external drives have USB3 support.

urukrama
August 17th, 2010, 08:56 PM
I still use USB 1 8)

LowSky
August 17th, 2010, 10:02 PM
until portable hard drives and flash drives are available at read/write speeds that warrant the upgrade I don't really care about USB3. No other devices even need the speed increase.

And most new motherboards are only supply 2-4 ports so its really a waste. I'll wait for all the ports including the front case ones to be USB3 compliant.

blur xc
August 17th, 2010, 10:09 PM
until portable hard drives and flash drives are available at read/write speeds that warrant the upgrade I don't really care about USB3. No other devices even need the speed increase.

And most new motherboards are only supply 2-4 ports so its really a waste. I'll wait for all the ports including the front case ones to be USB3 compliant.

^^^ this- where's the bottleneck? Right now, I think the memory card read write speeds are slower than the usb2.0 connection- I might have to research that.

I know one thing to be true- my UDMA 4gb compact flash card transfers files to the pc a lot faster than my ms pro duo card, so I feel it's safe to say that the bottleneck there is the ms pro duo card. I have no way to know if the CF card would be faster on usb3.0. But either way- the full card downloads to the pc pretty damn fast - I should time it next time, but I'm happy with its performance... now usb1.1- that was harsh... felt like it took all day to transfer 512mb of files way back then, and I did install a usb2.0 card in that old pc...

An yeah - my mobo has 12 usb2.0 ports, 8 on the i/o panel, and 4 on the mobo... it's cool to not worry about running out of ports...

BM

LowSky
August 17th, 2010, 10:20 PM
whooops I meant most MB manufactures are only putting 2-4 USB3 ports on the boards..

My current pord has 8 on the back I/O plate and I think 6 ports for add on card or front of the case ports.

spoons
August 17th, 2010, 10:33 PM
Problem is, most computers are boxed computers from the likes of PC World, and as a result, are mostly Intel. this sadly means USB 3.0 will become standard when Intel decides it becomes standard (implementing it into the chipset) and apparently that's not until 2012!

NMFTM
August 18th, 2010, 09:50 PM
USB2 was HighSpeed
USB3 is SuperSpeed

What's USB4 going to be called?

UltraSpeed? MegaSpeed? DoublePlusGoodSpeed?