I absolutely LOVE USB 3!!!

[yoda313]

Yep finally got a pci-e usb 3 card. I plugged it into my dell desktop and got it going.

Though it needed a floppy drive power connection. The desktop actually does have a floppy drive so I disconnected it but it was way too short and I couldn't fish the cables out of the powersupply. I do have a replacement powersupply I bought last week but I haven't installed it yet.

Luckily I am a bit of a pack rat and I did have a couple of power cables of various types laying around. It was about 12 inches long maybe. Fortunately there was a corresponding power input slot on the motherboard on the same part of the board where the slim pci-e slot for the usb card was so I could connect it.

----------------------------

I got almost 120mb/s transfer from a 2tb usb 3 drive on a 8gb dvd iso rip.

Is that typical for usb 3?

It said about 60 seconds for the transfer and really was fast.

--------------------------

I'll never go back to usb 2 for full dvd rips and bluray material thats for sure.





Is there a benchmark test I can do to make sure I'm close to what I should be getting for usb 3?


Edit - oh and I got a media card reader that was usb 3 for transferring videos to my micro sdhc memory card. That will be a godsend for trasnferring multigig files to it.

I would have gotten a usb 3 hub as I only have the two ports on the pci-e card itself and those are on the back of the pc. But it was going to be 60.00 at office depot, the only place I found one locally so far (no go at office max and even bestbuy didn't have one).

That might be an online purchase.

Edit - I'm copying a bluray rip I have on the same 2tb usb 3 drive and it will only be 5.5 mins for just about 40gbs. FANTASTIC!!!!! (I'm peaking at 120mb/s again so that must be my upperlimit on my desktop).

[roma_turok]

Now think of 3 year you lost
with you have option to get USB 3 before

[aedipuss]

the 120MB/s is most likely the max transfer speed of the slowest hard drive involved in the copy.

[yoda313]

the 120MB/s is most likely the max transfer speed of the slowest hard drive involved in the copy.

Hmm... Could be. Its a new seagate sata drive but its an old motherboard.

@roma_turok - yes but better late than never

[Moontrash]

I average, with a sata 3 drive, around 150mbps transfer and write speeds...it's a shade slower than esata...but not much. I've gotten up to 169mbps on it on a few tests

[yoda313]

I average, with a sata 3 drive, around 150mbps transfer and write speeds...it's a shade slower than esata...but not much. I've gotten up to 169mbps on it on a few tests

Nice

Is that with a pc built for usb 3 or an add on card like mine?

[Moontrash]

both. I have a Rosewill rc-505 add on card and built in USB 3 on 2 different motherboards and the speeds are comparable.

[yoda313]

both. I have a Rosewill rc-505 add on card and built in USB 3 on 2 different motherboards and the speeds are comparable.

Your pc's are probably newer than mine and with a better bus bandwidth I bet. Mines a dell optiplex 755 originally designed for windows vista. SO its that vintage.

I'm not complaining as I love the speed vs usb 2. I just now know my limits and what it could be.

But I will enjoy the gains I've made.

[TBoneit]

Once I tried USB3 I never looked back. Every external storage device I buy now is USB3.

USB2 still has a place for printers, keyboards and Mice.

Enjoy the speed.
TB

[yoda313]

Enjoy the speed.

Thanks.

Only trouble is now I'm stuck with 5mb/s transfer speed for my micro sd card - even though I bought a usb 3 card reader. I'll have to get a faster memory card now

[jagabo]

I got almost 120mb/s transfer from a 2tb usb 3 drive on a 8gb dvd iso rip.

Is that typical for usb 3?

That's typical for a 2 TB drive -- the limiting factor here. Some examples:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/3tb-hdd-hard-drive,2982-6.html

[TBoneit]

That is not a USB 3 Thing, it is a hard drive thing. If You look t the SSD vs the Seagate 7200 RPM drive You will see how the Transfer rate is more or less flat with the SSD rather than declining for the Hard Drive. That is one place a SSD shines. Than Look at the Access time difference and That is the next area they shine. That is why You do not need to Defragment nor should You defragment a SSD.


I hope this simple illustration helps.

TBoneit

[jagabo]

That is not a USB 3 Thing, it is a hard drive thing.

That was my point. He's "only" getting 120 MB/s because the drive is the limiting factor, not the USB 3 port. Linking to the HD Tune graphs shows that current hard drives are limited to 60 to 160 MB/s depending on the rotation speed and where on the disk you are reading/writing.

For those who don't know: Even with an infinitely fast I/O interface you can only read from the drive as fast as it can get data from the platters. And that is limited by the rotational speed of the platters and the density of the data on the platters.

[yoda313]

@tboneit and jagabo - thanks. I appreciate the info.

So I'm actually getting what I'm supposed to. That is encouraging.

Here's a weird question that is probably stupid given they probably don't come in a big enough size yet:

Do they make usb ssd drives yet?

I"m guessing they aren't in the terabyte range yet if there are any. And they'd probably be prohibitively expensive for any time savings you'd get out of it versus a traditional drive.

Would those have a faster transfer rate than?

[jagabo]

Yes, you can put an SSD in an external USB 3.0 enclosure and get faster access. And yes, you can get 1 TB and larger SSDs. I've never seen a benchmark but I estimate you can get about 300 MB/s from a fast SSD via USB 3.0. You'd have to be insane to do this since external drives are usually used for bulk storage where speed isn't so important. SSDs cost about 10 times as much as a hard drive of the same size.

[TBoneit]

For example This one doesn't have a case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232033&Tpk=VANTEC%20CB-SATAU3...NexStar%20SATA

VANTEC CB-SATAU3-6 NexStar SATA 6Gbps to USB 3.0 Adapter - 2.5"/3.5"/5.25"/SSDs

This type of thing has one benefit over a External case.
It just plugs on to any SATA drive and allows you to use different drives by changing to the drive plugged into it. No disassembly needed. However You have to be sure the drive is on a Non conducting surface and doesn't get moved around

Cheers
TBoneit

[El Heggunte]

USB2 still has a place for printers, keyboards and Mice.

I hope you meant USB 1.1 instead of USB2

[TBoneit]

No I actually meant USB2, I can not recall the last time I saw a new computer that Had USB1.1 and not USB2 or USB3 or a Mix of both.

And Yes 1.1 would be fast enough for Keyboards and Mice and many printers, however for example. This One for example
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828113616
Shows this under details.

Ports
USB Ports
Hi-Speed USB 2.0

Best Regards
TBoneit

[yoda313]

Yes, you can put an SSD in an external USB 3.0 enclosure and get faster access. And yes, you can get 1 TB and larger SSDs. I've never seen a benchmark but I estimate you can get about 300 MB/s from a fast SSD via USB 3.0. You'd have to be insane to do this since external drives are usually used for bulk storage where speed isn't so important. SSDs cost about 10 times as much as a hard drive of the same size.

Ok I didn't know if it was possible for two reasons - if they made 1tb ssd or larger and if they could be made into usb drives.

And yes you do have a point that archiving is generally a one time affair aside from occasional recovery applications.

I guess I'll live with 120mb/s if that is about average for tb usb harddrives. Its still way better than usb 2 that's for sure.

Thanks for the info too tboneit