USB 3.0 Preview @ [H]

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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USB 3.0 Preview - USB 3.0 is now arriving on motherboards from the likes of GIGABYTE and ASUS. What should we expect from SuperSpeed USB 3.0? It looks like it will actually live up to its nickname!

The graph you see above is using the Buffalo 1TB external hard drive for both our USB 3.0 and 2.0 connections. All we have done is take the device and switched it between USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports on our motherboard. So this should represent a very good "apples to apples" comparison.
 
Awesome -- now we just have to wait for the devices to catch up in speed...
 
Long long overdue. 2010 will certainly be the year for USB 3.0, if everyone gets of their asses.
 
I think it would be very cool if you could run a raid 0+1 on a laptob via usb 3.0. A fast portable server option?
 
WTF happened to backwards compatibility???

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/09/25/usb-30-physical-connector-design-unveiled-to-public/

"The USB 3.0 is supposed to be backward compatible with existing USB 2.0 specification devices in the market. So, in terms of internal pin layout, it should be pin to pin compatible to its predecessor products. "

The input hub is backwards compatible as you can plug both 2.0 and 3.0 into them, but the 2.0 device speeds will be like they always were which is why the pin layout on the devices side of a 3.0 cable is different. It is so no one with a 2.0 cable plugs it into a 3.0 device and like wise.
 
We showed you backwards compatibility in the first of the article. USB3 working in a USB2 port. We also told you that USB2 would plug in and work in a USB3. Obivoulsy, you are not going to get USB3 speeds out of a USB2 device or bus.
 
I was concerned about the HUGE new device end plug shown in one of your pics, not the speeds (I'm not a complete idiot :p , partial accepted ) " I suppose component makers needed a new niche - USB3 to USB2 adapters for people who can't find the right cord. They must miss the days of Parallel/Serial gender changers and null modem adapters. :rolleyes:
 
Good article, I have a Western Digital Passport 250 GB external drive, and big transfers like 150 GB from my external to my 7200 rpm Western Digital 320 GB Drive can take up to 2.5-3 hours to do, with this increase in speed, that will seriously cut down on how fast you can do large transfers like this, that will be very nice!! Most of that's my Steamapps folder which takes up almost 100 GB by itself. Speed like this will be great when people are looking to get systems back to what they were after reformatting and doing clean installs when they run their stuff off their externals or flash drives.
 
When can we expect to see some enthusiast laptops equipped with USB 3.0 support? If the motherboards are ready, I'd expect laptops to follow soon after, even if the devices aren't caught up.

Also, the SATA II 3.0Gbps vs SATA 3.0 6.0Gbps is going to drive me INSANE. When I first saw SATA 3.0 in your article I thought it was a misprint because I think of SATA II when I hear 3.0.... maybe it's just a personal problem but that naming scheme makes no sense.
 
Thanks Kyle, I have been curious about what we can expect from USB 3 for some time. My only concern is the USB-ATAPI/SATA bridges future products will use. USB 2.0 external drives are only giving us 20-35 MBps while the USB 2.0 spec is 60MBps. It seems Buffalo isn't ripping off with a cheap bridge in their USB 3 enclosure, but I'm not so sure everyone will follow suit. I have seen the odd external 2.5" drive with a native USB 2.0 controller on the drive itself. Does anyone know if any companies plan to do the same for USB 3?
 
EDIT: Just thought of something else. If Buffalo's drive is capable of over 100MB/s, should it not be performing at the cap of USB 2.0 speeds in USB2 mode (instead of capping at 36MB/s)? Maybe I've been wrong all along assuming the bridge chips were the issue with USB 2 not reaching its full potential in devices. So confused :(
 
Any possibility of seeing an eVGA Classified update with USB 3.0/SATA III in the near future?
 
I was concerned about the HUGE new device end plug shown in one of your pics, not the speeds (I'm not a complete idiot :p , partial accepted ) " I suppose component makers needed a new niche - USB3 to USB2 adapters for people who can't find the right cord. They must miss the days of Parallel/Serial gender changers and null modem adapters. :rolleyes:
I think the bigger plugs are needed because USB 3.0 also delivers more power.
 
So is USB 3.0 too fast for Readyboost? Will Win7 think it's a cheap SSD and not enable Readyboost?
 
kyle great work dont forget about the gigabyte amd boards with usb3 and sata6 they are showing up at newegg
 
I wonder if this new standard means external video cards may become more commonplace in the future, especially for laptops?
 
I can't wait for HD webcams to come out in USB 3.0. Just imagine 720P and 1080P webcams at 30FPS - 60FPS with no lag and syncing perfectly with the audio. And a larege window to clearly see the other person. I hope Logitech updates their product line with USB 3.0 soon. Right now the internet and our broadband And out comptuers are more than fast enough for HD webcams. The only thing holding us back is the speed of the USB 2.0 bus. Remember how slow USB 1.1 webcams were? when I upgraded from a logitech 4000pro to an Orbit AF I noticed a huge difference in speed.:eek:
 
So theoretically USB 3.0 is faster than SATA 2. I noticed the falloff on the chart as the dataset grew.
Is this an indication that we're approaching the limits of copper? USB 2.0 looked pretty flat across the board.

I wonder if at some point in the future that SATA will go the way of IDE and everything will just plug in to a USB interface. Maybe a new low cost single interface option for SFF Pc's?
 
I can't wait for HD webcams to come out in USB 3.0. Just imagine 720P and 1080P webcams at 30FPS - 60FPS with no lag and syncing perfectly with the audio. And a larege window to clearly see the other person. I hope Logitech updates their product line with USB 3.0 soon. Right now the internet and our broadband And out comptuers are more than fast enough for HD webcams. The only thing holding us back is the speed of the USB 2.0 bus. Remember how slow USB 1.1 webcams were? when I upgraded from a logitech 4000pro to an Orbit AF I noticed a huge difference in speed.:eek:
1080p can be streamed over USB 2.0 just fine... :rolleyes: Even Blu-ray discs only has a maximum transfer speed of 36 Mbit/s...
 
So theoretically USB 3.0 is faster than SATA 2. I noticed the falloff on the chart as the dataset grew.
Is this an indication that we're approaching the limits of copper? USB 2.0 looked pretty flat across the board.

I wonder if at some point in the future that SATA will go the way of IDE and everything will just plug in to a USB interface. Maybe a new low cost single interface option for SFF Pc's?
No, that is the limits of a rotating hard disk. The transfer speed on the outside of the disc is faster than the inside. If you look at harddrive reviews for internal drives, you see the same thing.
 
Can't wait! Right now 18 hours to backup 2TB worth of info over USB is painful. Sure, I can use eSATA but the plug'n play and universal support isn't all that great!
 
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It's nice that USB gets updated. Especially for all external hard drives. Hopefully USB3 devices will become available much sooner, although even Intel doesn't still have a chipset supporting it.
 
Color me ridiculously excited

This will help a TON with my high-res camera workflow
 
Remember also that it matters how the USB 3 chip is hooked to the chipset. x1 pci-e isn't enough bandwidth, and many "bolt on" chips use just a simple single lane.

It's nearly idiotic for Intel to have not put this into it's chipsets so far. But that's the nature of things with no competition.
 
One question though.

From what I understand of the Gigabyte boards, the USB3 controllers are stealing bandwidth from your PCI-E connections. Or at least this is what I was lead to believe. Am I incorrect on this?

If I'm right, I wouldn't want to be using one of these devices on a gaming box until we get some second or third-gen chipsets out there that don't behave in this fashion.
 
And what happens when Intel blows into the market with Light Peak and it's 10Gbps bandwidth? I'm hoping that USB 3 will just hang off of that (crosses fingers).
 
One of the main things I am looking forward to is 3.0 usb key drives. Maybe we can have 32Gb drives on our keychains that actually is not a pain in the ass to transfer data to and from.
 
I thought I read USB 3.0 was going to be delayed to 2012. That it couldn't be done on the normal motherboard chipsets and required a separate IC, circuit chip to run? Are these motherboards running such an IC? And didn't they jump SATA 3 name to SATA 6, I guess to reflect the 600 speed?
 
I'd be as interested in power capability of USB 3.0 just as much as bandwidth. Having two plugs for an external dvd-rw is a PITA.
 
Can't wait! Right now 18 hours to backup 2TB worth of info over USB is painful. Sure, I can use eSATA but the plug'n play and universal support isn't all that great!

What plug n play and universal support issues are you speaking of. Even on my older Nforce4 board ESATA works fine plug and play!
 
Awesome, all we need now is gulftown and a revised classified and I'll be good for my next build!
 
I'll be upgrading to i7 as soon as Gigabyte comes out with a micro with USB3
 
It's too bad that USB 3.0 will never if rarely adopted for digital cameras and such, though. The micro USB plug is just too darn big to be useful. The mini Firewire plug on the other hand is nice and compact and 800 Mb FW is pretty zippy, though S3200 would be very welcome at this point (has officially been available since 2007).

The 3 meter maximum cable length and inability to plug USB 3.0 B and micro plugs into USB 2.0 devices also doesn't help matters. I'll definitely be skipping USB 3.0 and going with Firewire and possibly Lightpeak if it comes out.
 
One of the main things I am looking forward to is 3.0 usb key drives. Maybe we can have 32Gb drives on our keychains that actually is not a pain in the ass to transfer data to and from.
Agreed.

I personally wonder why they didn't add power pins to eSATA.
 
Any chance we can get a read/write speed test? Can you still achieve the same speeds while writing to the drive? It would be interesting to see if USB 3.0 lives up to it's now full duplexing.
 
I'd be as interested in power capability of USB 3.0 just as much as bandwidth. Having two plugs for an external dvd-rw is a PITA.

For DVD's, but most people concerned with bandwith are using harddrives for backing up lots of data.

We could probably use USB 2.0's power for a 2.5" external SSD, though obviously we'd be limited with the crappy bandwidth.

I'd like to see someone jimmy rig (splice) a USB2.0 wire & the DC adapter for something like the Dane Electric 80Gb (Intel 1.8" drive in a 2.5" adapter/enclosure).
 
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