USB 3.0, SATA 3.0 worth it?

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skyline889

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sorry if this has been covered already but the search engine seems to get flummoxed by "3.0." I'm building an X58 rig for my parents and they tend to keep their computers for about 4-5 years. By this time will USB 3.0/SATA 3.0 be a necessity? I can't see them moving to an SSD in this pc's lifespan so I'm guessing SATA 3.0 won't be relevant to them but will USB 3.0 be a requirement 3-4 years down the line?
 
It will never be a "requirement" SATA 1/2/3 are all forward and backward compatible. It's merely a matter of performance. Only an SSD is going to saturate SATA 2.0, and make benefit of the additional throughput provided by SATA 3.0 for the time being and near future.
 
Thanks for the info! I figured they wouldn't make use of SATA 3.0.

Does anyone know if a lack of USB 3.0 will be a serious limitation in the next few years? I realize it's all speculation but any help would be appreciated.
 
the only thing that really needs usb3.0 are heavy throughput devices such as hard drives, networking connection, and video. I forsee usb 3.0 bringing more external graphics such as usb video cards for multi montiors and wireless usb to hdmi adapters to connect to your tv.

But for normal things that people use usb for like thumbdrives and printers it won't be necessary.

Just plan on getting an add on card if it becomes necessary. Your parents unless they are gaming don't need two graphic cards (and even then) thus you have lots of unused pci express lanes with the x58 chipsett.
 
Vexerz said:
Nope, but PCI 3.0 might be for 3-4 years.
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Ya man, cuz' we're bottlenecked by PCIE 2.0 :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Oh, PCI. Sorry, I must have jumped through the wrong time gate and went back.

Why are you bothering with the X58 platform for the parents to begin with...? IMO, when USB3.0 and SATA3 becomes relevant as a standard, we'd be long past X58 and P55.
 
lowteckh said:
Ya man, cuz' we're bottlenecked by PCIE 2.0 :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Oh, PCI. Sorry, I must have jumped through the wrong time gate and went back.

Why are you bothering with the X58 platform for the parents to begin with...? IMO, when USB3.0 and SATA3 becomes relevant as a standard, we'd be long past X58 and P55.
Click to expand...

PCI E 3.0 what?? Good chance we see this on X68 I suggest you read up on it and our current 300W limitations that both AMD and NVIDIA like to dance around. You've been here how long ? LOL!!!!
 
Thanks for the input guys. It doesn't look like my parents would make much use of either so I'm leaning towards a mobo without those features (Asus P6T). For only $40 more though, I could get the new Gigabyte X58A-UD3R which has both.

And lowteckh, X58 is overkill for my parents but my dad wanted something blazing fast and there was only a $100 or so difference between the lesser Socket 1156 i5/i7 and going 1366 so he said he'd prefer just to go 1366, especially since 1156 will most likely be replaced by Sandy Bridge and Socket 1155 next year.
 
This is why I don't buy Intel and buy AMD instead, due to cheaper upgrades (just replace the processor) :p

Anyways... getting back to this topic.

USB 3.0, SATA6 are not necessary for general day-to-day usage in the foreseeable future, and probably even 5-10 years from now. Why? Because all USB and SATA connections will be backwards compatible, due to the fact that people will not buy new things unless it is backwards compatible with their old hardware (no matter how old it may be). There are some exceptions (transition from IDE to SATA), but that was mostly due to the IDE restrictions, and motherboards kept, and still keep IDE connections (with some exceptions). Besides, they're already fast enough for most people.

PCI-E 3.0 is not even relevant to this discussion. Even the high-powered HD5970's do not face a bottleneck on the current PCI-E 2.0 x16, much less any graphics card skyline will be getting for his parents. It only faces a slight bottleneck on x8. And Vexerz, read what you put, you put PCI, not PCI-E, hence lowteckh's statement. And I doubt 300 watt is actually a limitation, it's more of an industry standard, so that people don't have to buy power supplies that will support 2 or more 8-pin PCI-E connectors. 2 6-pin connectors is equivalent to a single 8-pin connector, in case you didn't know (75 watts for 6-pin, 150 watts for 8-pin). Graphics card only draw at most 75 watts from the PCI-E connections anyways. It's more of how willing ATI and nVidia are going to make people get stronger power supplies.
 
Tsumi said:
This is why I don't buy Intel and buy AMD instead, due to cheaper upgrades (just replace the processor) :p

Anyways... getting back to this topic.

USB 3.0, SATA6 are not necessary for general day-to-day usage in the foreseeable future, and probably even 5-10 years from now. Why? Because all USB and SATA connections will be backwards compatible, due to the fact that people will not buy new things unless it is backwards compatible with their old hardware (no matter how old it may be). There are some exceptions (transition from IDE to SATA), but that was mostly due to the IDE restrictions, and motherboards kept, and still keep IDE connections (with some exceptions). Besides, they're already fast enough for most people.

PCI-E 3.0 is not even relevant to this discussion. Even the high-powered HD5970's do not face a bottleneck on the current PCI-E 2.0 x16, much less any graphics card skyline will be getting for his parents. It only faces a slight bottleneck on x8. And Vexerz, read what you put, you put PCI, not PCI-E, hence lowteckh's statement. And I doubt 300 watt is actually a limitation, it's more of an industry standard, so that people don't have to buy power supplies that will support 2 or more 8-pin PCI-E connectors. 2 6-pin connectors is equivalent to a single 8-pin connector, in case you didn't know (75 watts for 6-pin, 150 watts for 8-pin). Graphics card only draw at most 75 watts from the PCI-E connections anyways. It's more of how willing ATI and nVidia are going to make people get stronger power supplies.
Click to expand...

Talking semantics now. We both agree its a limitation under PCI-SIG standards. This is just a compliance to put the sticker on the video card box. Not important to us enthusiast but huge for aib's.
Now back to my main point.
See cut down 5970, see problems with Fermi power draw during taping etc etc etc ...get my drift here. Let's forget about bandwidth and data transfer here and talk about power specifically. With respect to power draw and performance being proportional we are at the point were we need a bit more juice to see the full potential of these new cards coming out. After a die shrink to 28nm it will get exponentially difficult for additional shrinks. This is why I think the 300 w PCI SIG standard may be raised within 3-4 years.

Yes I wrote "pci" instead of PCI-E 3.0 in my original post but his response he knew exactly what I meant. My point to him still stands. :D
 
Let's forget about PCI&PCIEs for a sec and back to topic...

I'm having same doubts as well, I mean mouse&keyboard&printers will likely never see the need of USB3, but external HDs certainly will.
So I'm thinking, maybe getting a USB3 mobo IS actually a good idea now since they only have 2 USB3?
so most of the stuff we use for USB2 and if USB3 really becomes day-to-day, we'll just use the ones that actually needs it.
But I've also heard about instability in transfer rate or whatever for the USB3 controller in current mobo?
 
Well I'm starting to see SATA 6G drives catching on somewhat rapidly, but honestly your parents aren't likely to take advantage of the interface even down the line. In other words I don't think they'd ever notice the difference. USB 3.0 may be more compelling for them down the line though. You never know, but if and when it becomes an issue you'll always be able to add an expansion card to the system to give them that compatibility.

crazian said:
But I've also heard about instability in transfer rate or whatever for the USB3 controller in current mobo?
Click to expand...

This hasn't been my experience but to be fair I've only done limited testing on USB 3.0 controllers.
 
Vexerz said:
PCI E 3.0 what?? Good chance we see this on X68 I suggest you read up on it and our current 300W limitations that both AMD and NVIDIA like to dance around. You've been here how long ? LOL!!!!
Click to expand...

You wrote PCI without the E, blind fool. LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!

And you're delusional to think we need PCIE 3.0; it's taken how long to use up 1.0? Go back to your conspiracy theories. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1111 111 1
 
lowteckh said:
You wrote PCI without the E, blind fool. LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!

And you're delusional to think we need PCIE 3.0; it's taken how long to use up 1.0? Go back to your conspiracy theories. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1111 111 1
Click to expand...

Lulz and you still read it as PCI 3.0 :D now go read up on pci sig power k thanks. tee hee
 
I'm confused now :( tehehehee? Or most likely you have no idea what sarcasm and rolling eyes mean.
 
Dan_D said:
Well I'm starting to see SATA 6G drives catching on somewhat rapidly, but honestly your parents aren't likely to take advantage of the interface even down the line. In other words I don't think they'd ever notice the difference. USB 3.0 may be more compelling for them down the line though. You never know, but if and when it becomes an issue you'll always be able to add an expansion card to the system to give them that compatibility.



This hasn't been my experience but to be fair I've only done limited testing on USB 3.0 controllers.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I couldn't justify the price difference right now (Especially since the cheaper option allows me to use my old LGA775 cooler) so if they need USB 3.0 down the line, I can always add an expansion card. I'll probably be picking up an Intel X25-V but from what I understand only the newer SSD's will take advantage of SATA 6Gb anyway.
 
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