The Neon Rush

USB 3.0 caught in the wild

Nov 13, 2009 15:32

Earlier this week TweakTown posted the results of its recent data transfer benchmarking study.  It put all the current protocols head-to-head to see which one was the fastest and which came out tops.



USB 2.0 vs. Firewire 400 vs. Firewire 800 vs. SATA vs. eSATA and the newest addition to the field: USB 3.0.



USB 3.0 is also called SuperSpeed and provides a theoretical transfer speed of 4.8 gigabits per second. As with any data transfer protocol, theory never matches reality and is for general reference only.



But USB 3.0 is still lightning-fast compared with the other ways we move our bits of data around.  



Here's a photo of the test USB 3.0 test setup.

Intel X25-M SSD connected to a Macpower Akitio USB 3.0 storage enclosure. (Credit: TweakTown/Cameron Wilmot)



While USB 3.0 is still a very early technology, be prepared to expect more devices announcing its support. After seeing these read and write speeds, I think a lot of people will be pleased.





(Credit: TweakTown/Cameron Wilmot)



Looking at the average read speeds, USB 2.0 comes in around 36MB/s, while USB 3.0 is a monster pipe at 196MB/s. It also crushes both FireWire 400 and 800 by a hefty margin.



What does this mean in real life?  



The first application that I'd like to use USB 3.0 for is backing up my data. Just like you, I've hundreds of Gigs of movies, music, and photos scattered across different computers and external hard drives. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to consolidate without taking hours to move files from one place to another? 



The second application I can see is for hardcore video editors. If you've captured a ton of video on your camera and need to start cutting it up, you want to get to your project now, not 3 hours and two coffees later. The purists who have been saying, "I do video, so I need FireWire", may think twice before paying top dollar for their accessories.  



If you're considering an upgrade right away, just remember that you won't be able to take advantage of USB 3.0's super speed unless all your devices have a USB 3.0 controller in them.  



The first upgrade I'll be doing is the USB port on my computer. If you do DIY computer stuff, you're lucky because it takes only a new motherboard to get USB 3.0. If you're going to wait and buy a new notebook or PC from the local computer market, just make sure it supports USB 3.0.



The next upgrade would be either a single or double bay USB 3.0 external enclosure. This would give the new PC a USB 3.0 partner for transferring and backing up all the large files. If you could set it up in RAID configuration, even better.



Other devices like digital cameras, video cameras and wireless routers will eventually include USB 3.0, but it will take some time.  



Hat tip to Cameron for giving us the scoop on USB 3.0. Nice to see how it stacks up against what's already out there on the market. I'm sure a lot of fellow gadget lovers will be excited to see the speedometer hit the redline when it comes to fast data transfers.

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