Usb 3.0

[JohnBu]

Hello,

USB 3.0 drives are now fairly cheap, so thinking of getting a portable USB 3.0 powered 2.5" drive.

I have a few questions:
- are the drives it much faster in the real world compared to USB 2.0?
- are USB 3.0 powered 2.5" drives backwards compatible with USB 2.0 computers, I'm 99% sure it would be.
- I'm still on WinXP Pro and motherboard that doesn't have native USB 2.0. Do the $22 RITMO PCI USB 3.0 cards and it's drivers work ok with WinXP?

USB 2.0 is too slow these days, but my god, I remember USB 1.0 was the shit back in the day when we were lap-linking over serial/parallel.. haha

[hazrd]

Hello,

USB 3.0 drives are now fairly cheap, so thinking of getting a portable USB 3.0 powered 2.5" drive.

I have a few questions:
- are the drives it much faster in the real world compared to USB 2.0?
USB3 is 5GBit/sec whereas USB2 is only 480MBit, so its epicly faster

- are USB 3.0 powered 2.5" drives backwards compatible with USB 2.0 computers, I'm 99% sure it would be.
Nada, USB3 has a different connector
http://www.computerworld.com/common/images/site/features/2010/022010/usb_superspeed_230.jpg

- I'm still on WinXP Pro and motherboard that doesn't have native USB 2.0. Do the $22 RITMO PCI USB 3.0 cards and it's drivers work ok with WinXP?
According to the ritmotech website, you will be able to get a USB3 card that will be compatible with XP :)
http://ritmotech.com.au/satotech/product_info.php?products_id=657&osCsid=b7db5c6ead2180b76ee0907623c4ed2b

[JohnBu]

Yeah I saw the drivers from Ritmo, but don't trust the drivers will work with all motherboards.

I never knew the connectors are physically different .

If devices are not backwards compatible, I won't bother with it, as the whole point of it is i can use the storage device on the laptop and other places.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hazrd]

fair enough, if ever u wanted to get one, you could always pick up a USB3 PCMCIA card for the laptop.

[JohnBu]

USB 3 does look different, but I've confirmed it is indeed backwards compatible.


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[poita]

- shitloads faster than usb 2.0
- usb 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 are compatible to the usb 3.0 connection. its only one the hardware end not pc end that is different (if you get me)
usb on the pc end is usually easy to spot as the internals are blue
- 'should' work with windows xp, but i would check the mobo drivers and see first

[dieselhead]

Chuck a Sandforce controller SSD in a USB3.0 case and see it write at 200 MB/s. Over USB2.0 you're lucky if you get over 30 MB/s with the very same drive. Much faster? :D
Connectors are the same, so drives are back compatible, including with XP. I repeat, connecors are the same. However, to achieve higher USB3.0 speed you need a mobo with the right ports or an add-on USB3.0 PCIe card in your computer.


To ensure backwards compatibility (limited to legacy modes): (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usb_3.0#USB_3.0)


A legacy Standard-A plug will fit a SuperSpeed Standard-A port;
A legacy Standard-B plug will fit a SuperSpeed Standard-B port;
A SuperSpeed Standard-A plug will fit a legacy Standard-A port;

However, a SuperSpeed Standard-B plug will not fit a legacy Standard-B port.