USB 3.0 Arrival Of The First Hard Drives

It has been noticed that by many people, that whenever they are in front of their PC, and waiting for transferring something to the removable media, then seconds feel like minutes for them, and minutes turn into hours. Backups when taken in the USB 2.0 generally appear to crawl at a pace of a snail and users experience a reluctant performance that sometimes can create an essential chore.

In order to prevent such data transfer scenarios development of the new Super Speed type of USB 3.0 standards took place. Earlier they were just theoretical, and at during that time it was proposed that they are going to blaze fast through and will transfer data at the speed of 5 gigabits in a second. These implementations were made by the Implementers Forum of USB that was also known as the USB-IF. It promised to change the life of people for better. There were four main companies that promised to carry out the tests and launch the USB 3.0 in the market. These main companies were Buffalo Technology, Seagate, Iomega, and Western Digital. They promised that the change that they are going to bring is going to be dramatic.

Though impressive speed of USB 3.0 is hard to meet and cannot be compared to any other device, but beauty of this device lies in its backward compatibility that can be compared with the USB 2.0. One needs to have a new cable as well as a new kind of host adapter that can be supported very well with the new motherboards and can be used with USB 3.0 to achieve the best performance out of it. It has been noticed that it is also possible to use the USB 3.0 device with the USB 2.0 port. With this it then becomes possible to achieve USB 2.0 performance. One can also use USB 2.0 devices with the USB 3.0 port with no speed gain.

The main technology that is used with USB 3.0 can be thought to resemble very closely the PCI Express rather than USB 2.0. It has been noticed that the backward compatibility usually comes from very clever type of connector design, as well as a dual bus. Most of the designers have added four data lines along with a ground wire so that they can make new USB 3.0 signals. This can be done by retaining existing pairs of the data lines that can be used along with the USB 2.0 devices. There are two main technologies that share existing power with the ground wires that are otherwise kept completely separated.

It has been seen that usually, the USB 3.0 connector contains that design that can be changed very well to accommodate many other extra data lines. When Type a USB is examined from inside along with its rectangular shape very closely, then it can be noticed that this USB 3.0 also shares same size like USB 2.0 port. Though this cable generally looks like the USB 2.0, but this has been designed for the USB 3.0. The port of this USB consists of five additional small contacts that can be used with other new USB 3.0 types of lines. Whenever user plugs into a USB 2.0 connector, then he needs to make use of the four different original contacts. On plugging in the USB 3.0 connector, it then taps into other five plugs.

The main reason behind this is that both the motherboards as well as PCs ship with both types of ports that is with USB 2.0 as well as USB 3.0 ports. Remember that the insulating plastics for these ports as per the specification must be of bright blue colour. This is important because it makes it easy to distinguish them from other ports. Therefore, USB 3.0 is kept in blue and USB 2.0 is kept in black colour. Same tricks have been devised for type B as well as the mini connectors to distinguish them.

There are many potential benefits of using USB 3.0. The foremost benefit is that they save a lot of the power consumption. It has been noticed that spec calls for just one third of total power consumption is for USB 2.0 uses. Creators of these types of devices achieve a reduction in use of power by background maintenance and specifying requirements of the USB. USB 3.0 is very different from its predecessors as its interface is very useful in transmitting data only to link and devices that require information. This allows other devices as well to go to the low power state whenever there is no need. This change can be applied only to USB bus, but not to power the USB peripherals that require or make use of their own operations. It can then he said that getting things done faster means use of less power.

According to many people USB 3.0 revolution is about to come. The main reason behind this is that there are many Super Speed types of USB 3.0 certified products that are now being shipped in, including the products like host controllers, mother boards, adapter cards from Asus, Intel, Gigabyte, and others, as well as hard drives. However, one can notice that these cannot be termed as the immediate switches. According to the In Stat Research that has been conducted, most of the super speed type of products would be launched in the year 2013 that would be supporting USB 3.0.

These days, omega’s Zippy, and 2TB ego type of Desktops that support USB 3.0 and external drives are in great demand. This slow transition can be surprising to many people, who consider that there can be no compatible peripherals and consumer electronics devices that can be used by the consumers. Devices like keyboards and mouse won’t get any benefit from these Super Speeds USB’s and its increased performance. However, there are many other products, like digital cameras as well as camcorders that would be anticipated seeing the USB 3.0 and would start to appear on the class of devices later after the year 2011.

High Performance

These days, there are many companies and their products that are in great demand. For example, Buffalo’s USB 3.0 contoured HD-HXU3 drive is in great demand. There have been many theoretical improvements in the throughput that the USB 3.0 has offered and has lead to a dramatic change from the 10X to 5 gbps over existing specification of USB 2.0, which has also maxed out at the theoretical speed of 480 mbps.

However, still there are many people who are dubious about the thing that how does the USB 3.0 fare into the real world. In order to determine veracity of USB-IF claims, there are many people who run four different types of Super Speed USB drives through the test suite, that mainly includes different kinds of batch operations on large sets of the small files, and then carries out transfer of large files, as well as a virus scan tests that emphasize seek speed of the hard drive. There are three main models that are about 3.5 inches in the external desktop units. This is Buffalo’s Drive Station with USB 3.0 Hard Disk-HXU3 costing $200, Iomega’s ego Desktop costing $240 USB 3.0, as well as Western Digital’s My Book 3.0 for $240. The fourth and the last drive was from Seagate a 2.5-inch, type of portable Black Armour costing $400. It is better to compare the report for full details.

The above three drives usually comes out formatted in NTFS type of file system. This is considered as more efficient as compared to the FAT32 type of file system where this Buffalo drive was kept formatted. The main benefit of FAT32 is that it can be used very well with both the Mac as well as PC. It is then possible to read as well as write data on the drive from both the types of PCs. Fortunately, it has also been seen that Buffalo provides its users with an option so that they can reformat their drives as NTFS.

In the lab tests of PC World is as noticed that the drives assessment that was carried out by using USB was consistently proved to be noticeably faster as compared to use of FireWire 800. USB 3.0 drives are found comparable in the speed with the eSATA drives with the SATA-300 interfaces. There are many eSATA drives that have edged out USB 3.0 units completely on different types of performance metrics.

If USB 2.0 is compared with other devices then it can be seen as a kind of the dog cart in Kentucky Derby. It mainly depends on the test and due to this USB 3.0 has been proved to be 3.5 times faster than the USB 2.0’s speed.

Out of three main desktop models that consist of a 3.5 inch of hard drive inside, Western Digital’s My Book with USB 3.0 is considered as fastest overall. After that comes the Buffalo as well as Iomega drives that are ranked second. These drives were separated just by mere few seconds on all the read as well as write tests. People have seen the greatest distinction in the malware scan tests, with a complete span of around 24 seconds between fastest and slowest.

If one talks about Western Digital’s desktop then it can be seen that the portable drives are always thought to be lagging behind their desktop counterparts. This can be seen mainly in the terms of performance, because of the slower rotations per minute and speeds. It should be of no surprise that portable Seagate’s Black Armor was not very fast as compared to the desktop drives that are evaluated here. There are many portable drives that have been tested, and this model has then leaped into the second place.

When the power consumption test were carried out in the labs of PC World  then it was found that average power draw for drives of USB 3.0 is slightly greater as compared to that of the USB 2.0 at a given instant of time while the data is transferring. USB 3.0 carries out things at a much faster pace so when the average draw time is multiplied over the time shows then it comes out to be roughly twice per week.

USB 3.0 has huge edge over eSATA that has USB 3.0 that was designed along with the removable storage as compared to other devices.  Hot pluggable are seen as simply plug in type of devices. Here operating system adds quickly to list of the available devices. eSATA drives always require a system to reboot before it appears.

USB 3.0 is seen as a kind of the powered port. Therefore, there is no need to run another kind of external power supply for the drive as normally it is done with the eSATA drives. These 3.5-inches hard drives that require more power as compared to what the USB bus is able to deliver. These models still require AC adapters.

Certified USB 3.0

While buying an USB 3.0 product it is necessary to look out for the certified Super Speed type of USB 3.0 logo. This is considered as a label that can surely ensure that a product that a person intends to purchase can truly lives up the required specification.

Upgrade Possibilities

It is easy to upgrade your desktop with the USB 3.0. The main reason behind this is that it is quite easy to buy these adapter cards on aftermarket for $30 approximately, and to pay extra for cards from Buffalo for $70, or to choose Western Digital drive including a card that is carrying $20 premium over versions of the drive that can be sold without card.

Upgrading can become tougher with the laptops, unless the portable comprises of an Express Card slot that can accept an adapter like in case of the Seagate Black Armour. It has been seen that the Seagate is well known for wisely shipping its portables USB 3.0 drives along with the Express Card adapters. There are many new laptops that have the completely different story.

The Final Word

Backward compatibility, Speed, and power consumption these three are considered as USB 3.0’s important parts. They are just marginally slower in comparison to the eSATA, and are far better suited for the removable storage. There are many people who are still dubious about the speed that is offered by the USB 3.0.

Increasing Prices Of USB 3.0 Products

It has been noticed that whenever there is any new technology that hits the streets, most of the “entrepreneurs” are then ready to gouge the consumers are lacking far behind. The USB 3.0 was designed in a way so that it not more expensive as compared to the USB 1.1 as well as the USB 2.0. However, it has already been seen that there are many vendors that are charging some exorbitant prices for the cables, hubs and adapters. USB 3.0 is considered as a new and faster product than the USB 2.0 where one needs to pay hefty adopter premiums.

Most of the USB 3.0 ports usually come out with new connectors like the mini USB units. It is very well understood that product development usually takes money that can be around 25 percent of the premium on the drive or the cable. Western Digital’s Book Elite can cost around $170, and My Book 3.0 is for $200. These are considered as good deals because the latter is very fast.

It is possible to find just one hub for USB 3.0 and that is considered to be the Buffalo Technology that costs around $88. There is no big benefit for the USB 3.0 hub, because mouse and keyboards are never able to make use of the extra speed.

In case you are shopping out for the USB 3.0 technology, then there is no need to plop down your 40 bucks for cable just in case you are thinking that USB 3.0 is very new, and then it would be expensive. Make sure that any of the products that you are buying has a Super Speed logo on its box. There are many USB products that can undoubtedly play the games with number 3 on the boxes and logos, and hopes to snare unwitting into the purchasing of older 2.0 and non-USB 3.0 type of certified technology.