New USB 3.0 hardware tested out that everyone should upgrade to

I am a self employed IT Consultant, I handle anything from network wiring infrastructure installs to a simple swap out of a laptop harddrive. That being said I am sure a lot of people in this forum have done upgrades of internal harddrives, ran backups to external drives, or used an external usb optical drive for app installs or backing up data and found that waiting around for the files to copy/move or slow read/write from legacy 2.0 USB devices should no longer be tolerated.

We all have come across the arduous task of moving large amounts of data between drives or had to install software on a system that does not come with an internal optical drive or repair a computer which has a faulty optical drive. Well with the advent of USB 3.0 and at least one included on almost any of the newer systems on the market, I had made it an imperative to change out all legacy devices I use for myself and for my business and wanted to share it here with everyone:

1- ORICO 2595US3 2.5" USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure- its a tool-less case that easily swaps out laptop harddrives

2- Apricorn SATA Wire Notebook Hard Drive Upgrade Kit with USB 3.0 Connection ASW-USB3-25- attach a 2.5" SATA drive to a USB 3.0 and transfer data or clone drives with software at blazing speed

3- Archgon USB 3.0 Aluminum Ultra Slim Slot-loading DVD Burner Model MD-8102G-U3DVDRW- very fast DVDRW drive, without any tray or lid that can easily break

4- Anker USB 3.0 to 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN Network Adapter for Windows, Mac and Linux- when you have to move data thru a network and would like to utilize the gigabit performance

5- Cavalry "Retriever" Series EN-CAHDD2BU3C-ZB 2.5" & 3.5" Black Standalone SATA Hard Drive Duplicator + USB 3.0 Dual-Bay Dock- for both laptop and desktop drives

I have used these devices on Windows, Apple, and Linux with great results and saving me time that would have typically dragged on using those legacy 2.0 technology. Hope some of you find this helpful.

 

Hello stargazer747,
I have been wondering if I can upgrade my usb 2.0 ports to usb 3.0 performance? I vaugely remember reading that performance from usb 1.0 to 2.0 was hardware but that from 2.0 to 3.0 is software. Can usb 2.0 ports upgradable to usb 3.0 specs? Is it done with software?

 

I'm not sure on that, if that were the case then 2.0 USB hardware manufacturers would have released software drivers to change all that, but then there is the issue of making money and selling new products. I was referring to all my laptops having 3.0 USB already built in, so it was easy enough for me to replace all my external 2.0 devices with newer 3.0 ones. I do not use desktops but I would guess in that you simply buy a 3.0 USB PCI expansion card to install in a free slot and no longer use the 2.0 integrated ones that are already on the desktop. I just looked online for solutions to upgrade 2 to 3 and I found many listing the changes as hardware only. Since 3.0 is 10x faster than 2.0 I must believe that it is hardware that makes the difference and not software, hard to see that software can drive hardware designed at its original speeds to go 10x faster.

 

sounds like i have in my head wrong, thanks for the info.

 

I like your good work.

 

I'm so lucky to have a 3.0 USB on my new laptop, the speed is amazing!!!!! Now I can transfer files in a flash! Ok, maybe not in a flash, but the upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0 was a really good change. I don't know how I could stand the file transfer speed of the 2.0 for so long!

 

I agree, I did it for so long, but once I bought my first 3.0 external portable drive and noticed the extreme speed diference from 2.0 I immediately replaced my external usb dvdrw drive, ethernet usb dongle, and the cable and docking cradle I was using to clone harddrives.

 

Yeah, but now we could never go back to that, can we? Whenever I'm forced to use a 2.0 I feel like I'm completely losing my patience

 

Nope you can't rationally want to go back to legacy tech, but why would you want to? It would be like being used to an i7 quad core laptop with lots of ram and ssd hdd and being forced to give it up for a 286sx with 16mb ram and a 100mb 4200rpm drive, remember those days?

 

I have also looked into getting a new flash memory thumbdrive of high capacity such as 128Gb that has 3.0 USB speeds. I have found on amazon, newegg, and microcenter a few made by PNY, Transcend, & Kingston for under $90. I am sure they would prove an excellent replacement to older slower 2.0 of less capacity. Great little carry around tool to store important data that reads & writes fast, quickly install apps from, or use as a linux recovery boot drive, and of course quickly backup data to.

 

USB 3 is great for now but I think a new USB type is coming out soon that is smaller and reversible.

 

With the new upgrade I am sure we are all going to experience some mind blowing speeds on USB.

 

It's not software. It's definitely hardware-based. USB 3.0 requires a physical driver to even run. Your laptop's southbridge chipset has to support it, too. If you look at a desktop motherboard, you will see that the USB 3.0 header is much different to the USB 2.0 header. The 3.0 has way more pins because of the extra bandwidth.

USB 2.0 vs 3.0 is the exact same idea as PCI express ports. It all has to do with bandwidth, which just means how much stuff you can shove through the bus. A PCIe 8x slot has half the bandwidth of a 16x slot. All PCIe ports are cross-compatible as well. You can plug a 4x card into a 16x slot and it will work, and have all the bandwidth it needs. Conversely, you can put a 16x card into a 4x slot, provided it is notched so the slot can fit the card. The card will work and have the same power delivery as a 16x slot, but only 1/4 of the bandwidth will be available to it. USB 2/3.0 have exactly the same forwards-and-backwards compatibility. A USB 2.0 flash drive will work seamlessly with a 3.0 port, and will function at 2.0 speeds because the driver will detect it and adjust the bandwidth accordingly. You can also plug a 3.0 flash drive into a 2.0 port and it will treat it as a normal 2.0 device, and as such will only be able to use the bandwidth and therefore transfer rates as 2.0.

All of this compatibility by its very nature requires a physical chip that supports it.

hope this helped!

 

USB 3 is great for now but I think a new USB type is coming out soon that is smaller and reversible.