Mere mortals who have to deal with large file transfers day in and day out often squander in the slow lane with some pitiful HDD external hard drive. Hell, even “fast” HDD’s are slow all things considered. Those who have pockets deeper than the Grand Canyon, however, can afford to splurge a bit. Case in point: The Iomega USB 3.0 SSD external hard drive.
For starters, it’s a tiny 1.8″ size, meaning ultra portable. +1. But the real butter of the story is the speed — a claimed 10x faster than a USB 2.0 7200RPM hard drive and a solid 2x faster than your newer 7200 RPM USB 3.0 drives. More usable fodder translates out to 191MB/s reads and 130MB/s writes. Toss in 256-bit encryption and you’ve got yourself a slammin’ little digitla box ‘o storage.
Look for the drives to drop in early November: 64GB: $229 | 128GB: $399 | 256GB: $749
It’s no secret that Intel’s been dragging their feet with USB 3.0. They’re been relatively quiet on the subject, showing very little if any enthusiasm. With that, Intel has pushed back several release dates for USB 3.0 compatible chipsets in the last couple of years, angering many hardware vendors in the process. Without Intel’s help in pushing forward a standard, 3rd party vendors are left to come up with their own.
But it’s not getting any better. Intel announced this week that they are again pushing back USB 3.0 chipsets until 2012…
Think the world is chock full of too many adapters, connectors, and proprietary crap already? Fear not, Apple may have another one in the works for us. A recent patent filing showing a new Mac desktop (non-Pro model) featuring a more rounded shape and smaller footprint. But the real interesting part is the hybrid DisplayPort/USB 3.0 connector.
Now, I could be misinterpreting this, but if it is in fact a new connector that is unique to Apple — Why? Why unleash yet another connector that requires special changes to hardware? I know everyone in the world wants a “one cable to rule them all” type of gig, but releasing more and more “uber cables” isn’t the right way to go about it.
Supposedly, this new connector as detailed in the patent would take the place of current dock connector that has become ubiquitous in today’s society, and ushering in a new era of speed and features.
Of course, if everyone just put all their eggs into the LightPeak basket, that super duper uber cable would sure get here a lot sooner don’t you think?
I don’t know about you, but when I saw the reviews for the first few USB 3.0 hardware, I was pretty disappointed. Sure, 2-3x faster than current hardware isn’t anything to scoff at. But both specs still are falling far short of their claimed maximums. Thankfully, progress is being made. This past week at the Taipei USB Developers Conference, ASMedia smashed through the pack of current “slow” early USB 3.0 hardware with their ASM1051 SATA 3 to USB 3.0 controller.
Compared to older USB 2.0 benchmarks, ASMedia’s USB 3.0 controller is actually capable of hitting that 10x mark that many were so fixated over when the USB 3.0 spec was first announced. It’s worth noting that a higher end Micron SSD was being used to get such high speeds. With that said, hopefully these speed increases can trickle down fairly quickly to lower end (read: more affordable) hardware. The numbers are certainly impressive, aren’t they?
I’m not exactly a “pack rat” per say. But if you stopped by my house and took a peek inside my desk drawers, you’d final all kinds of miscellaneous computer parts, cords, and adapters. I’ve amassed quite the collection. Naturally, upgrading a computer here and there will result in a few extra hard drives. In the case of upgrading laptop hard drives more than is usual, I have a couple collecting dust. Why not put them to good use?
Normally when I want something off of a hard drive that’s not hooked up, I just swap drives in and out of my external enclosure as needed. But the new USB 3.0 compatible 2.5″ external hard drive enclosure by Century has me thinking it’s about time to pick up another enclosure. Instantly taking any 2.5″ drive you may have and turning it into a USB 3.0 “Super Speed” drive sure is tempting. Not to mention, the case itself is only $48 USD, so it’s relatively cheap too. Kind of like a “freebie” if you’re having trouble justifying dropping nearly 50 bones on the enclosure.
The enclosure isn’t shipping until April 12th, but online outlets will gladly take your money now. And just in case you were concerned, USB 2.0 is supported as a safe fall back option. Readying the wallet?
Disappointed that brand new computer you purchased doesn’t have the latest and greatest in terms of USB speed? Simple solution: make it fast. The GH-UIPE302 PCIe USB 3.0 card is a rather inexpensive upgrade option for PC enthusiasts who want to get on the USB 3.0 bandwagon a little early. Can’t say I blame them though. While USB 2.0 used to seem fast back in the day, things such as lossless music files, 10 megapixel+ images stored in RAW, and HD movies have shown us everything USB 2.0 isn’t anymore — fast.
For the price of one nice dinner (or two slightly lesser dinners), you add the newest edition to the USB family to your computer with relatively little know-how and wrench time on your and very little work on the end of your wallet’s. $42 seem like the right price for (2) USB 3.0 ports?
Tired of waiting around for USB 3.0 external drives to hit the scene? Me too. Well, I was until I stumbled across Western Digital’s new MyBook 3.0 external hard drive. The 3.0 addition to the name of course highlights the migration from USB 2.0 to 3.0 internals meaning these new drives will whisk away your precious files at up to 5 Gbps. If you’re keeping note, that’s roughly 10 times more than your standard USB 2.0 drive.
But the drive itself isn’t everything as you need the appropriate hardware on your PC too. On this front, PC manufacturers have drug their feet as well in regards to adding USB 3.0 support. But there’s hope yet.
If you fancy the one and only 1TB MyBook 3.0 and don’t have any USB 3.0 compliant cards/ports on your computer, WD will sell you a kit that includes the drive and a USB 3.0 PCIe card for ~$375 USD. Got your own hardware already? Super. Shave off about $40 as the drive only option will set you back ~$331 USD.
As USB 3.0 proliferates to other manufacturers and devices, expect the prices to naturally fall. It all depends on how anxious you are. Would you drop three and a half bennies on 1TB of USB 3.0 storage or are you happy as a clam, content enough to wait it out for lower prices?
Speed. Pure blinding speed. That’s what Super Talent is dishing out with their “Super Talent RAIDDrive” USB 3.0 flash drive. Instead of crawling along at USB 2.0′s pathetic excuse for speed, the RAIDDrive will effectively shuttle your 1′s and 0′s back and forth before you even know what’s happening. According to Super Talent, the drive will run at a brisk 200MB/s (with a legacy driver). If using a newer, A UASP driver (USB Attached SCSI) driver, end users will be able to achieve up to 320MB/s continuously meaning the mid-range 64GB flavor can be filled in as little as 3 minutes. Now that’s something worth getting excited over isn’t it! Initially, the RAIDDrive will come in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB flavors with further additions likely as flash memory prices come down. Imagine that, a 128GB flash drive that you can actually fill before your body ceases existing…
Now if only we could get any computer hardware that makes use of and supports USB 3.0….
Looking forward to pick up a few of the 1st USB 3.0 compatible hard drives and start living life in the fast lane? If so, you may want to hold off a tad as initial reports on 1st gen USB 3.0 hard drives from Buffalo and Freecom are anything but exciting. In fact it’s pretty underwhelming. The new drives in question: the DriveStation HD-HXU3 from Buffalo and the XS 3.0 (pictured above) made by Freecom are anything but “Super Speedy”. With the Buffalo and Freecom drives reported to hum along at 125MB/s and 130MB/s respectively, many individuals looking to jump on the bleeding edge wagon of USB 3.0 are certainly going to be disappointed. Especially considering USB 3.0 is supposed to offer users speeds ranging from 640 MB/s all the way up to a spec maximum of 5 GB/s. Though it’s worth noting the GB/s plus speeds are under ideal conditions.
Naturally, USB 3.0 backers will at times overstate the spec’s abilities as is evident with these first gen units. However, we also can’t forget these are 1st gen meaning there is plenty of room for improvement and refinement. As USB 3.0 becomes more ubiquitous, expect speeds to rise and prices for the tech to drop. Until then, I suggest holding off until we see some real speed bumps.
Get online with best value broadband & home phone bundles.
Choose between our Essentials or Plus packages -
both with introductory offers - & benefit from our ground-breaking HomeSafe online protection.
Compare our broadband and phone bundles with our competitors.
We think our Essentials and Plus packages are great value -
see for yourself by checking the breakdown of costs and features versus our biggest competitors.
When it comes to marketing your product it's essential to understand the visitor patterns in your shop. Heatmap software allows you to do just that by producing reports and visualizations that help you make the best decisions for your business.
Mere mortals who have to deal with large file transfers day in and day out often squander in the slow lane with some pitiful HDD external hard drive. Hell, even “fast” HDD’s are slow all things considered. Those who have pockets deeper than the Grand Canyon, however, can afford to splurge a bit. Case in point: The Iomega USB 3.0 SSD external hard drive. 
