USB 3.0 Expresscard worth $40 over a standard 2.0 Hub?

[shevanel]

while looking for a 2.0 hub to gain a few USB inputs I came across USB 3.0 expresscards. I was looking to not waste $45 on newegg and thought I'd stop in and get some advice before buying one impulsively.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if the add-on card would benefit file transfer rates of USB 2.0 ext Hdd's and other similar devices?

The way I understand it is the 3.0 is backwards compatible with 2.0 but if you use 2.0 cables then you get 2.0 speeds, is this correct?

If so then if I used 3.0 cables on a 2.0 devices and the 3.0 USB expresscard would I gain the benefits of the 3.0 interface?

Is the expresscard going to bottleneck the idea or will this be a worthy purchase just to have the 3.0 option over just buying a a 2.0 expresscard for added USB's?

Why do some usb 3.0 expresscard require the usb pigtail for 5v power while some do not?

Lastly, Drivers.. Is win7 x64 ready for 3.0?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge/advice.

 

[n-ster]

No performance benefit from having USB 3 port, even a SLIGHT disadvantage IIRC, only usb 3 DEVICES have an advantage on USB 2 ports

I have a USB 3.0 (U3S6) card for my Desktop and it was plug, install drivers with CD and play win 7 x64 (ultimate)

Some express cards need the pigtail for the additional power the USB 3 needs, some decide to limit the power to what expresscard can offer and can offer only so muc juice to USB 3 devices, I could be wrong though

 

[slyfox2151]

really? i thort it was the other way around N-ster.... usb2 devices were slightly faster on 3.0 ports (say 20%) due to a new protocol or somthing.

 

[shevanel]

A couple articles I read mentioned that in order to gain teh benefits of 3.0 protocol with 2.0 devices then you had to use the new cables designed for 3.0... no benchmarks or other information was given as proof tho.

Damn my fingers are frozen.. hard to type lol

 

[n-ster]

nono, a USB 3 flash drive does 35 reads and ~25 writes on USB 2, but a USB 2 drive on my USB 3 was ~5% slower (ie: no difference) than normal

idk why it is like that I just know that's how it works

sorry for misinformaton, apparently significant gains in small files and small gains in bigger files

 

[slyfox2151]

in this thread, mussels and bazooka both did USB tests using a USB2 Device on a USB3 port. they got nearly 100% improvement on small file size read and writes.
USB2 Hard disk drive on a USB3 port/motherboard.



http://www.techpowerup.com/126647/A...oard_Features_USB_3.0_Front-Panel_Header.html

 

[n-ster]

Then my personal experience must be unlucky LOL sorry for the misinformation, but I've seen this in reviews and in my personal experience, systematically had the same performance

 

[slyfox2151]

not saying your wrong, i havnt been able to use USB3 ports yet to test this out

what we need is a fair few people to test this out on external usb2 HDDs vs usb3 ports.

 

[n-ster]

I have only tested flash drives though

 

[slyfox2151]

if you could, maybe you could test your Flash drive now using ATTO benchmark ? and post resualts here.


OP did not specify what devices he would use on USB3 so Flash or external HDD benchmarks are needed

 

[n-ster]

not at home atm

 

[Mussels]

really? i thort it was the other way around N-ster.... usb2 devices were slightly faster on 3.0 ports (say 20%) due to a new protocol or somthing.

i have seen this with flash drives, not with hard drives. 20-100% boosts on really small files writes (such as when using for readyboost)


IMO its worth it, cause it gets you ready for when USB3.0 devices are cheaper.