Thread: USB3

Originally Posted by Aronious

Yah. You aren't going to notice on your fancy new USB keyboard (unless it one of those $1700 ones that plays an mpeg of your choosing on every key..), but like I said above, if you use exterior mass storage frequently, you'll be glad you have it.

There are other benefits of USB 3.0. For instance it provides more power to a single port over USB 2.0. This might not sound important but if you need to connect a 8-port hub it can make a big difference. In comparison, eSATA (i believe the current fastest & widely used connection method) does not supply any power at all.

USB3.0 also allows you to read & write at the same time vs USB 2.0 where you could only do one or the other (without the aid of software). The only real USB 3.0 devices I have seen on the market are external drives as well, so it mite not be that useful yet to the majority of the population...

only real problem I have with USB 3.0 is it does not seem 100% standardized yet... If you buy a case that has built in USB 3.0 it normally needs to use up your USB 3.0 ports on your mobo which kinda defeats the purpose of even including them on cases (unless you just want to move your ports to the front). Example case: Coolmaster HAF X

if you are worried about future-proofing, you can get USB 3.0 PCI(-E?) cards with 2 ports for about $30 now....ive also seen laptop cards that provide 1 USB3.0 port (requires you to sacrifice one of your USB 2.0 ports for extra power)

Conculusion: USB3.0 shouldnt be a deciding factor in purchasing a laptop, unless you plan on having that laptop for more than 3years & expect it to be able to match up with the new laptops of that time (which it probally wont do anyways because they'll have 4-core CPU's as the standard....most likely)