USB 3 devices have finally started showing up in the US and expect them to be more widely available everywhere else in the world, later this year.
USB 2 has been around, but with serious bottlenecks. Its slow and gets slower when you connect multiple peripherals. Is USB 3 going to solve the problem? It looks promising. What is USB 3 all about?
- 10 times faster than USB 2.0 with 5Gbps.
- USB 3 is bi-directional so its much faster. In USB 2 data can flow only in one direction at a time.
- Realistically you should get 3 times faster transfer speeds for external drives.
- Backward compatible with USB 2. If you connect to older systems, you will still be able to use, but at slower speeds.
- More power. Since more and more devices are being powered by USB, USB3 provides more power to adequately power those external hard drives.
- Linux is the first operating system to support USB 3, and yes Microsoft has followed by including support in Windows 7.
The first place where USB 3 has started showing up is in external hard drives. If you are looking for one, you should consider USB 3. To get USB 3 performance, you will need USB 3 port on your computer, which is lacking in most of the PCs/Laptops sold today. However you can buy a hard drive with a card for your PC/Laptop.
From Amazon: 1 TB USB 3 external desktop hard drive with PCIe USB 3 adaptor.
USB 3.0 Expresscard for your laptop.
