USB 3.0 supposedly will be matching eSata there as far as external drives are concerned. But that also means going with a newer board as well. While you are shopping for a new drive I'll be shopping to build a few more cases plus people wanting help on theirs!
What about a USB 3.0 expansion card?
Connecting an external via eSATA may be a problem.
You'll probably have to reboot the computer before it'll recognize the eSATA ...
and do NOT disconnect it before you turn the computer OFF.
Several reboots may be required to fix the problem this'll cause.
The only reason I connect my externals via eSATA ...
Is if I want to boot from an operating system in the external.
An expansion card is mainly ports on a mounted card you install in a free slot but still reach out and plug into the small block of pins on the board itself and would still go through the 2.0 bus. The new 3.0 interfaces will still work but you won't realize the faster speed on any 2.0 board.What about a USB 3.0 expansion card?
It works on the same principle you would see if plugging any 2.0 device or drive presently seen into an old 1.1 port if it works there. The speed is reduced by the older standard.
The USB 3.0 board goes into a PCI/PCI-E slot and has support for the full bandwith of USB 3.0 - you just need to reach around behind your pc to stick in devices.
If the adapter used doesn't have an interface it will simply fit into the case opening there where you run the wires over to the additional usb pins typically set up for addition front or top ports on cases. With a PCI interface you are then going through the PCI bus there being limited by that bus to some degree.
You can get those already plus add two 3.0 speed ports with a PCIe card like the one seen at USB 3.0 PCI Express Card, 2 Port USB 3.0 adapter card (PCIe) with NEC chipset
Now to get a 3.0 to replace the 4 port 2.0 used here for flash drives!
Without upgrading the existing MOBO a system will still be limited to the max speed of the PCIe slot which will top out at 2.5 Gb/s (for Gen 1) slots OR the max speed of a mechanical HDD. So... USB 3.0 (and its associated cost) becomes attractive only for flash drive or SSDs with a PCIe Gen 2 slot. Or am I missing something here?If the adapter used doesn't have an interface it will simply fit into the case opening there where you run the wires over to the additional usb pins typically set up for addition front or top ports on cases. With a PCI interface you are then going through the PCI bus there being limited by that bus to some degree.
You can get those already plus add two 3.0 speed ports with a PCIe card like the one seen at USB 3.0 PCI Express Card, 2 Port USB 3.0 adapter card (PCIe) with NEC chipset
Now to get a 3.0 to replace the 4 port 2.0 used here for flash drives!
P.S. How does one tell a PCIe Gen 1 slot from a Gen 2 slot? Inquiring minds want to know....
My feeling is that USB 3.0 only really benefits a large storage device. So, since hard drives are limited by their own technology as far as speed and flash drives are just so small in comparison and could be filled almost instantly with USB 3.0...I'm not all that geeked about the interface.Without upgrading the existing MOBO a system will still be limited to the max speed of the PCIe slot which will top out at 2.5 Gb/s (for Gen 1) slots OR the max speed of a mechanical HDD. So... USB 3.0 (and its associated cost) becomes attractive only for flash drive or SSDs with a PCIe Gen 2 slot. Or am I missing something here?
P.S. How does one tell a PCIe Gen 1 slot from a Gen 2 slot? Inquiring minds want to know....
I've been wondering if a new PCI > eSATA card .. Instead of using the onboard SATA ...
would give me SATA Hot Swap capabilities ...
But have other things to Play with (Buy) right now.
I can imagine that if i had one really Huge file to transfer to an external .. eSATA would be faster ..
But when moving many Small files .. It seems that all the delay is while Windows organizes it's thoughts ... Before it even starts to copy.
I'm not Broken ... Not sure I want to attempt a fix.
I'd probably spend more time fixing the fix .. than I waste using USB.
Last edited by noyb; 17 Jan 2010 at 14:29.
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