Asus hard at work on USB 3.0-packing motherboard

[Airbot]

Usually on top of their game, Asus is typically quick to adopt new technology, and the same will ring true with the latest USB standards. Several shots of their USB 3.0-packing P6X58 Premium system board have hit the Web.

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[Corei7Extreme]

I've already seen this but I'd like to say this. Until they replace the USB 2.0 ports with 3.0 and Sata 3Gb/S ports with Sata 6Gb/S ports these motherboards are not worth purchasing yet.

 

[DJG]

Nice catch! Ahh! I can finally put to good use all those USB 3 devices I have ... oh, wait, I don't have any . It's nice to see them getting a leg up. This the classic chicken & egg situation, so it's good to see these coming out. I'll keep my current MB though .

The biggest motivator for USB 3 is external harddrives IMHO, and all my storage is (and probably always will be) internal, so for now I'm happy with USB 2 for the rest of my peripherals.

 

[Antman]

I am fired up about USB3. I need it for convenience. I have 4 and 8 GB flash cards for my cameras, and I am not very patient when xferring the files to HDD. The cameras are why I own this platform.

All of my external drives are eSATA.

I was not aware of the doubling of SATA throughput. Our RAID0 configs will nearly double their I/O speeds? Need to read.

As soon as a board drops below $300, this early adopter (who has rarely learned a lesson the easy way) will be clicking some new eggs.

 

[DJG]

Antman,

What flash cards do you use that are maxing out because of USB2? What's the current actual speed you get?

 

[Antman]

Antman,

What flash cards do you use that are maxing out because of USB2? What's the current actual speed you get?

I am doing this without looking at the cards - I have Type H and Type M xD cards, SD and SDHC.

xD - Not sure which type is so slow, neither are fast. I will get a burst at xfer start, 24 or so, then the speed will drop considerably, sometimes down to 2 - 4, usually around 12. All the xD cards are Panasonic.

SDHC is always slow, SD is my fastest. I have a number of these cards from all kinds of providers. Not sure of the speeds on these cards.

No matter which cards I am using, and no matter which reader is employed, my system becomes sluggish to momentarily unresponsive. It is not the rated throughput of USB3 that I covet - it is the independence from the CPU. I would be glad to "other task" while the cards are dumping, but I can't. At least not in the manner to which I am accustomed.

I will "early adopt" USB because I am impatient. And what an irony and absence of fairness it is that I will likely get another Asus board. I am a bit miffed at Asus regarding P5B Deluxe and HyperX PC8500. 1066? Yeah, right.

 

[DJG]

Have you tried different readers? I get a consistent 19-21MBs from my 8GB Extreme IV CF and Extreme IV 8GB SDHC in my workstation setup for short runs. I shoot raw and my files are from high 20MB to low 40MB. I tend to also be impatient but this has worked fine for me.

I just started a 6.5GB transfer from the CF to my RAID, and although the throughput started at > 40MBs and is now down to 24.2, obviously it's buffering, I have felt no impact whatsoever. My cores are relatively bored. OK, 2/3 done and effective T/P = 21.7MBs.

Not sure what is causing your sitch ...