3 TB Seagate GoFlex Desk USB 3 - $139.99 Costco

[jhansman]

Picked one up yesterday. Is it worth the trouble to add a USB3 controller to my PC for this? As in, would there actually be any performance gains?

I can tell you that on my Asrock 890FX board, there is a significant difference between USB 2.0 and 3.0 transfers for external media; at first I failed to have the 3.0 drivers installed, but once I did, data transfers were noticeably faster.

 

[Tdavis5432]

Go over to amazon.com and just do a search for 'usb 3.0 pci-e' and you'll get a lot to come up some cheap some more expensive...

 

[cubeless]

huge difference... at least for the wd ones i picked up at xmas... usb3 gets ~90MB/s transfer... huge improvement over usb2...

 

[bryanW1995]

I bought a model STAY1000102 seagate 3tb external USB 3.0 drive from staples that died in a week. It was stationary the entire time on my desk, and just 1 day decided to die.

Seagate, never again. Only buying WD from here on out.

I bought that this exact drive on a BF deal at best buy back in November. My wife uses it as her primary storage drive for her professional photo business. I heard mostly good but a few bad things about it, so I have 2 separate backups of everything just in case. It's been great for us so far.

 

[bryanW1995]

Picked one up yesterday. Is it worth the trouble to add a USB3 controller to my PC for this? As in, would there actually be any performance gains?

That depends upon how you use it. USB 3.0 is a LOT faster than USB 2.0, I accidentally tested it when we first bought it (don't ask). To me, USB 3.0 makes it feel almost as fast as my wife's internal 750 gb hdd, while USB 2.0 is ssssssslllllllllllooooooooowwwwwwww. According to wikipedia, USB 3.0 is about 10x faster than USB 2.0. So if you use it like my wife (all the time as her main storage drive) then it will be well worth it for you.

 

[NutBucket]

My main use is movie storage for the HTPC. I think the only time transfer rate would really matter is copying files onto the drive. The only other USB 3.0 device I have is a Mushkin Ventura Pro 32GB thumb drive. I guess given my use it would save me a few minutes here and there but not really improve overall usability. So, better off saving the $20.

 

[bryanW1995]

Yes, I agree. Besides, if it ends up being an issue you could always add it later.

 

[sigmanova]

I just went to Costco today (Lancaster, CA) and it was on sale for $139.99 with a $10.00 instant manufacturer's rebate making this an even better deal at $129.99.

It said the deal is good until 5/25/2012. Not sure if it varies from store to store though.

 

[fstime]

Any risk in opening one up and using it as an internal drive (other than voiding the warranty)?

 

[NutBucket]

Not that I know of....

 

[Wyndru]

Is the model number on this STAC3000102?