I got a USB 3.0 ext Dock and xfer speeds are only double of USB 2.0 ??

[Davv111]

So I got the new Thermaltake BlacX 5G ST0019U ABS Plastic 2.5" & 3.5" Black USB 3.0 Docking Station

I also got upgraded my pc to a Mobo Asus P6X58D-E 1366 LGA with a I7-930 with 3GB's of ram. I've checked in bios and the USB3.0 is enabled and I'm using a USB3 cable.

USB 2.0 read speed is about 35mb's
USB 2.0 write speed is about 40mb's

I xfered the same file with USB 3.0

USB 3.0 read speed is about 67mb's
USB 3.0 write speed is about 60mb's

My external is a 7200 Western Digtal Blue 500GB
My internal Seagate 7200.12 1TB

so whats going on ?

thanks

 

[tweakboy]

Seems normal to me. That's a pretty big difference there. gl and gb

 

[Blain]

Did you load the NEC USB 3.0 driver for your MB?

 

[fuzzymath10]

That sounds reasonable. Maybe the drivers aren't quite mature yet but I think my 500GB Caviar Blue maxed out on cardbus esata at around 90MB/sec.

It's certainly an improvement over USB 2.0. Did you benchmark it on (e)sata first just to double check it's not the hard drive hitting a wall?

 

[StinkyPinky]

I get transfer rates of about 85-90MB/s using my USB 3 drive. Big difference to the 35-40 I get on USB 2.

67 does seem a little low. Perhaps update the driver?

 

[Davidh373]

I'm sorry, but I have to ask this. Why does everybody think a small upgrade on one part of their machine will make it faster than the speed of light? Has Apple really convinced people that computer hardware works like Magic!? Thinking USB 3.0 will make your drive faster is like thinking a broken down engine will be fixed with a spark plug. It just doesn't happen that way dude, sorry...

 

[StinkyPinky]

I'm sorry, but I have to ask this. Why does everybody think a small upgrade on one part of their machine will make it faster than the speed of light? Has Apple really convinced people that computer hardware works like Magic!? Thinking USB 3.0 will make your drive faster is like thinking a broken down engine will be fixed with a spark plug. It just doesn't happen that way dude, sorry...

What are you talking about? He is simply concerned that his USB 3 transfer speeds are low. Which they are. They should be around 90MB/s from my own hands on experience. Certainly the external drive he listed (WD Blue) can easily do that speed.

 

[fuzzymath10]

Agree with StinkyPinky. It makes a big difference, and we're just trying to understand why he might be having trouble. We've suggested it could be a measurement issue; maybe his 60MB/sec wasn't sequential, the drive was nearly full, or USB 3.0 drivers aren't very optimized yet.

USB 2.0 is slow and old enough that any of these factors would have been smoothed out by the low peak bandwidth.

 

[Davidh373]

I understand that, but between General Hardware, and Memory and Storage I've answered 5 posts in the last week addressing the same issue. They've all been answered the same way, the 5400RPM drive is the limiting factor. The drives are limited by the hardware inside, not the software or interface. We should see new drives coming with 7200RPM and possibly advanced firmware. Maybe the OP got an old drive, or a drive that's sporting poor 3.0 firmware. Either way I don't see a way to solve the OP's problem. It's unfortunate, yes, but it doesn't change the fact we can't help him aside from telling him to wait, or buy a newer drive.

 

[Blain]

I understand that, but between General Hardware, and Memory and Storage I've answered 5 posts in the last week addressing the same issue. They've all been answered the same way, the 5400RPM drive is the limiting factor. The drives are limited by the hardware inside, not the software or interface. We should see new drives coming with 7200RPM and possibly advanced firmware. Maybe the OP got an old drive, or a drive that's sporting poor 3.0 firmware. Either way I don't see a way to solve the OP's problem. It's unfortunate, yes, but it doesn't change the fact we can't help him aside from telling him to wait, or buy a newer drive.

Both the OP's drives are 7200 rpm.

So I got the new Thermaltake BlacX 5G ST0019U ABS Plastic 2.5" & 3.5" Black USB 3.0 Docking Station

I also got upgraded my pc to a Mobo Asus P6X58D-E 1366 LGA with a I7-930 with 3GB's of ram. I've checked in bios and the USB3.0 is enabled and I'm using a USB3 cable.

USB 2.0 read speed is about 35mb's
USB 2.0 write speed is about 40mb's

I xfered the same file with USB 3.0

USB 3.0 read speed is about 67mb's
USB 3.0 write speed is about 60mb's

My external is a 7200 Western Digtal Blue 500GB
My internal Seagate 7200.12 1TB

 

[Davidh373]

Both the OP's drives are 7200 rpm.

So like I said firmware is the likely culprit if it's not the 5400RPM. It still doesn't address the problem that, short of programing up some better firmware, we can't do anything except telling him to wait :/.

 

[Old Hippie]

Your speeds look reasonable to me.

USB3 is still immature technology and I'm sure the drivers will improve.

 

[VirtualLarry]

So does this mean that e-sata is still faster than usb3.0?

 

[alaricljs]

So does this mean that e-sata is still faster than usb3.0?

eSata will always be faster for a natively sata drive since there will be no protocol translation overhead. It won't necessarily be a measurable different once USB 3.0 has all the bugs worked out and is mainstream.

On the other hand, eSata will be immediately improved with any SATA speed-bump in the next revision(s).

 

[tweakboy]

Ya look at StinkPinky, I think all is good, all is normal plus drivers that arent mature yet. Wait for the next Intel Chipset Software release, and install that see what happens.. gl

 

[flamenko]

Reviewed the Vantec USB 3 dock and, in comparison, you should be getting higher numbers. Here is what I received:

These drives were all plugged into the dock and it was connect via USB3. You will note the HDD gets the scores as specified by the manufacturer. Here is that ATTO:

 

[Blain]

Davv111,
Please load the latest NEC USB 3.0 driver for your MB and report back to us any differences you find in testing.

 

[Old Hippie]

Just for shits and giggles I was trying to find a review of the 7200 Western Digtal Blue 500GB (WD5000KSRTL) for some real world speed tests.

I figured it would be the slowest drive between the two and that would cap the speed limit.

He's getting 67mb's read speed and I wanted to see how much is missing but can't find any tests.

Maybe my Google skills are getting rusty.

 

[Old Hippie]

Blain hits 20,000 posts....I really appreciate the time and knowledge you've shared with me and the rest of the forum.

Thanks Blain! :thumbsup:

 

[tweakboy]

Nice Blian 20k posts. Congrats! Your a good guy, gg and gb,

 

[bobloadmire]

Im getting this same issues with my USB3.0 4 bay external enclosure. I have loaded the latest nec drivers from ASUS for my M4A88TD-v EVO/USB3 and it still hasn't improved.

 

[tweakboy]

If its double the performance only, then let the drivers mature a bit. But double is not bad... I mean its supposed to be faster then firewire,, but of course not eSATA ,, thx

 

[Emulex]

curious: what's the cpu overhead? i wonder if the immature drivers are using ncq, queue depth, non-pio - the reason usb was so taxing on cpu was its cpu overhead.

 

[VirtualLarry]

curious: what's the cpu overhead? i wonder if the immature drivers are using ncq, queue depth, non-pio - the reason usb was so taxing on cpu was its cpu overhead.

Which was an intentional "feaature" from Intel, in order to sell more powerful CPUs.

 

[Blain]

Davv111,
You started this thread, please help bring it to a conclusion.

Would you install the latest NEC USB 3.0 drivers for your MB and post your test results if we sent you some PayPal $$?