Need USB 3.0?

[dryfly]

I'm putting together a new system and considering an Biostar TA880G+. Only downside I can see is it has no USB 3.0 connectors. How important is this?

They do make the GU3+ for another $20 but not near the number of reviews on Newegg. Looks like if in future I need USB 3.0 it would be only about $25 PCI card.

What do you think.

 

[Dahak]

how many usb3 devices do you have now ?
do you plan to use external hard drives almost daily?

if no to both, i would say not that important, but would be nice to have

 

[tweakboy]

How many port does that 25 dollar one have ? What USB 3.0 device do you have ? Because if its a external drive, your better off going with eSATA which is as fast as your internal hard drive. gl

 

[sequoia464]

Because if its a external drive, your better off going with eSATA which is as fast as your internal hard drive.

I back up nightly about 60 gigs to a USB3 drive - takes about an hour. Any idea how much faster it would be with eSATA?

 

[wirednuts]

for an extra $20, i would spring for the board that has USB3 ports. well worth it. i dont think going eSATA will make that big of a difference

 

[Hulk]

I back up nightly about 60 gigs to a USB3 drive - takes about an hour. Any idea how much faster it would be with eSATA?

The quick and dirty answer in my opinion is not much faster with a conventional hard drive. A lot faster with an SSD.
A conventional drive will do perhaps 100MB/sec sequential transfer while USB 3.0 will allow about 70MB/sec so you won't be throttling your drive that badly.
On the other hand a decent SSD will write at 170MB/sec or more for the really fast ones.

So if you are backing up to a conventional drive with USB 3.0 then don't worry about it. If you are using and external SSD for back up then go with eSATA.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Why is the 5 Gbps USB3 being mention to transfer only at 70MB/sec? If one ignores the spec of USB3 then let's ignore it for eSATA as well.