New MOBO's with USB 3 ? When??

[thatsright]

Hi Guys,

In the next 8-12 weeks I will be putting together a new system to replace my ancient 6.5 year old P4 rig. I REALLY, really want a mobo with USB 3. Anyone hear of any new boards with USB 3 based on an P55 or X58 chipset mobo? Of course they will make USB 3 add on cards, but these cannot take advantage of the full USB 3 speed.

 

[vailr]

Chipset support is not yet either available or announced, at least on the Intel side.
The recent Intel IDF forum didn't mention anything specific.
Other awaited chipset features: SATA 3.0 & PCIe 3.0 support.
So: don't hold your breath, waiting.
If you're talking about a board with added-on support for USB 3.0: no, haven't read about any board with that feature. But: that may happen before an updated Intel chipset appears. (I'm guessing).

 

[Zap]

Gigabyte's GA-P55A-UD6 packs SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0

Of course it uses third party chips for the added functionality. I don't think there will be anything on the Intel chipset itself until at least Q3/Q4 of 2010 because the X58 is still top dawg, P55 is still new and the next chipset is H57 coming out Q1/2010 and AFAIK it does not have native USB3.

This is why I always say there is no "future proofing."

 

[taltamir]

It will happen when either intel or AMD add it to their southbridge (nvidia southbridge has been killed off... they are not legally allowed to compete in this market anymore due to stupid copy right laws).

the problem with add on chips is that USB3 has a max speed of 600MB/s, while USB2 had 60MB/s
The problem is that to put an add on chip, it must use some connection... current southbridges only have individual PCIe gen1 connections available for such a purpose (gen2 is limited to the video card slots).
There is one chip that can combine two pciegen1 links (250MB/s each) into a single pciegen2 link (500MB/s each). Then said link could be used with a pcie gen2 link to USB3 converter chip.
It will be a multi chip process, use up many of the limited amount of links on the southbridge, and result in a limited product.

This is the same reason why the P55 mobos do not feature SATA3 (600MB/s vs SATA2 @ 300MB/s). Although supposedly some mobos will soon come up that DO use the whole convoluted multi step conversion process to deliver SATA3 capped at 500MB/s, they might do the same for USB3.. but expect a mobo with 10 USB2 plugs and only 1 or 2 USB3 @ 500MB/s. (as each one will require multiple chips)