USB 2.0 vs 3.0 - Test Results

[Tristicus]

I spied this thing the other day, and decided to pick it up: Rocketfish™ - 2-Port USB 3.0 PCI Express Interface Card. I just got my Western Digital 3TB MyBook not too long ago, and I have transferred most of my stuff to it. Took ages. Well, I decided that since it utilizes 3.0, I might as well give myself some ports for it. I am very happy at the results:

I knew USB 3.0 was supposed to be faster, but I was pleasantly surprised when I actually saw my own test. Glad I took the jump.

 

[sequoia464]

It really is a noticeable increase. I have a buffalo USB3.0 drive - pretty nice compared to 2.0. Makes a great external backup source.

 

[Emulex]

what is the cpu usage and latency during both?

 

[Tristicus]

Well, HD Tune Pro didn't let me do the write speeds, but read:

USB 2.0

USB 3.0

 

[MarkLuvsCS]

Using a Rosewill USB3 PCI-Express card with a WD 3tb on USB3. Just wanted to post my results with the WD 3tb drive. CPU 1090T @ 4ghz. I didn't have a program measure it, but task manager was fluctuating ~1-2% during tests.

 

[Tristicus]

Using a Rosewill USB3 PCI-Express card with a WD 3tb on USB3. Just wanted to post my results with the WD 3tb drive. CPU 1090T @ 4ghz. I didn't have a program measure it, but task manager was fluctuating ~1-2% during tests.

Would my speeds be lower since I have it nearly half full?

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Yeah, I really can't stand seeing these absolutely huge external drives advertised with USB2.0 only, its just far too slow. I've never settled for less than options that included at least eSATA to go along with USB2.0. There's just no way I'd willingly put up with such a bottleneck on sequential transfers that will already take several hours at full speed.

USB2.0 is fine for things like photos and music, or streaming from the drive once you have it full, but any sort of real time access to the drive to really swap data around its just unbearable to put up with USB2.0 speeds.

Would my speeds be lower since I have it nearly half full?

yes, the outer part of the hard drive gets written to first and can be much faster than the inner parts

 

[Lorne]

A USB 3 card also helps with some older USB 2 devices.
My USB 2 portable with a WD Blk Scorp 250, Does 27MBps to and from my home machine, Was doing 17MBps on a friends old desktop, His new desktop with USB 3 tested held a 44MBps transfer.

I need to get me a USB3 card and a enclosure that supports USB3/Esata.