USB 2.0 with USB 3.0

Danny862

Danny862

Danny862

Associate
Joined
17 Nov 2010
Posts
336
Location
UK
hi

ordered a poratble hard drive a few days ago
quite a cheap one (about 30) which is USB 2.0, however i am (sort of) thinking i should have got the USB 3.0 version for a bit more money.
this drive will contain backups, music, video and photos aswell as documents

my question is. if i connect my 320GB USB 2.0 drive into a USB 3.0 socket, will the speed increase?
thanks
 
You won't get any extra speed, but it is backwards compatible so you won't get any problems either.

You can always return things you've ordered using distance selling regulations, so you could just send it back and get the USB3 one instead.
 
Although USB3 is backwards compatible with USB2, you won't see any difference in speed when plugging a USB2 device into a USB3 port.

EDIT: Looks like Blue160 is a quicker typist than me! :)
 
That isn't 100% true in my experience.

Althought on paper there should be no gains to have, I found when I got a USB 3 PCI-e card I tested a normal USB2 memory stick then tried it in the USB3 ports and got repeatable 6-7mb increases in speed when using the USB3 port.

Also not sure if its just the hub I have, but my USB3 won't detect USB2 devices - not sure why but it just doesn't...
 
If it's portable (ie 1.8" or 2.5") and bus-powered, it's very unlikely that it will reach maximum USB2 speeds. Even 3.5" mains-powered external drives are generally 5400rpm, and won't see any benefit from USB3.
 
DennisMenace said:
If it's portable (ie 1.8" or 2.5") and bus-powered, it's very unlikely that it will reach maximum USB2 speeds. Even 3.5" mains-powered external drives are generally 5400rpm, and won't see any benefit from USB3.
Click to expand...

Not true.

I've just done my own tests.

2.5" 5400rpm drive in a bus powered external enclosure:

USB 2.0 read and write 30MB/s​

USB 3.0 read 75MB/s, write 60MB/s​

3.5" 5400rpm drive in an external dock:

USB 2.0 read and write 30MB/s​

USB 3.0 read 90MB/s, write 60MB/s​
 
quite a difference. my pc would require a pci card to get 3. will just wait for a new motherboard... will keep my drive. thanks
 
As you're only storing media and documents don't worry about it. As long as you're only reading the files and not copying them to a HDD or similar then you won't really notice the difference atm. It's gonna take a while yet for the true potential of USB3.0 to be realised.
 
It depends on what you are wanting to store on it to what speed you will want to see. Bare in mind that any Mechanical drive will be flawed by small files regardless of the speed of the connection to the host.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom