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USB 3.0 includes several advances in the way it handles power to external devices.
For one, it increases the power available for devices to use. In low power mode, USB 3.0 provides 150 mA, an increase from 100 mA in USB 2.0. In high-power mode, USB 3.0 provides up to 900 mA, up from 500mA in USB 2.0. These power increases mean faster charging of USB devices, and more USB peripherals that can be run without an AC power adapter.
Further, the spec offers new power-conserving options, including new power states, such as idle and suspend. These allow devices to receive less power when they don't need it. Also, since USB 3.0 no longer uses active, continuous polling of connected devices, peripherals won't have their batteries depleted as fast.
At CES 2010, 17 consumer USB 3.0 devices were announced, including hard drives, motherboard, laptops, and controller cards. Expect to see lots more in the coming months.
To use a USB 3.0 device, you'll need a USB 3.0 controller. If your motherboard doesn't have a built-in USB 3.0 controller (and unless you upgraded your mobo VERY recently, it doesn't) you'll need a USB 3.0 controller card, which take up a PCI-e slot, and are available online for around $30. For the laptop crowd, USB 3.0 ExpressCards are also available. Some USB 3.0 hardware is available in a "starter kit" bundle, which includes a controller card.
So far, USB 3.0 drivers aren't included in Windows 7, and there's no word on exactly when or if they will be. You'll have to install third party drivers to use your USB 3.0 hardware, which should be provided by your controller card/motherboard manufacturer.
Did we miss anything? If you've got your own questions, leave them below in the comments. We'll forward them to our USB expert and get back to you with the answer!
Comments are closed on this article
tboyz124
January 09, 2012 at 12:32am
hi, will a usb 3.0 external hdd(usb powered) work in a usb 1.1 port. thanks
Philips
September 23, 2011 at 8:52pm
USB 3.0 shall be coming out soon. Many shall watch out for it. It shall be watched out.
nekollx
February 02, 2010 at 11:03am
Hell both of them are in the first page of the feature ticker
Reduddent much?
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QuakindudeMod
February 02, 2010 at 12:34pm
First off, it's "redundant", not reduddent.
Secondly, there are two different bloggers writing the articles.
Thirdly, the way these turn up in a search after Google spiders and other search engines have indexed the site leads to more traffic and that traffic finding specific information relating to their search. So if someone searches the site for USB compliant hardware articles, they will not have to read through half an article about the format itself.
Finally, the first one speaks of CES and the differences between USB standards while the second article talks about hardware that's actually available to give you that functionality. There's a reason the online Editor is in his job and believe it or not, this is how this should have been divided to present the information properly to the readers.
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nekollx
February 02, 2010 at 12:44pm
and the third one? I've read all 3 they don't really say all that much different. That's my concern, the material isn't really all that different.
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
QuakindudeMod
February 02, 2010 at 2:38pm
The first article, posted on the first of this month by yet a third member of the blogging team, is more indepth technically than the other two articles. It obviously shows the hardware behind the format, so I had not even considered that one as part of these other two. The other two I've already explained. I see very obvious differences in all three that will appeal to a differeing group of readers and although some of the content is repeated through the three articles, you can't talk about the same thing on three differing levels without covering some of the same info.
But I'm not the official voice on how or why MaximumPC chooses to place their articles as they do. So maybe you should contact Norm since you appear to be overly "concerned" about it.
Plus, it IS USB 3.0 week at MaximumPC.
*****MaximumPC Moderator. Report inappropriate/SPAM comments to
QuakindudeMod at Gmail--dot--com with a link. My personal comments do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of MaxPC or Future US*****
nekollx
February 02, 2010 at 2:55pm
Let's just agree to disagree, it's not really worth it to contact Norm. their very similar to me but i can live with it...unlike that one article a month or so ago that was the exact same story told by 2 different people :p
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Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Xerloq
February 01, 2010 at 11:16pm
I'm hoping my bet on a USB 3/SATA 6 mobo wasn't poorly placed... what have you guys seen?
dwkii
February 01, 2010 at 10:29pm
For peripherals that will be available for both connections (external hard drives, specifically), which would be faster, eSATA or USB 3.0? Are there any considerations to look at other than speed?
Digital-Storm
February 01, 2010 at 10:37pm
Sata can reach speeds of 6Gbps, USB 3.0 reaches 4.8 they said? eSata would still be faster.
Xerloq
February 01, 2010 at 11:25pm
SATA is curently divided into three revisions, SATA 1.5Gbps, SATA II (aka SATA 3Gbps), and SATA 6Gbps. The revisions/generations of SATA and their speeds are often confused because of poorly implemented marketing guidelines.
Current HDDs are SATA II/SATA 3Gbps. There's only one SATA III/SATA 6 HDD out there, and only a handful of mobos or controllers.
That means that USB 3 will be faster (theoretically) than eSATA - unless you have an eSATA enclosure that can handle a SATA III drive and a SATA III controller.
Does that mean you ditch your SATA connection for USB? No. SATA's power is in SSDs, but even then you might not max the speed.
Note, that there is no rotating magnetic media that can, alone, saturate SATA II's bandwidth - only SSDs are approaching that. The fastest magnetic media barely breaks 150MB/s (or 1.2Gbps). The Patriot Torqx drive hits 205.4 MB/s, or about 1.643 Gbps, so it'd take a couple of SSDs in RAID-0 to fill that pipe.
Crucial's launching a 355 MB/s (2.840Gbps) SSD this month. Even a pair of those won't saturate SATA 6.
So, to the OPs question, unless your external hard drive is a pair of SSDs in RAID-0, the limiting factor will be the disk, and not the channel.
