USB 3.0 Results with ASUS U3S6, Rosewill RX358 & Samsung F3 Spinpoint Drive

[Kindjal]

I combined an ASUS U3S6 USB 3.0 PCIE card with a Rosewill RX358 enclosure and a Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB and got what I think are some pretty great numbers with HD Tune 2.55.

My HD Tach results look even a little better than The Tech Report's http://techreport.com/articles.x/18077/2

Any other benchies I should throw at this setup?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Is the Rosewill cage a pass-through style enclosure?

 

[RebateMonger]

That'll be great if USB 3.0 works as it's supposed to. Bye-bye eSATA.

 

[Elixer]

Um, what are we looking at here?
Those numbers are pretty much the same you would get for eSATA...

If your saying that your USB 3.0 device are as fast as eSATA, then well done!

 

[CurseTheSky]

Um, what are we looking at here?
Those numbers are pretty much the same you would get for eSATA...

If your saying that your USB 3.0 device are as fast as eSATA, then well done!

That's the point. USB (2.0 currently, 3.0 hopefully by the end of the year) is far more common than eSATA, so soon enough it shouldn't be a matter of limiting your motherboard / laptop / external enclosure choices based on connectors alone.

Essentially, you're getting roughly the same bandwidth of eSATA without needing an eSATA port.

 

[RebateMonger]

Essentially, you're getting roughly the same bandwidth of eSATA without needing an eSATA port.

Exactly. Hopefully, we'll end up with a "universally available", state-of-the-art connection, with no need to figure out which BIOS settings and which drivers are needed to allow hotswaps and "safely remove device" options.

Probably not this year, but next year for sure. Unless Intel screws it up.

 

[n7]

Yup, soon normal users will get external HDD speeds like us eSATA users have had all along finally.

Yay for them? :sneaky:

 

[Sahakiel]

eSata version 2?

 

[Kindjal]

Is the Rosewill cage a pass-through style enclosure?

I believe the cage is merely a pass-through type but here is an picture of the enclosure:

Yes, these results are from my new USB 3.0 connection.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Thanks for the update.

 

[Modelworks]

That's the point. USB (2.0 currently, 3.0 hopefully by the end of the year) is far more common than eSATA, so soon enough it shouldn't be a matter of limiting your motherboard / laptop / external enclosure choices based on connectors alone.

Essentially, you're getting roughly the same bandwidth of eSATA without needing an eSATA port.

I'm looking for everything to be replaced by Intels lightpeak. Lightpeak is twice as fast as USB 3.0 , does not have the cable length problems of USB 3.0 and isolates the electronics from each other which reduces cost of circuitry. Lightpeak starts at 10Gbp scaling up to 100Gbps and runs multiple protocols at the same time over the same cable. It is low cost and can replace USB, SATA, Ethernet, and video cabling. The only downside to it is it does not provide power to the devices, though I suppose adding that to the end connector wouldn't be a problem.

Another reason I don't think usb3.0 will last is because I know people that tested it in design stages and there were a lot of problems where cable length effected speed. Poorly made cables cause the data rate to drop, lightpeak doesn't have that problem. It also is 2 way communication vs one way of USB.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khPx1dEIPnA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izNoF1SWtSg&feature=related

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Buy Intel stock now! WOW!!!

 

[frostedflakes]

Will probably be quite a few years before Light Peak (or anything similar) catches on. Optical data transmission is still relatively expensive compared to copper, and the whole advantage of interfaces like USB is that they are simple and cheap. Firewire, for example, was technically superior, but was more expensive to implement hardware-wise than USB. One of the reasons it was never able to approach the ubiquity that USB has.

 

[RU482]

why are people hell bent on shit talking eSATA?
seems kinda tacky to compare current fringe tech to "future" common tech

 

[RebateMonger]

why are people hell bent on shit talking eSATA?
seems kinda tacky to compare current fringe tech to "future" common tech

I've been using hotswap SATA (and eSATA) for the bulk of my clients' (and my own) backups for four years now.

But I don't think we'll ever see multiple eSATA ports on motherboards, I think the eSATA connectors suck (too easy to get a bad connection), and too many people have problems getting the BIOS and drivers correct to attain the promised hotswap. eSATA in its current state is too complicated to become universal like USB 2.0 and, hopefully, USB 3.0.

 

[=Wendy=]

USB3 like USB2 before it carries power to the device as well as the data connection, so you have a whole host of devices that simply plugin to USB3 and go, without needing a separate power supply.
That could mean really fast USB3 pen drives, USB3 SSD, 2.5inch USB3 HDD, and other flash memory. That is one reason, IMO that eSATA and Firewire never became that popular for connecting external devices.

Let's see Intel pass power down a Light Peak optical connection.

I authored an article on USB3 over @ MyCE.com a couple of months ago.
Just google for "USB3 Superspeed – A first look"
You may find the results quite surprising.

 

[solofly]

I don't have anything USB3 or SATA6 yet but I bought 5 of these add-on cards cause they're cheap...(paid 26 bucks)

 

[Makaveli]

Yup, soon normal users will get external HDD speeds like us eSATA users have had all along finally.

Yay for them? :sneaky:

This!

Been using esata for years now could give two shits about USB 3.0!

Even my Nforce 4 motherboard had an ESATA port.

 

[Makaveli]

I believe the cage is merely a pass-through type but here is an picture of the enclosure:

Yes, these results are from my new USB 3.0 connection.

I like the fact that this enclosure has a fan in it...

Do they sell esata versions?

 

[perdomot]

Just saw your post after asking about the sata part of the asus card and wanted to ask if you have installed the AHCI driver yet. Windows crashes on me when I try to install it so I think I have to do a clean install to get it to work.

 

[Kindjal]

I have AHCI enabled and I did install the Marvell SATA6 driver that came with the card. I do not have any drives connected to the ASUS SATA6 connector. I remember reading that you do NOT want to install the Marvell SATA drivers if you are using an SSD that can take TRIM commands. In that case, you want to let Win7's native driver handle the Marvell controller. Apparently, TRIM commands can be sent to the Marvell controller using the native SATA drivers.

 

[Kindjal]

I like the fact that this enclosure has a fan in it...

Do they sell esata versions?

Yes - http://www.rosewill.com/products/916/productDetail.htm

 

[perdomot]

I have AHCI enabled and I did install the Marvell SATA6 driver that came with the card. I do not have any drives connected to the ASUS SATA6 connector. I remember reading that you do NOT want to install the Marvell SATA drivers if you are using an SSD that can take TRIM commands. In that case, you want to let Win7's native driver handle the Marvell controller. Apparently, TRIM commands can be sent to the Marvell controller using the native SATA drivers.

Thanks for the info. Did you install the Marvell driver while doing a clean install or after Windows was up and running?

 

[RebateMonger]

I had a chance to speak with a technical person from Intel the other day. I asked him if there was any update on when Intel was going to release motherboards with USB 3.0 connectors. He said 2011 and gave me a reason that I can't repeat.

On the other hand --

Intel Senior Fellow predicts Light Peak to replace USB 3.0:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/04/15/intel-predicts-light-peak-to-replace-usb-3-0/

Of course, it's obvious that Light Peak would likely "replace" USB 3.0 eventually. But Intel's Kevin Kahn says Light Peak will be out in 2011, the same year that Intel says it'll ship USB 3.0. Of course most technical people underestimate how long it'll take to get things into production.

Kevin Kahn's background:
http://www.gildertech.com/public/Telecosm2006/Speakers/Bios/Kahn.htm

 

[her209]

How does USB3 do against SATA 6.0 Gbps?