Friday, March 25, 2011

Blazing Fast External Hard Drive

How fast is fast enough when dealing with data transfer? When you’re dealing with backups or copying large files from one drive to another, you can never have too much speed. The new USB 3.0 spec emerged last year. The speed comparison between a USB 2.0 drive and a USB 3.0 drive is staggering. Fortunately, the costs have dropped and adding a USB 3.0 external hard drive to your computer has become an attractive idea.

USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 Speed Comparison

The leap in throughput was as substantial in USB 3.0 as it was between USB 1.0 and 2.0. With the newer USB 3.0 specification topping out near 5 Gbps, it is faster than the wired computer networks in most homes.
USB Speed Comparison chart
USB Speed Comparison chart
USB 1.0 speeds are 1.5 Mbps
USB 2.0 speeds are 480 Mbps
USB 3.0 speeds are 4800 Mbps

Investing In USB 3.0

Because the standard is relatively new, your computer may not have a USB 3.0 card installed. Motherboards will eventually ship with USB 3.0 on-board, but if your computer only has the older USB 2.0, then you’ll need to purchase a USB 3.0 card. The cable is also different. So there will be some investment costs in upgrading, but the price is minimal in comparison to the huge performance boost you’ll get after upgrading.
USB 3.0 hard driveUSB 3.0 Hard Drive
This USB 3.0 hard drive from Buffalo is said to out-perform internal hard drives. It is an external drive and would be great for moving massive amounts of data back and forth between computers or even just being used as a standard backup hard drive. It is backward compatible with USB 2.0, but you will want to invest in the USB 3.0 card to get the maximum performance. As with most external hard drives, this model also ships with its own cable, so you will not need to purchase the new USB 3.0 cable.
Buffalo Technology DriveStation 1 TB SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive
View Other USB 3.0 hard drives

USB 3.0 cardUSB 3.0 PCI-Express
This Buffalo Technologies USB 3.0 card will enable your computer to get the full 4800 Mbps speeds out of your new USB 3.0 hard drive. You must have a PCI-Express port on your motherboard to install this, so make sure your motherboard has that expansion capability before purchasing. The card comes with a driver disk and is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Buffalo Technology DriveStation SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCI Express
View other USB 3.0 cards
In Conclusion
As file sizes and hard drives get larger and larger, the time it takes to backup and copy data will increase. Having a USB 3.0 hard drive in your computer will eventually become a necessity. If you deal with a lot of files, or are into movie and photo editing, upgrading to a faster hard drive is paramount in maintaining a productive work environment.

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