Best USB choice for large external drive?

[okieman]

I'm thinking of getting a ! to 2 Terabyte external USB drive for storage and back ups. My PC is pretty fast and has lots of RAM, etc. The only problem is that when I bought the internal D drive, I never thought I woulde fill the 275 GB with data. So I want to move non-essential data to the external. The only thing I'm not clear on is whether to go with USB 2 or USB 3. I understand I can utilize either with and add-in card. Given my usage plans, will USB 3 have any significant advantages over USB 2? Enough to justify the extra cost? Any drawbacks?

 

[BadBigBen]

will USB 3 have any significant advantages over USB 2?

USB3 has faster transfer-rates than USB2...

The benchmarks and real-world scenarios clearly illustrate that USB 3.0 is faster across the board, sometimes by nearly 900%

source: USB 3.0 Flash Drive Roundup

though it talks about FLASH MEMORY (USB sticks), it still does apply to other external USB storage, though not at that speed...

a question, if I may, do you have an eSATA port? if so, why not take a look at eSATA storage (you can even hook up a loose drive to the eSATA port provided you also have a power source)...

for example:
Thermaltake BlacX ST0005U External Hard Drive SATA Enclosure Docking Station 2.5” & 3.5” USB 2.0 & eSATA

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153071

the above is a docking station, all you need to do is plop in a drive and switch it on...




Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[FredWagner]

If there's a chance you might have more than one PC in your home/office (a laptop?), you might consider a NAS (Network Attached Storage) box with the capacity you need. Some even have the option of connecting a second drive via USB. Price is not that much higher than a plain USB external drive.

Fred Wagner

 

[okieman]

My internal drives are connected to the motherboard with SATA cables, but there's no port to the outside. I'm intrigued by your suggestion, but at this point pretty much considering only USB 3 solutions.

 

[okieman]

Well I ordered a Western Digital 2 TB USB 3.0.

Now all I've got to do is figure out how to pick the right USB 3.0 add-in card. Not a ton of info online unfortunately.

 

[kjv1611]

Yeah, USB 3.0 has been available for a little while now, but still not mainstream. So it'll be harder finding it until it does become mainstream. I'd suppose that in another 6 months to a year, tops, it should be easier to find add-in cards for that.

 

[kjv1611]

One thing to keep in mind that I didn't think about. In some ways, you'll be more limited in what you can use for an add-in card. The bandwidth of a single USB 3 port is so high that PCI is worthless for it, and on say a PCI Express X1, it's not like you can truly support more than a couple anyway.

 

[paparazi]

As long as you board has a PCIe slot...something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815153013

martin

On wings like angels whispers sweet
my heart it feels a broken beat
Touched soul and hurt lay wounded deep
Brown eyes are lost afar and sleep

 

[stduc]

For what it's worth - at the moment, in practise USB 3 seems to be about 2 1/2 times faster than USB 2 - but it looks like the future so a USB3 drive will potentially have a longer useful life than a USB 2 drives and will presumably be able to take advantage of any speed gains on any future computer you buy?