USB 3 HDD back up unit for an older PC ? yes/no ?

[herbeapuce]

HI. newbie here..

My PC is about 7 years old. it works fine for my needs

I dont' think it has a USB 3 , it does have many USB ports.

my main HDD is connected with Sata.

now for back up , there is a portable HDD 1tb with USB3 and USB 2 on sale now...

what do I have to do/buy so I can use it as a USB3 , so it'd be faster ?

thank you

stef. Montreal.

 

[goombawaho]

You could use the drive as-is, but it will only run at USB 2.0 speeds (assuming your PC has USB 2.0 and is NOT old enough to only have USB 1.1) You might save the money and save it for a new computer with USB 3.0 The backup will still run/complete.


OR buy one of these

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

If you don't have a PCI-E slot, choose one of these PCI cards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815165003

 

[herbeapuce]

thank you very much for your help.

my pc has ubs2. the motherboard was a top one back then :

DFI nF4 Ultra-D

 

[herbeapuce]

another question.

I think I need to know if the adapters :

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

connect to what size pci Express?

PCI Express x16 or PCI Express x4 or PCI Express x1

??

thanks
stef

 

[vacunita]

I believe the Encore ENLUH-302 is a PCIe x1 interface.

Though I'd question whether or not you really have PCIe slots.

At 7 years old I think your pretty much in the threshold of when PCIe slots started being included on MBs.

If you know the make and model of your Motherboard we could tell you for certain whether it has any PCIe slots or not.



----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

 

[herbeapuce]

thank you !



my Mobo (DFI nF4 Ultra-D) has 2 pcie x16 and one each pcie x4 and x1

Best regards

stef.

 

[rclarke250]

He did say it was a DFI nF4 ultra-d...so it's a Lan Party board, here are the specs:
The LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D is a socket 939 motherboard for Athlon 64/FX CPUs that uses the Nvidia nForce4 Ultra chipset and supports 2000/1600 MT/s FSB. Features 4 DDR DIMM slots 2 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1 1 PCI-E x4 and 2 PCI-E x16 slots (for x8, x8 SLI mode support). It also features integrated audio and Ultra DMA 66/100/133.

 

[vacunita]

Missed that at the end of his second post. Anyway the card then can be used on the board.

Though unless he is transferring really really large files, I doubt he'll see any noticeable difference between usb 2.0 and usb 3.0 in regular transfers.


----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

 

[goombawaho]

Though unless he is transferring really really large files, I doubt he'll see any noticeable difference between usb 2.0 and usb 3.0 in regular transfers.

That's why I was saying just not to worry about getting up to USB 3.0 speeds and go with 2.0 until the PC is retired.