Freerunner
Member
I've noticed that more and more external back-up drives are advertising USB 3.0. Is there an advantage of this over 2.0? I don't have a lot to back up; mostly Microsoft Office stuff. Would it make a difference for me?
USB 2.0 vs 3.0?
- Thread starter Freerunner
- Start date
TrainTrackHack
VIP Member
No.
Your computer has to support USB 3.0 as well, otherwise the drive is going to work at 2.0 speeds. And even if your computer supports it, you'll only really notice a significant increase in sequential read/write operations (read: handling really big files, a hundred MB or so and upwards). For office documents, you'll most likely notice no performance increase at all.
Drenlin
Active Member
As far as the interface itself goes, USB 3.0 is roughly ten times as fast as USB 2.0. It can also supply more power, and transfer data over larger distances.
In the context of a hard drive, as long as the drive enclosure, cable, and computer support USB 3.0, it'll be faster. Like they said, though, you won't notice a large difference with small documents since they transfer nearly instantly anyway. If you're transferring large amounts of data, though, it'll be a hell of a lot faster. (for example, if you're backing up a large folder)
In the context of a hard drive, as long as the drive enclosure, cable, and computer support USB 3.0, it'll be faster. Like they said, though, you won't notice a large difference with small documents since they transfer nearly instantly anyway. If you're transferring large amounts of data, though, it'll be a hell of a lot faster. (for example, if you're backing up a large folder)
Last edited:
Aastii
VIP Member
Smaller hard drives don't need power cords, but your larger ones still will do, they don't supply THAT much power. When we start getting larger SSD drives that start to go out to the external market though, then it will be taken out, because SSD drives use so little power anyway