Published: Monday 28th September, 2009 | Author: Parm Mann
Products: DriveStation HD-HXU3
Companies: Buffalo Technology (All Buffalo Technology content)
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email to a friendBuffalo Technology has today announced what it claims will be the first to market SuperSpeed USB 3.0 external hard drive in the form of the DriveStation HD-HXU3.
The drive, pictured above, will be available in 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB capacities, and promises SuperSpeed transfer speeds of up to 125MB/s. That's still a long way from saturating the available bandwidth (around 400MB/s after protocol overhead), but it's a start.
If the drive's black glossy exterior looks familiar, it should, as we pictured it being used to demonstrate the potential of USB 3.0 at last week's IDF. As mentioned previously, we're expecting a lengthy wait for widespread USB 3.0 support in terms of both hardware and software. However, those wanting to make the most of the SuperSpeed interface can do so with Buffalo's USB 3.0 controller - the IFC-PCIE2U3 - also announced today.
There's no mention of pricing just yet, and despite claiming to be "first to market", Buffalo's launch date for both the drive and controller simply states the fourth quarter of 2009.
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USB 3.0 is as pointless as the new Sata 6GB/S i honestly dont know why they do it.
I'm sure people said the same about USB 2 when that came around because "mice don't use that bandwidth" and external hard drives weren't really using USB at the time... then hey presto things started to need it and it enhanced all our computing lives. Seriously USB 3 is a GOOD THING - it's called progress, and only a total doughnut wouldn't see that.
External hard drives are bottlenecked by USB 2 at around 30MB/s, even 2.5" drives can do better than that - eSATA hasn't really taken off and isn't that widespread (mostly because it's single purpose IMHO - multiple "holes" on a PC just confuses Joe Public). USB is THE standard connector that everyone knows, and a new revision which brings more speed is welcome, and in the next year we will start to see most new PCs equipped with it and PCIe cards to upgrade older machines. It's backwards compatible to avoid confusion as well.
Then we can all enjoy much faster external storage, to match our faster internal drives and keep pace with the expanding size of files in our media collections. I'm also fairly certain other uses, such as HD video transmission etc will also show upQuote
Pointless for now, but I think they will both come in handy.
USB 3.0 for faster external HDD's etc.
SATA 6Gb/s for SSD's, which may (hopefully) become too fast for SATA-II. SSD's already do 250MB/s, close to the max of SATA-II.
SATA 3 is relevant NOW with SSDs, the higher burst speed is very useful and it opens up the potential for connecting faster drives which currently have to use PCI-E to the SATA ports, there is also some additional controller functions.
Maybe that sort of thing is out of the price range of most desktop users for a couple of years, but it will have an impact in the high end enterprise space for sure.Quote
Also advance the techno in devices like webcams, which i believe have become transfer rate bound.Quote
USB3 comes with greater built in power supply allowing 7,200RPM drives to be USB powered removing the need for the extra power supply.
I didn't know that, would this apply to USB 3.0 PCIe expansion cards, or is it just for motherboard's with built-in USB3.0 connectors.
I'm just wondering if PCIe slots have enough wattage, because I'm getting a non-USB 3.0 motherboard soon, so I'll have to use an expansion card when USB 3.0 becomes mainstream.Quote
it's called progress, and only a total doughnut wouldn't see that.
Attn Berliners: stay calm...he doesn't mean you.Quote
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