Test: USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 in comparison

We tested one of the first external USB 3.0 drives, provided by Asus. Are there any differences compared to USB 2.0? Is the price increase justified?

The first computers (fixed and portable) with USB 3.0 connection have started to emerge on the shelves for a few months; At the same time some external hard drives that exploit this new version of the USB also appeared. Asus has provided us with a 2.5-inch portable hard drive with 500GB capacity and USB 3.0 connection; We tested it together with the Asus N71J laptop, one of the first to mount a USB 3.0 port. The disc is unfortunately a test sample, not intended for sale; You will not be able to find it in the shops, but it lends itself well to make some preliminary tests.

The hard drive

The USB 3.0 connector is backward compatible with the USB 2.0, both the Hard Disk side (it is possible to use micro USB cables), and the part of the cable supplied in

Inside the case we find a Seagate momentus 7200.4 ST9500420AS 500GB and 7200 RPM, with 16MB cache and SATA interface 3.0 GB/s. It will not then be as high as a 3.5 inch model, but it is without a doubt one of the fastest available.

The test

To maintain a certain homogeneity in the results, we have performed the tests exclusively with the handset supplied by Asus (except try the disc even on a fixed USB 2.0 PC, by ascertaining that the performance is actually almost identical). In this way we were able to test the USB 3.0 speed against USB 2.0 while maintaining the "environmental" conditions.

The laptop mounts an Intel Core i7-720Q (4 x 1, 60GHz), 4GB of RAM, and dual 500GB (not RAID). The operating system is Windows 7 64 bit.

The test ran on an NTFS-formatted blank disk, copying a 10.3 GB file to the disk, and then reading it from the external disk. We performed the test by connecting the drive to both the USB 3.0 port of the handset and to one of the USB 2.0 drives. We then disassembled the disc and connected directly to the ESATA port of the PC. This bypasses the USB 3.0 controller. Here are the results we got.

Conclusions

As you can see, the difference in performance is remarkable. In practical terms, copying a file to this disk with USB 3.0 is an operation that takes almost half the time compared to USB 2.0. In reading performance is even better, due to the fact that it is an operation usually less onerous for the disc. In this case you can read a file in much less than half of the time. With regard to ESATA, the values are substantially identical to those of USB 3.0, with a slight advantage in writing and a slight disadvantage in reading, both negligible values.

The judgement cannot therefore be positive. This new USB 3.0, thanks to the theoretical maximum speed of 5Gbps, can safely supplant both the SATA 2 and the Firewire 800, "Fermi" respectively to 3Gbps and 800Mbps; It remains out of the SATA 3, which should ensure speed of 6Gbps, but the fact that the USB 3.0 is backward compatible with the USB 2.0 makes it a success almost assured. At this point it remains to be solved the bottleneck of the traditional Hard disks, true limit to the attainment of the maximum theoretical speed of the standard, in the hope that solid state memories (SSD) can soon fall (further) of price.

Everything you wanted to know about the USB Type-C, but you were afraid to ask

Good day, Geektimes! Have you heard about the USB Type-C? The very two-sided, fast-fashioned youth, charging the new MacBook, makes the hair smooth and silky, and promises to become a new connection standard for the next ten years?

So, first of all, this is the type of the socket, not the new standard. The standard is called USB 3.1. Second, you need to talk about the new USB standard, and Type-C is just a nice bonus. To understand what the difference is between a USB 3.1 and what is behind Type C, how to charge a full laptop with a USB cable, and what else can I do with the new USB Type-C:

Briefly about the main

USB as standard appeared almost 20 years ago. The first specifications for USB 1.0 were introduced in 1994 and addressed three key issues: the unification of the connector, which connected the expanding hardware PC functions, the simplicity of the user, the high rate of data transfer to and from the device.

Despite the specific advantages of a USB connection in front of PS/2, COM, and LPT ports, the popularity was not immediately reached. The explosive growth of the USB was felt at the beginning of 2000th, with cameras, scanners and printers first connected to it, followed by flash drives.

In 2001, the first commercial implementation of the USB, which we are familiar with: Version 2.0, emerged. We've been enjoying them for the 14th year, and it's relatively simple.

USB 2.0

Any USB 2.0 cable and below has a 4 copper conductor. Two of them are fed, the other two are the data. USB cables (by standard) are strongly oriented: one of the ends must connect to the host (that is, the system that will manage the connection) and is called type-A, the other to the device, it is called type-B. Of course, there are sometimes no cable devices (such as flash drives) at all, the "to host" socket is positioned directly on the board.

There is a special chip on the host side: a USB controller (on a desktop computer, it can be part of system logic, and it may be rendered as an external microcircuit). It is it that initializes the bus, determines the connection speed, the order and schedule of the data packets, but it's all the details. We're most interested in the classic USB-format connectors and connectors.

The most popular connector used by all was the USB Type-A Classic size: It is located on grabs, USB modems, and the ends of the mouse and keyboard wires. Full USB Type-B is slightly less common: printers and scanners are typically connected to this cable. The mini version of USB Type-B is still often used in Kardriderah, digital cameras, and USB hubs. The micro version of the Type-B effort by the European standardization became the de facto most popular socket in the world: all relevant mobile phones, smartphones and tablets (except for one fruit Company) are released with a USB Type-B micro connector.

With USB 2.0, it's more and less clear. The problem with the standard was that there were few two conductors for data transmission, and the specifications developed in the middle of the first decade did not involve the transmission of large currents by power supply chains. External hard drives have suffered the most from such restrictions.

USB 3.0

To improve the performance of the standard, a new USB 3.0 specification was developed which contained the following key differences:

Five additional contacts, four of which provide additional lines of communication;

Increase the maximum bandwidth from 480 Mbps to 5 GB/C;

Increase the maximum current from 500 Ma to 900 MA.

USB type C vs. Lightning and Micro-USB: Apple's future?

There is no doubt that the new MacBook was one of the strengths of this latest presentation of Apple, and around what it offers (and not) have emerged not a few debates, and certainly will emerge more.

The only port that presents the MacBook represents a very controversial decision by Apple: Leaving aside the question of the limitations it poses for users, that solitary port implies a major push in favor of the USB type C, and leaves in A delicate position to technologies such as Thunderbolt and MagSafe. Even the Lightning.

As we are told in 9to5Mac, the USB type C presents some features that make it really interesting. For example:

In its current form, it can transmit up to 100 watts. That's more than the current MagSafe support, including the 85-watt MacBook Pro 15-inch plus USB type C is reversible: Can you someday upload your Mac using your iPad? It doesn't seem like a crazy idea anymore.

The transfer rate of the USB type C is of no less than 10 GB per second, the same as that of the Thunderbolt 1 and faster than that of most SSD. All Thunderbolt configurations except the latest 2.0 are suddenly unnecessary.

The new USB type C reversible will offer full DisplayPort functionality. According to the Association of Electronic Video Standards (VESA), the first devices with USB-C will use the current DisplayPort 1.2 A, which supports 5 ' 4 GB/s per track and resolutions up to 4 K (4096 x 2160) with a rate of images per second of 60 Hz. And this means we'll soon see USB type C that will support the recently announced DisplayPort 1.3 standard, which means up to 8.1 GB/s per track and 5 K screens.

It supports the countless devices with USB, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. Reversible, easy to insert and almost as small as a Lightning connector.