Any point in waiting for USB 3.0 support by motherboard?

[Gdareos]

I've seen that a new ASUS motherboard (p7p..... -E for 'extreme' )
offers USB 3.0 support, so I assume there will be a torrent of
motherboards that will do so as well.

Is there any point in waiting for the USB 3.0 suppor t (I need to
upgrade fairly soon)? If I buy another motherboard, will there be a
USB 3.0 controller that uses a PCIe slot?

Thanks,
George

[Anssi Saari]

Gdareos <gDareos_at_la_louisiane.com> writes:

Those are already available (or at least announced and press has
tested units), at least from Nec and the U3S6 from Asus. It has a pair
of SATA 6.0 connectors too.

Generally speaking, there may be a big market for the USB 3.0 chips
and cards, since apparently Intel won't integrate USB3 in their
chipset before 2011. Assuming it takes off, of course. It really
should, USB2 has been limiting external HD speeds for years already.

[DevilsPGD]

In message <vg33a3y...@pepper.modeemi.cs.tut.fi> Anssi Saari

If people really cared, there would be more of a push toward eSATA
rather than relying on USB2. Personally, I'd expect to see USB3 remain
fairly niche until it finds it's way into chipsets.

[Charlie Hoffpauir]

eSATA seems amazingly flakey compared to either SATA or USB or even
Firewire.

[Ken]

On Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:15:20 -0600, Charlie Hoffpauir
<inv...@invalid.com> wrote:

> eSATA seems amazingly flakey compared to either SATA or USB
> or even Firewire.

eSATA are the same as SATA. Only another connector.

[Charlie Hoffpauir]

Not really since I expect to be able to connect, disconnect, and
reconnect external devices ( USB and Firewire). The trouble is, that
you are right, eSATA is just the same as SATA with a different
connector. The real question is, why use a different connector if the
interface is unchanged?

[Paul]

http://buffalo.nas-central.org/index.php/Hardware_Hacks_for_the_LS_Pro

"...eSATA connector. This connector is designed to withstand
5000 plug/unplug cycles while the standard SATA connector is
designed to only withstand 50 cycles."

The ESATA connector has a longer service life.

Paul

[DevilsPGD]

In message <v5f3h5tvnbh96ad1o...@4ax.com> Charlie

Hoffpauir <inv...@invalid.com> was claimed to have wrote:

>On Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:26:03 +0100, Ken <ke...@telia.com> wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:15:20 -0600, Charlie Hoffpauir
>><inv...@invalid.com> wrote:
>>
>>> eSATA seems amazingly flakey compared to either SATA or USB
>>> or even Firewire.
>>
>>eSATA are the same as SATA. Only another connector.
>>
>Not really since I expect to be able to connect, disconnect, and
>reconnect external devices ( USB and Firewire).

Yeah, there are a lot of really crappy SATA controllers out there.
Internal or external, SATA was designed from the start to be
hotpluggable, and with a decent controller and driver, it should be
fairly seamless.

However, this often requires the SATA controller to be in AHCI mode
rather than legacy/IDE emulation mode, and that has special driver
requirements on legacy operating systems.

The upside is that you get virtually no overhead (as compared to USB,
which has a huge amount of packet overhead and other complexity to
support the other functionality that USB offers)

>The trouble is, that
>you are right, eSATA is just the same as SATA with a different
>connector. The real question is, why use a different connector if the
>interface is unchanged?

The connectors are physically incompatible (although electrically
compatible) to encourage people to use properly shielded cables,
internal SATA cables have significant cable length limitations that
would impede eSATA's usefulness.

Also, as the other poster mentioned, eSATA connectors are designed to be
unplugged many times over their lifespan.

Lastly, the connector is deeper, making it more difficult to
accidentally pull the connector out.

[greysky]

"DevilsPGD" <Death...@crazyhat.net> wrote in message
news:i194h5pj1aava9ra1...@4ax.com...

Sometimes a deeper connecter isn't something good to have... I made the
mistake of leaving my USB turntable connected to my computer over the
thanksgiving holiday. Some young cousins, being where they shouldn't be, got
tangled up in the usb cord. The cord didn't pull out of the computer, but
was destroyed, along with the USB connecter in my computer case... it's all
just a smushed up mess... luckily, I have other USB connecters, and the end
of the cord that was plugged into the turntable did pull out before the
entire soundsystem was knocked off the table... sheesh... cousins... :-)