The Arrival of USB 3.0

When Universal Serial Bus (USB) connectivity was first introduced in mid 90, it becomes an instant hit in the world of PC where many peripherals introduced later are based on USB design. I have not tried any USB 1.1 before, so I never know how USB 1.1 performs, but I did buy one USB 1.1 hub unintentionally couple years ago from store. The transfer speed was awful, I ended up threw the hub away since it was just ridiculous slow. The first real high speed USB interface is USB 2.0. It has a theoretically speed of 480 megabit/second. Most people are wondering, why they are getting 30mb/s instead of 480mb/s. Where is extra speed gone? As a matter of fact, one is 'megabit' while the other one is megabyte. 1 megabit is equal to 0.125 megabyte. So, USB 2.0 theoretical speed should be 60mb/s. In adidition, due to the fact that USB 2.0 is a half duplex, means it allows communication in both directions but only one direction at a time, so it should max out at 30mb/s. Don't worry if you are getting 30mb/s when you are using USB 2.0.

I was pretty excited when USB 3.0 was first introduced couple years back. A promised speed of 5Gbit/s equal to 640 megabyte/s. I thought this will be an instant solution for big files transfer since 1 TB hard drive is such a common storage nowadays and it can be easily filled up with HD contents. In my previous post where I was writing about building a home theatre PC (HTPC), I mentioned the reasons I choose small form factor over ultra-small form factor is due to its upgrade flexibility. As a matter of fact, the empty PCI-express 1x slot is proven to be useful for USB3.0 upgrade.

In order to have USB 3.0 ports, I bought a USB3.0 PCI-express 1x card off Ebay that costs me AUD10. As soon as the package arrives, I install it to my HTPC. 

USB 3.0 PCI-express 1x with normal bracket and low profile bracket.

After installing the express card, it fits comfortably above my ATI HD 6570.

Now, I have two USB 3.0 ports. I am ready for super speed.

After the driver is installed, I can't wait to do a test run. I recorded a burst speed of 95megabyte/s and a stable transfer speed of 57megabyte/s. Well, that's actually quite disappointed as I was expecting a stable transfer speed over 100megabyte/s.  

Disappointed transfer speed.

Having read some of the online comments. I realize that 650megabyte/s is a theoretical speed but not a realistic speed. The speed is usually bottlenecked by hard drive reading and writing speed. So, a maximum transfer speed should be around 80-100megabyte/s and It is common to have a transfer speed around 60megabyte/s.

Despite an overall improved performance over USB2.0. I feel USB3.0 is more of a hype than actual performance boost. At least at this stage, actual USB3.0 speed is bottlenecked by hardware. USB3.0 is not all about speed, but rather better power management that potentially useful for power-hungry USB peripherals.