I plan on purchasing an iMac in the next couple days and was wondering is USB 3.0 really important? Will there be some type of way us current 2.0 users get 3.0? Also is there anything else new coming soon?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Is USB 3.0 really important?
- Thread starter ronaldcastillo
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Depends on what you do. It isn't useful unless you have bunch of external drives that have USB 3.0. USB 2.0 still does everything what 3.0 does but slower
No way to get 3.0 if your iMac currently only has 2.0...the only Mac that will have the ability to upgrade is the Pro
I halted and debated myself over USB 3.0 before ordering the new iMac also.
cause of the way high price of apple products..
I thought if USB 3.0 or next gen. firewire came out..
to save cost I would by a CTO iMac with only one SSD drive and buy external HDD to hook up for data storage.
but it didnt'...
so i went for SSD + 2TB. (cost hell of alot.. but ohwell..)
My point is.. unless you 'often' need to transfer 'huge data' to external devices (ex. external HDD or ODD etc.) you wouldn't miss it.
as for short data transfer devices such as for printers, USB memory, etc. USB 2.0 is still good enough~!
maybe syncing iPod or iphone via USB 3.0 in the future will be faster..
but i'm guessing we will get the 'wireless sync via wifi' by then!!
__________________________
15' Macbook Pro (early '08)
iPhone 3GS 32G
cause of the way high price of apple products..
I thought if USB 3.0 or next gen. firewire came out..
to save cost I would by a CTO iMac with only one SSD drive and buy external HDD to hook up for data storage.
but it didnt'...
so i went for SSD + 2TB. (cost hell of alot.. but ohwell..)
My point is.. unless you 'often' need to transfer 'huge data' to external devices (ex. external HDD or ODD etc.) you wouldn't miss it.
as for short data transfer devices such as for printers, USB memory, etc. USB 2.0 is still good enough~!
maybe syncing iPod or iphone via USB 3.0 in the future will be faster..
but i'm guessing we will get the 'wireless sync via wifi' by then!!
__________________________
15' Macbook Pro (early '08)
iPhone 3GS 32G
You should use your precious FW port(s) for external HDD's. Sure you pay a little premium for the interface, but its worth it over USB 2.0 while everyone waits for USB 3.0.
Hopefully soon someone will come up with USB 3 drivers for Mac. I am not buying an iMac this time round as whats the point of having all that processor power when any useful drive speed is limited to the internal hdd. FW800 aint gonna cut it really and only one port
I have purchased a MacBook Pro 17 instead and am eagerly awaiting USB 3 support so I can use a USB 3 expresscard. Until then I'll do ok with my esata expresscard and 100mb sec write speeds. It is so unfortunate that Apple keeps features from Mac users that are common place in PC land. No esata No USB 3 No blu-ray is only a big bag of hurt for Mac users... If things keep up like this, this will be my last Mac. Give us a few fast data connection ports and a F'in BR optical drive U bastards........
I have a PC with USB3 & an external harddrive (2Tb) that is USB3... I can copy gigabyites in mere seconds. My movie collection was copied in a couple of minutes... something that'd take 30min or more on regular USB2. I'm waiting for when they come with USB3 to make the move.
USB 3.0 isn't standard in PC mobos yet so I wouldn't be too disappointed. All it means is that Apple is following trends not setting them. The problem is that you'll have to buy an entirely new computer when USB 3.0 becomes mainstream as opposed to inserting a card into a PC mobo.
EDIT: Im just surprised apple hasen't put an eSATA port on the new iMacs.
EDIT: Im just surprised apple hasen't put an eSATA port on the new iMacs.
60MB/s though real world performance is around 40MB/s. Most SSDs have read speed of +250MB/s. You gain the latency of SSD but you can't take the full advantage of it. FW800 is better but still only 80MB/s in real world
I have an eSATA port on my hackintosh and I'm not all that impressed with it. Hard drive performance in only about 10% faster (but I'm sure an external SSD would benefit) than FW800 in my benchmarks. My eSATA drives are a hassle to deal with because you have to plug in both a power cable and a data cable (2.5" FW drives are powered from the bus), it's only useful for disc drives (and not video cameras), and eSATA cannot be daisy chained (unlike FW). eSATA cables are also a pain in the @$$ to orient because they don't have conspicuously asymmetrical plugs. FW is much more flexible.
That may be but I still think Mac users should have the choice of being able to use it.
It would be interesting to know if their iMac logic board's controller can have that many SATA connections. I had assumed it only had two (internal HD and DVD drive), but now it must have at least three (for the SSD). I don't know how Apple thinks sometimes, which is why I have two hackintoshes.
Hopefully soon someone will come up with USB 3 drivers for Mac. I am not buying an iMac this time round as whats the point of having all that processor power when any useful drive speed is limited to the internal hdd. FW800 aint gonna cut it really and only one port
You can daisy-chain FW devices, so having the one port isn't a real limitation.
There is at least one extra port for SSD. That was confirmed by OWC who disassembled the non-SSD iMac. The chipset supports up to 6 ports.
There was a time in the early days of Apple when I took pride in having products from a cutting edge, though small and comparatively expensive, technology company. So I would have loved for Apple o put USB 3, or esata, or hdmi, and or any of several other things that put it on that edge. So usb 3 is not that important from the stand point of devices that are ready to play with it, but for me more from the perspective of being the leader in new technology. Apple for me sadly has not been this for a long time.
It depends, if you have an external USB 3.0 drive, it will perform the same as an internal drive.. So data transfer is much faster, and your not bottlenecked like USB 2.0.
Also faster read and write speeds with SATA 3.0 (6GB/s).. Too bad apple did not adopt USB 3.0 or SATA 3.0..
Also faster read and write speeds with SATA 3.0 (6GB/s).. Too bad apple did not adopt USB 3.0 or SATA 3.0..