- 1. Superspeed USB is Finally Here
- 2. ASUS N61Jq-X1
- 3. Western Digital MyBook 3.0 (1 TB)
1. Superspeed USB is Finally Here
USB 3.0 has been lurking in the shadows for quite some time, but it’s finally here. Slowly but surely, computers with USB 3.0 onboard are beginning to come out of hiding and land at retailers, as are new external hard drives and accessories.
To see how speedy this new USB spec really is, Tom's Guide snatched up the N61Jq-X1, a multimedia entertainment laptop from ASUS. This latest entry in the N61 series has USB 3.0 built-in, and ASUS boasts that it is 10 times faster than USB 2.0. To test how fast USB 3.0 really is, we paired the N61Jq-X1 with two USB 3.0-equipped external hard drives: a 500 GB BlackArmor PS 110 from Seagate and a 1 TB MyBook 3.0 from Western Digital. The former uses a 2.5" drive, while the MyBook is a 3.5" drive. Both drives spin at 7200 rpm.
Before we get down to the numbers, let’s talk about USB 3.0. What’s the big deal? Well, besides arriving nearly a decade after USB 2.0 launched, 3.0 is supposed to be able to reach speeds 10 times that of USB 2.0—in other words, a rate of 5 Gb/s compared to 480 Mb/s. This results in theoretical data transfer speeds in excess of 400 MB/sec. Also, USB 3.0 sends over twice as much power to whatever it’s charging, so your next USB-powered MP3 player will only need to charge for maybe 30 minutes instead of an hour. Lastly, USB 3.0 is more efficient because the ports can go into a power-saving idle mode when not in use. All of this is well and good, especially the transfer speeds, but only when we test USB 3.0 between the two external hard drives and the N61Jq-X1 will we find out how fast the new spec really is.
- 1. Superspeed USB is Finally Here
- 2. ASUS N61Jq-X1
- 3. Western Digital MyBook 3.0 (1 TB)
- 4. Seagate BlackArmor PS 110 (500 GB)
- 5. Conclusion: USB 3.0 at Home and On the Go
I'd have to say that the laptop has really good value. I'd love if I could win the contest, but it's too bad it's only eligible for people in the US.
Go the extra mile and compare these to eSATA solutions, please! Will USB 3 be an improvement over eSATA?
Not too impressive. Considering USB 3.0 is supposed to be x10 compared with USB 2.0, why is it only achieving x2 throughput?
It is definitely not the drive as a bottleneck- I have 2 bog-standard 1 TB Hitachi drives- one as internal sata and 1 as esata (they both have the same contents) when tested by ATTO benchmark the write/read speeds for the eSATA is 100/104 MB/s and the iSATA gives 80/100 MB/S. Im not sure why the isata write speed is slower than the esata, but both greatly exceed the USB3.0 speeds reported here.
BTW: when the disk is connected by USB2.0 it gives speeds of around 25-28 MB/s and the two disks tested by HDTach max at around 110 MB/s with bursts of around 160MB/s
Go the extra mile and compare these to eSATA solutions, please! Will USB 3 be an improvement over eSATA?
I was wondering the same thing. I use my external hard drive over eSATA and it is not even close to the maximum eSATA throughput of 3.0 Gbps. I don't think this will be a big improvement (or any at all), unless you use SSDs that don't even exist yet.
The drive inside of the enclosure is probably running SATA, with an adapter to convert to USB, so the USB 3 probably can't be any faster than SATA.
I want that laptop in the worst way. It's $999 on Amazon too.
I guess the 5730 is not really all that fast?
It only gets 5,900 something on 3DMark06. My Alienware m15x with 9800GT hits 9800 on 3dMark06 and with a slight OC over 10,000.
Can't wait until SATA 6 drives (especially SSD) get down to where my wife stops threatening to empty the knife drawer at me for mentioning the word "hardware".
Wierd, i own this laptop and get ~8000ish in 3dmark 06 as do the other people on newegg and in the asus forums. Also most of us recieved 1333 ram with the laptop instead of 1066.
The qualifying questions has some funny answers, I was really tempted to answer all wrong
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Since 500 GB is the largest size available inside notebooks today (without using two drives in RAID, of course), the PS 110 is the perfect candidate for an automatic backup drive paired to a laptop.
Funny that because I put a WD 750Gb 2.5" drive in my sister's laptop last year. OK so it's 12mm high - but it's still a 2.5" form factor. I didn't have any problems installing it (no need for a hacksaw). The WD Velociraptor I have at 15mm high might be pushing things a bit!! Sorry for being so pedantic...
Funny that because I put a WD 750Gb 2.5" drive in my sister's laptop last year. OK so it's 12mm high - but it's still a 2.5" form factor. I didn't have any problems installing it (no need for a hacksaw). The WD Velociraptor I have at 15mm high might be pushing things a bit!! Sorry for being so pedantic...
::crowd groans::
Let's be serious, you know what I mean when I am talking about a 2.5-inch drive in an external - I am talking about a notebook hard drive. However, I am actually wrong...I forgot that Samsung and WD have 640 GB notebook drives out now.
::crowd groans::Let's be serious, you know what I mean when I am talking about a 2.5-inch drive in an external - I am talking about a notebook hard drive. However, I am actually wrong...I forgot that Samsung and WD have 640 GB notebook drives out now.
Actually, you can buy WD's WD10TPVT (1TB) notebook drive right now on Amazon.
Not too impressive. Considering USB 3.0 is supposed to be x10 compared with USB 2.0, why is it only achieving x2 throughput? It is definitely not the drive as a bottleneck-...
It is. I'll guess that the BlackArmor is using a Momentus 7200.2. Here are the specs.
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=412
For the price of that laptop , I would rather buy a M1 Garand or a shotgun or alot of lapdances and beer at the strip club!!!