USB 3.0 Hard Drives
Designed for today with tomorrow in mind
USB 3.0 is here. When connected to a USB 3.0 port you can access and save files up to 3 times faster than USB 2.0. *
Top brands such as Western Digital, Samsung and Iomega have introduced portable hard drives offering dual USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatibility. This allows you to use the hard drive's backward compatibility with USB 2.0 now, and step up to USB 3.0 speed when you're ready.
* Performance may vary based on user's hardware and system configuration. You'll need a PC with a USB 3.0 port for the best performance.
Click here to view our full range of USB 3.0 hard drives
Click here to view our full range of USB 3.0 hard drives
USB 3 achieves higher performance due to the additional physical bus that is added in parallel with the existing USB 2 bus. This means that where USB 2previously had four wires, USB 3 adds four more. These extra four wires are necessary to support the USB 3 target bandwidth requirements. USB 3 also uses a bi-directional data interface rather than USB 2s half-duplex arrangement, where data can only flow in one direction at a time. This all combines to give a ten-fold increase in theoretical bandwidth.
The enhancements to USB 3 are not just for higher data rates, but for improving the interaction between the device and the computer.
- More power when needed
- Less power when it's not needed
- Streaming for bulk transfers is supported for faster performance
- Devices can communicate new information such as their latency tolerance to the host, which allows better power performance
USB 3 has been carefully planned to work nicely alongside USB 2. While USB 3 has new physical connections and new cables to take advantage of the higher speed capability, the connector itself is still the same rectangular shape with the four USB 2contacts in the same place as before.
