USB3 pretty sweet

[Lope]

I'm pushing the USB3 big time. It will prob overtake E-SATA in popularity.
Just installed my first USB3 host card, a Sunix 2 port USB3 PCI-E card (NEC chipset). Running a 2TB ext drive.
Very Lekker!

It even works in XP64! always nice, cos XP64 drivers can be scarce.
With the much lower CPU usage (no need for polling), bi-directional architecture, increased power and ofcourse high speed, it eliminates USB2's problems and makes USB a truely awesome universal bus.
The only thing is I wish they had also implemented another high voltage rail, 48V providing a decent amount of power, like power over ethernet (51W).

Interested to hear other experiences with this long awaited tech.

 

[louisvd]

What did the card and the housing cost you? Isn't USB3 kinda pricey?

 

[Lope]

USB3 pricing is not bad at all. Much cheaper to get a USB3 card than a new USB3 mobo etc. (unless already building a new PC, depending)
I'm a hardware dealer.
Selling these these in a bundle, USB3 card + enclosure + 2TB drive for R1,550.
I really like them. Good build quality, solid, but lightweight. Also comes with a little lightweight 12v 2A power adapter.

If you're interested its prob the last day I could organize (if at all), til the 3rd of Jan or so (in CT). I'm not parting with mine

 

[killadoob]

So what speed does it transfer at?

 

[sal12344]

Its us JMicrom USB chipset, does not work with USB 3.0 Hubs. Get a Vantec enclosure, they work. Before I get flamed, I have 4 Different Hubs, 3 different brands of USB 3.0 cards (all NEC chipset though) and 4 different types of enclosures.

 

[Lope]

You #&(%^&*%#(
JK

How do you check the enclosure chipset?
Did you get the hubs locally?
When you connect it to the USB3 hub does it work at all? Does it work in a USB2 hub?
I've sold the Vantec USB3 enclosures before, I like them a lot. I've got a USB2/E-SATA Vantec enclosure here. I like their builtin power management. Very solid beasts. They are a lot heavier though and cost around R100 more.
Maybe future USB3 hubs will support the JMicron chipset. With USB3 in its infancy I don't really see it being an issue for most users just yet, but I'm glad you've told me, I will pass this info on when offering these enclosures. When looking at USB3 hubs online about a month ago I saw people complaining certain devices weren't playing nicely with them, I haven't bothered with USB3 hubs yet.
Hopefully this kind of stuff will get sorted out, like when DVDs first came out, there were all these diff incompatible standards, which were eventually all supported by all manufacturers ('Super multi DVD' etc).

I've just googled JMicron USB3 hub. I found this, it looks like it was a linux problem in his case, which was a software issue that he sorted out.
What OS and which hubs did you test the enclosure with? Could be a driver problem.

Your controller may have had old drivers. I installed the driver that came on the CD, and its
NEC Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller nusb3xhc.sys version 1.0.17.0 10/26/2009
A new driver came out 3 days ago, I'm downloading the new NEC USB 3.0 driver from Sunix 2010-12-21 Ver.2.0.32.0
I'm not sure about this driver... its digitally signed and the card installs fine (XP64), the name changes to Reneas (instead of NEC). But then HDD won't detect with the new driver. So I rolled back the driver.
Ah well, if it aint broke, don't fix it. I'll try the next driver, they seem to be releasing them pretty frequently.
Only an issue if you need a hub (according to sal12344).

sal12344:
I'd be interested to see if you try the new drivers with your cards, to see if the JMicron HDD controller works with any of your hubs.
Plz give details, cards, drivers, hubs and OS.

Driver details:
It looks like they've updated the driver at least 10 times.
Weird, its got a different name. RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-20320-setup.exe
I just right click uninstalled my USB controller in DevMgr, then installed the above EXE.
Now in the DevMgr instead of NEC Electronics its called Reneas Electronics.
The actual driver file has the same name as before though. nusb3xhc.sys
The date shows 12/10/2010 but the version 2.0.32.0 is the same as what Sunix's site says.
It looks like the driver was updated on the 10th, was packaged on the 15th, and Sunix got it on the 21st.
Looks like Reneas bought NEC or the chip or something: 'Former NEC Electronics USB Home'

 

[Lope]

killadoob:
speeds are good, Max 120, Min 61, Avg 101 MB/s with HDTune (tests from the outer to the inner edge)
HDTach shows 130max, 70 Min, 106 Avg.

Ahhh, I've found the advantage E-SATA has over USB3.... Access time. Access time is 37ms!
Whereas my E-SATA 1.5TB (Vantec Enclosure) does 15.5ms.

The other advantage I forgot to mention earlier (and why USB3 will prob overtake E-SATA) is hubs and running multiple drives off one port. If you can get em to work! hehe

 

[RVQ]

Fortunately for me me both my home PC and work laptop have USB3. Transferring stuff across to the portable gives me a decent 58megs/s. Also cool not have to carry e-sata data, power and usb cables everywhere...

 

[Rudimental]

The other advantage I forgot to mention earlier (and why USB3 will prob overtake E-SATA) is hubs and running multiple drives off one port. If you can get em to work! hehe

You can get eSATA add-on cards that have port multiplyers. Great for connecting to NAS boxes that support it.