damianrobertjones :
[citation][nom]nukemaster[/nom]I would have hoped for some more USB 3 or even thunderbolt at the back. Still looks interestingly overkill[/citation]
I recall all the buzz behind USB back in the day what with daisy-chaining multiple peripherals together in a line. What happened to that? Oh yeah... not a lot. You can hardly buy a stable USB 3 hub these days.
Thunderbolt... Just another mild advance that makes you spend more money for the same crap you already own.
I have just seen FAR to many USB 3 issues such as posts about hard drives disconnecting while transferring, cables not being stable, front ports not working right. I have even had the joy of seeing this first hand.
For instance.
-My first USB 3 board(X58A UD5) is ROCK solid. I have gone as far as 11-12 feet with a cable and it NEVER disconnects. This made me like USB 3.0 it was fast and stable.
-Enter my media center board(H55N-USB3). Anything over 6 feet drops it to USB 2.0 speeds. Again, its stable and that is what counts.
-My Maximus IV Gene-Z will actually disconnect and reconnect over and over on ANY cable over 6 feet and extension of any kind can also cause it(not all extensions either). The front ports are actually a LOST cause(I have got 2 replacement cables from Silverstone[+ the one that came with the case]) and tried some cables from CoolerMaster as well. Asus is 100% behind the board and WILL replace it on a moments notice, but I know the ports work because a super short no-name(ngear) brand 20 pin -> female USB port adapter DOES work(with both my flash drive and external drive on a 3 foot cable.).
Many users say it is cheap cables, bad controllers ect.
Thunerbolts ACTIVE cables should eliminate cable issues like this and are faster(PCI-E also makes for some interesting external video card options for notebook users.). Do I want to spent 2 x the price for a drive enclosure? NO. Do i want a stable connection? YES.
This is just what I had seen on top of countless posts about USB 3.0. I also see all kinds of reviews about hard drives being "BAD"(avoid brand XXX the drives disconnect) and even capture cards disconnecting.
I am 100% sure this will become a problem of the past in a short time as even USB 2.0 had problems when it was first released(but USB 3.0 has been out for a while).
Again, I personally and willing to pay a bit more is it means a more stable device. If Intel can get Thunderbolt to go mainstream, the price will drop.