USB 3.1 Tested: Performance On MSI's X99A Gaming 9 ACK

[cangelini]

We got our hands on the first USB 3.1-capable motherboard, MSI's X99A Gaming 9 ACK, and ASMedia's ASM1352R-equipped developer board for some early benchmarks with two striped SSDs and an ultra-fast thumb drive.

USB 3.1 Tested: Performance On MSI's X99A Gaming 9 ACK : Read more

 

[Tom Delco]

I remember when Thomas Pabst, founder of TomsHardware.com, called USB the "useless serial bus!" Man, was he wrong. Some guys have no vision!
Tom DelConte

 

[Eggz]

Always stoked for better interfaces. As the wise Kool-Aid Man would say, "Oooooh yeah!"

 

[jtd871]

Would it kill you to use consistent units for reporting results?! The 1st two charts on page 2 are MB/s while the third is time (seconds). I understand that it's easier to report the time for the file copy, but it wouldn't have been too difficult to calculate and report an approximate average transfer rate.

 

[qlum]

I think getting a faster usb3.1 port in the rear while having 3 sets of similar looking ports with different speeds is bound to cause confusion so unless you permanently have a fast device plugged into the fastest point Id say its a waste. Personally I use 1/2 usb 3 devices max and usually in the front which I regularly switch out so really quite useless in most cases.

 

[razor512]

When are going to see USB 3.1 external 3.5 inch floppy drives?

 

[RedJaron]

When are going to see USB 3.1 external 3.5 inch floppy drives?

I'd say they'll come about the same time we get Firewire ZIP disk drives.

 

[dstarr3]

Does USB 3.1 address the issue that 3.0 has with wireless receiver interference?

 

[SteelCity1981]

usb 3.1 will be a slow adaption. heck usb 2.0 still floods the market let alone usb 3.0. it's been what in the past year that we are finally starting to se usb 30 start to become the norm in devices now????

 

[RedJaron]

usb 3.1 will be a slow adaption. heck usb 2.0 still floods the market let alone usb 3.0. it's been what in the past year that we are finally starting to se usb 30 start to become the norm in devices now????

That's largely due to consumer realities. USB3 only makes sense when transferring massive data loads. What devices actually need to do that? Mass storage, and that's it. Now compare storage devices to the number of every other USB device available. Your keyboards and mice still operate at USB 1.1. Printers, scanners, and office peripherals are still on 2.0 ( some possibly still on 1.1, ) and they can't even saturate that pipe. USB network adapters work just fine at 2.0 speeds. And the vast majority of flash drives today are still used to save a few office documents, pictures, and other small files. Incredibly few people are hauling around Windows install ISOs or large drive images on their thumb drives.

 

[SteelCity1981]

I see that intel is still heavily investing in thunderbolt, which is prob why they aren't putting native usb 3.1 support on their chipsets for the next two generations reminds me of usb 3.0 all over again with intel.

 

[Lucid Renegade]

When are going to see USB 3.1 external 3.5 inch floppy drives?

I'd say they'll come about the same time we get Firewire ZIP disk drives.

Where are they then?

http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-Zip-750MB-Firewire-Drive/dp/B00006JN09/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1W5KW88VBMYTYB790E1R

 

[Lakitu]

When are going to see USB 3.1 external 3.5 inch floppy drives?

I'd say they'll come about the same time we get Firewire ZIP disk drives.

Where are they then?

http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-Zip-750MB-Firewire-Drive/dp/B00006JN09/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1W5KW88VBMYTYB790E1R

I was going to reply that I had found several on amazon, until I looked at the USB version. Surprisingly they're all USB 2.0... I guess the market and need isn't high enough to warrant making them USB 3.0?

Let's be honest, do you really need USB 3.0 speeds copying over 1.44 MB of data?

 

[qlum]

More importantly I higly doubt those drives would support more then usb1 transferspeeds themselves

 

[RedJaron]

I'd say they'll come about the same time we get Firewire ZIP disk drives.

Where are they then?

http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-Zip-750MB-Firewire-Drive/dp/B00006JN09/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1W5KW88VBMYTYB790E1R

Well played. No, I didn't bother checking if those things were actually made. I thought it was too ridiculous of an idea.

 

[falchard]

MSI is such an amazing company. I hope they never become larger than ASUS. I don't want them to be held up providing for the consumer market.

 

[photonboy]

USB 3 cables:
There are now THREE different cables:

1) Same connection as USB2 but colored blue

2) USB3 connector changed on device side to prevent USB2 cables being used as some would cause problems for fast USB3 devices

3) USB3.1 changes connector yet again on device side, again to avoid slower rated cables (USB2 or USB3.0) from being used.

Other:
I noticed I got up to 140MB/second using a USB3 HDD in a USB3 connection and only 32MB/second if connecting to USB2. I thought it would max out the 60MB/second bandwidth so it appears the USB hard drive must have both USB2 and USB3 sata converter chips and it uses the much slower one when USB2 is detected.

 

[zodiacfml]

queue depth of 1, why test an SSD with such?
awesome bandwidth though. i reckon the upgrade is for keeping up with almost similar standards ( DP, MHL, and competing with WiFi) which could be used to drive higher resolution displays in the future

 

[ccampy]

There's not multiple types of cables USB 2.0 and 3.0 cables are identical they don't have to be blue to be 3.0 they are unchanged cables wise there's only the different type of conecters A B and the new universal C type

 

[Joe Black]

These mixed version mobos are annoying. I bought a board with mostly USB2, but 2x USB3 and its a great board - I still have it and it works just dandy, but it is annoying to hunt for the USB3 ports when I plug my portables in.

 

[qlum]

I tend to fill up all the 2.0s anyway with webcam, mouse and some other stuff so I can only plug into usb3 in the back.

 

[kenjitamura]

I'm going to buy devices that use the Type-C connector over products using the older USB connector whenever possible. We need to get off older USB and micro/mini USB ASAP.

 

[chris987]

still waiting for the reversible type - c !

 

[NehaM]

Here is a helpful technical comparison between the USB 3.1 vs USB 3.0 specs.
http://www.arrowdevices.com/blog/usb-31-vs-usb-30-technical-comparison/