Wi-Fi router with USB 3.0

[carov2007]

I'm planning to buy a new router. My notebook has no USB 3.0 connection, but my external drives have it.
I was wondering if I could get any worthy read and / or write speed improvement by buying a router with USB 3.0 connection and connecting it to my notebook, either througn a "n" wi-fi or via the LAN cable.
In summary, the options are:
a) USB 2.0 notebook -> USB 3.0 external drive (so USB 2.0 speed) versus
b) notebook -> "n" wi-fi to new router with USB 3.0 -> USB 3.0 external drive
c) notebook -> LAN cable to new router with USB 3.0 -> USB 3.0 external drive

In addition, if an external drive is connected to the router, is it possible to access to the drive files via wireless with my android 4.3 tablet?

Lastly, if the router has two USB 3.0, can I move the files between them at a reasonable USB 3.0 speed (I realize USB 3.0 is a maximum standard)?

All these questions come to my mind because USB 3.0 is not a new technology and there are top line routers with wi-fi speed much higher than the usual current devices speeds but still keeping the USB 2.0 port.

So I wonder if this is just a marketing strategy so as to show the highest speed ever or if there are practical limitations for the use of the USB 3.0 with the router that make worthless adding two of them.

Thanks in advance

 

[kanewolf]

Routers are OK at best as network storage. Most of the time users want to keep the USB drives as NTFS disks rather than format them to the native Linux file system. A high-end USB3 disk might give 80MB/s (bytes). If you look at the charts at the bottom of this page, you will see that some routers with USB 3 ports have trouble coming anywhere close to those numbers.

IF storage is a priority, you should go through the reviews at SmallNetBuilder and focus on the storage performance.

Connectivity to the router has to be wired to get these speeds unless you have the top-end-newest hardware on both your laptop and router. Even with a router that can support AC2400 if you don't have equivalent hardware on your laptop you might be limited to N150 (150Mbit). The wireless link will only be as fast as the slowest piece.

Your table could potentially get to the storage on the router. ES File Explorer would allow you access the shared storage.

 

[carov2007]

kanewolf, Thanks for your response.

I'd rather try avoiding another gadget at home (wife, kids, even a cat, that's too much already) so I'd try to use the router as a NAS server.

Great page you provided. As I could see, there are some issues between USB 3.0 and 2.4 Gz band interference.

My current preferences are Netgear R7000 or Asus AC68U or even Asus AC56U (basically it's USD 75 cheaper right now).

In theory Netgear handles better the above mentioned interference.

Can someone provide me some real life information about these routers? Reviews of all are great, consumer rating are great or bad as hell (almost no medium term). So I'm confused

 

[kanewolf]

I have pretty good faith in the consistency and accuracy of SmallNetBuilder and the forums on there.