USB 3.0 Transfer Rates

[ComputerDomain]

I just bought a Samsung M3 1Tb external HDD and I managed to get everything setup so that it works after lots of Fresco USB 3.0 driver issues I fixed it and started to transfer files but I only noticed the transfer rates to average at about 30Mb and it continued to decrease even then. I was transferring a 6Gb file.

[Guest]

It's a large file lol I get 50 on a wd passport

[SMURG]

USB isn't very good at transferring large files I don't think; it's optimised for small ones I believe.

[ComputerDomain]

USB isn't very good at transferring large files I don't think; it's optimised for small ones I believe.

That's kind of pointless then?

[SMURG]

That's kind of pointless then?

Well not exactly, it's just meant for stuff like memory sticks rather than external HDDs. Memory sticks are smaller so they generally store smaller files. SATA is designed for HDDs and eSATA is the external derivative, so really that's what you'd use if you were after an optimal external storage solution.

[Glenwing]

That's kind of pointless then?

 

USB has a lot of controller overhead, which is one of the tradeoffs of being such a flexible standard.  It's meant to be a universal communication bus between all kinds of different types of devices, not as a storage connection for high speed sequential data throughput.

 

The bandwidth increase of USB 3.0 is nice because you can attach a USB hub and split 1 port into a bajillion and still have enough bandwidth to go around, and it will be a modest speed bump to transfer files to and from mobile phones, and it's a modest speed bump to transferring files to and from flash drives.

 

Hooking an SSD up though, eSATA and Thunderbolt would be better choices since they are designed primarily for large data transfer, whereas USB is designed as a device interconnect.

[ComputerDomain]

I can live with that. Any suggestions for next time though when I need high speed transfer rates?