USB 3.0 on laptop

[Rudi]

Hi,

I am soon to purchase a new external hard drive ( and no doubt it will probably be USB 3.0). My laptop only has USB 2 ports, so I was wondering what the performance would be like if I were to also purchase an express card with USB 3 ports. Has anyone done this before and is the performance/speed good.

Is there any hurdles/objections/advantages I should know about before I go out and purchase these items?

TX for your comments!

[BobH]

Howdy, Rudi!

I'm no engineer; so consider that when reading this.

I think there are mobo design issues that control the speed of any USB port. If the mobo doesn't do USB3 speed, I think it unlikely that the express card will make a difference.

JM2¢W

[Rudi]

Howdy, Rudi!

I'm no engineer; so consider that when reading this.

I think there are mobo design issues that control the speed of any USB port. If the mobo doesn't do USB3 speed, I think it unlikely that the express card will make a difference.

JM2¢W

TX Bob. I'll take that into account and refernce the specs on my laptop more thoroughly!
Just to confirm, when you say Mobo Design, are you referring to the Motherboard?

[DaveA]

I just bought a new Sony with Windows 8. It has 2 USB 2 and 2 USB 3 ports.
Also something to consider, is that the new machines come with a HDMI port and NOT a SVGA port.
A HDMI to SVGA convertor does not work with my Canon LCD Projector, so we had to go buy a new one, with HDMI support.

We can not complain, as we bought the Canon in the 1990's.

[Rudi]

I just bought a new Sony with Windows 8. It has 2 USB 2 and 2 USB 3 ports.
Also something to consider, is that the new machines come with a HDMI port and NOT a SVGA port.
A HDMI to SVGA convertor does not work with my Canon LCD Projector, so we had to go buy a new one, with HDMI support.

We can not complain, as we bought the Canon in the 1990's.

I was doing some research and discovered that new laptops are coming out with USB 3.0 ports now. All I can say is ... FINALLY!! USB 3.0 has been out for a few years now and the lag to get PC's/laptop's to meet this tech has been tedious!

Thanks for that info Dave. That is good to know if one is going out to purchase a new PC...that you don't get caught by surprise!

[BobH]

Howdy, Rudi!

I'm no engineer; so consider that when reading this.

I think there are mobo design issues that control the speed of any USB port. If the mobo doesn't do USB3 speed, I think it unlikely that the express card will make a difference.

JM2¢W

TX Bob. I'll take that into account and refernce the specs on my laptop more thoroughly!
Just to confirm, when you say Mobo Design, are you referring to the Motherboard?

Yes, Rudi. Mobo = motherboard (geek speak I picked up when I built my new system a year or so ago).

[Rudi]

Cheers

BTW, enjoy the warm weather you are having ... 65F that is hot based on the last few days

[BobH]

You have to like the weather in Texas because it changes so frequently.

[viking33]

Hey Rudi,
I bought an HP BB07 550G external drive a while back. with a Renesas USB 3 Host Controller Card. The HD is both USB 2 & 3 compatible, so I was able to compare it first plugged into a USB 2 port, then going over to the USB 3 card. While I didn't make any definitive speed comparisons, there was a good noticeable increase using the 3.0 card.

[PaulB]

I have a couple of WD My Book 2 TB external USB 3/USB 2 hard disk drives for running my ShadowProtect backups. When I installed a Renesas USB 3 Host Controller Card in a spare PCIe slot, my full backups went from about 2 hours down to 30-35 minutes. Going by the specs, I was expecting even better, but I'll settle for this.

[Jay Freedman]

I'm using a 5-year-old desktop that had only USB 2.0 ports. I recently plugged a USB 3.0 card into the PCIe slot to run backups to a USB 3.0 external drive. The speed of an image backup increased by somewhere between 6 and 8 times compared to the same drive attached by USB 2.0. So it appears that the old motherboard is not a factor.

Rudi: According to the article you linked, the express card requires the laptop to have an ExpressCard slot, which I gather is similar to the PCIe slot in the desktop. I hope you have that type of slot; I don't think it's possible to retrofit one.

[Rudi]

Thanks for the encouraging feedback Bob, Paul and Jay. If my "mobo" design allows for these enhanced speeds, this is a definite course of action that I plan to take as I too am doing regular backups of pictures and video, and with Xmas round the corner...I foresee even more media needing to be backed up soon.

Hi Jay. Good to hear that. Yes I have checked the specs from Lenovo Site and under Device Manager (see below), and my Lenovo T510 does have an Express Card slot.
Cheers

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