Problem with USB 3.0 on motherboard not attaining USB 3.0 speeds

Grim Fandango

Honorable
Mar 3, 2013
9
0
10,510
Hey all, long time lurker here. This community helped me out frequently over the years. So thanks for that.

Now however, I have a specific issue I can not find the answer for.

I have an intel dz68zv motherboard. It has 2 USB 3.0 Ports. I installed the USB 3.0 Host controller utility driver that is available of the intel website (Renesas electronics) and am using the most current BIOS.

When I plug in an USB 3.0 flashdrive in the USB 3.0 port on the motherboard, the transfer speeds I am getting from either my 7.200 rpm HDD or from my SSD to the flashdrive is just 20 megabyte per second at most.

So far, I have been unable to get the increased transfer speed that one would expect when using an USB 3.0 port. Any ideas of what might be wrong and what I can do about it?

Thanks in advance.
 

Grim Fandango

Honorable
Mar 3, 2013
9
0
10,510
Thanks for the reply. I was under the impression that modern flash drives could attain faster transfer speeds than this. I guess the best option is to invest in an external drive that allows for faster transfer.

I guess USB2 or USB3 on a flash drive is kind of pointless. If what you say is true, both are capped at pretty much the same speeds.
 

rhwarrior

Reputable
Mar 11, 2014
6
0
4,510
As always the weakest link in the chain determines read/write speeds, the flash memories on generic USB sticks tend to not be very fast. (=a few MB/s to a couple dozen MB/s on expensive units)

If you're using "real" storage like a HDD you can expect USB 3.0 to cap out the drive, I'm getting pretty much the same transfer speeds on USB3 as eSATA on my drives, like 100MB/s on new-ish SATA drives, and the latency and overhead is way less than USB2 also, quite noticable.