USB 2.0 HDs - 2nd generation ?

slmehl

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The editor of Everything USB wrote me that "2nd generation USB 2.0 drives are coming, with capacities to reach 31MB/s - 53MB/s (burst)".

Maxtor's 3000LE 120GB drive claims a Max Internal Transfer Rate of 36.9 MBps. Is this drive already a 2nd generation device, or is the 31 MP/s another type of measurement?

Does anyone know about a new generation of such drives?

Larry
 

labdog

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hm..., puzzling. can you precise/expand your question?


<i>if <b>you know</b> <font color=white>you don't know<font color=black>, the way could be more easy ...
 

slmehl

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Re-phrasing the question:

Will Maxtor's 3000 LE be state-of-the-art for the next year or so, or are faster USB 2.0 expected to be introduced soon?

If it will only be a short time to wait for faster drives, I will wait.

Thanks for any information,

Larry Mehl
 

Lars_Coleman

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USB 2.0 interface is fast. The hard drive isn't. They need to expand the technology of hard drives before they take full advantage of the USB 2.0 interface.

I myself haven't heard of anything new with USB coming in the near future, but Firewire/1394 is suppose to up the speed by two times what it is now by the end of the year.
 

slmehl

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Lars --

Thanks. I want to make the smartest purchase within the next several weeks. USB looks like it will give me the greatest flexibility. I will also have to buy a USB 2.0 card for the desktop and a CardBus adapter for the laptop.

Larry
 

Ncogneto

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You ought to double check your facts before posting...

USB 2.0 480Mbps as in mega bits for second. Not to be confused with MBS which would be mega bytes per second.

now 480 Mb = 480,000,000 bits
8 bits = 1 byte
1 MB = 1048576 bits ( 1024*1024 ) to further confuse the issue it is a binary measurement

So, now you have (480,000,000/1048576)/8 = 57.22 MBs theoritical max. transfer rate. The modern IDE drives are fast approaching this and there burst rates already exceed this and will still be somewhat bandwith limited.

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!
 

Lars_Coleman

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My facts. I didn't post any facts. I didn't give any numbers and as of now ONE IDE hard drive CAN NOT sustain 57.22MB per second. The latest Western Digital drive barely gets to 50MB/sec.

You might want to think about how much burst transfers really matter?
 

Ncogneto

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The hard drive isn't. They need to expand the technology of hard drives before they take full advantage of the USB 2.0 interface.
While you are partially correct on the sustained transfer rate, you fail to factor in the burst transfer rate which is already exceeding 80MB/s. Also, 57.22 is the theoritical max. Subtract some for overhead and you are now very close.

It's not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you!