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Thread ID: 115298 2011-01-11 23:42:00 USB 3.0 lostsoul62 (16011) Press F1
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1168962 2011-01-11 23:42:00 I'm building another computer and the last one I tried to build before the RAM blew it up had esata which I think is not the way to go. So now when I pick out a motherboard I will make sure it has USB3.0 and forget about esata. Of course I will buy a USB 3.0 Hard Drive.
www.frys.com

I'm just double checking because I want to make sure I get it right.
lostsoul62 (16011)
1168963 2011-01-11 23:58:00 There are no USB hard drives.
There are USB hard drive enclosures of course.
pctek (84)
1168964 2011-01-12 00:06:00 Of course I will buy a USB 3.0 Hard Drive. There are SATA 3 Hard Drives. wainuitech (129)
1168965 2011-01-12 02:51:00 There are no USB hard drives.
There are USB hard drive enclosures of course.

What does that mean? Everyone I know has an external USB hard drive and I have two of them?
lostsoul62 (16011)
1168966 2011-01-12 02:53:00 What does that mean? Everyone I know has an external USB hard drive and I have two of them?

Technically in most cases the hard drive itself doesn't have a USB interface, it will be a SATA interface with a SATA-to-USB converter in the enclosure.
inphinity (7274)
1168967 2011-01-12 02:56:00 Currently no operating system supports USB 3.0 so the hardware is useless. DeSade (984)
1168968 2011-01-12 03:00:00 I'm building another computer and the last one I tried to build before the RAM blew it up had esata which I think is not the way to go. So now when I pick out a motherboard I will make sure it has USB3.0 and forget about esata. Of course I will buy a USB 3.0 Hard Drive.
www.frys.com

I'm just double checking because I want to make sure I get it right.

I wouldn't bother with USB 3 yet, because it is barely supported. I am not sure what you are on about with esata, but connecting a sata external drive to a computer is great, and way faster than a USB one. It is just as fast as an internal drive. You can always get a USB 3.0 card when it is more compatible, but I wouldn't waste my money on it at the moment. I hate USB 2 external harddrives, they are so slow compared to sata ones, I only use them for backups.
robbyp (2751)
1168969 2011-01-12 04:21:00 Buy a motherboard with USB 3, you do not pay more, it is expected now. To reiterate what pctek said, USB hard drives refer to the enclosures of externals, you'll be buying a SATA hard drive for internal. jackM (14814)
1168970 2011-01-12 04:47:00 As others have said, External USB hard drives are just a normal SATA or IDE drive in an enclosure with a separate power supply and connected through a USB-ATA bridge chip and its associated circuitry.

USB Flash drives on the other hand are different.

I personally would buy a board with USB 3.0, so that I had it for future use, even if I didn't use it yet.
Agent_24 (57)
1168971 2011-01-12 06:05:00 Everyone I know has an external USB hard drive

Not me. I started buying USB hard drives when the standard size was 110GB, and eventually got to 5 of various sizes, but they were bulky and cluttered the floor with power packs. They also tended to be unreliable. (Overheating, problems with DC switch)

So I got rid of the lot and bought a pair of eSATA docks. I now have 12 bare hard drives ranging from 500 GB to 2 TB. It's a huge improvement
BBCmicro (15761)
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