How slow is USB?

Blitzkrieger

I was thinking of replacing my borked internal HD with an external one. This would allow me to copy the data from the hold one cos I'm not keen on messing about with all the IDE cables. Can't be arsed un-screwing the CD-RW to get the cable off, etc.

The only question is how fast is USB2.0? I forget what the transfer rate for the drive was but it doesn't mean much to me anyway. I reckon the most I'd ask of the HD is to stream a bit of video, and if any games are suffering from the performance, install them on the remaining internal drive. Will a USB cable be fast enough for straming video?

It also comes with a firewire option, but that would mean an additional £40 english for a PCI firewire card.

Lucifer

i couldnt be sure, but i would imagine it would be fast enough considering you can have USB web cams, which transmit video stream. someone else might have more definite info

azezil

I heard they can transfer data @ around 47mb/s (USB2) I may be mistaken but its something rather high anyway.

[edit]Edited when Gerry replied, jogged my memory[/edit]

strat

if its fire wire u want get a new sound blaster audigy card

Gerry

plain vanilla usb will be quite slow, its 1.5 megs a second, your hard drive is many times faster than that. Usb2.0 would be plenty fast. (I think its 50 megs a second)

po0k

USB2.0 = 480MBit/sec
Firewire/i.Link/IEEE1994<?> = 400MBit/sec
Divide them by 8 to get the MByte/sec rate.
(8bits=1Byte)

Why would you want an external hard drive?
DO you have a USB2.0 mother board/expansion card??
External hard drives are a fair bit more expensive compared to internal IDE ones, not even including the extra E60 odd for the USB2.0 card.
USB2.0/Firewire external drives are for poeple who need to have very large amounts of data in their pocket eg CGI arrtists, movie editors etc. Are you one of these?
There's also the question of whether or not your BIOS will boot from it.
Replacing a hard drive is one of the easiest things to do in this world (of computers).
If you need any help just post again or doa search for ' install hard drive master slave' and you're boiund to come up with something. Would just be a shame to see you waste a load of money.......

Clinical Waste

If you have to open up to put in the USB2 card you may as well just stick in an internal ide drive.
The fastest and easiest option.

Whilst v.fast do you really think USB 2.0 will be problem-free at this early stage?

History does teach us the way of the future............

Gerry

Yes, unless you bios is very new it won't boot from usb. Usb 2.0 hard drives will carry a price premium, so you are talking a severe amount of extra cash, just because you can't be arsed opening the machine. Its not rocket science, plug in the new drive to some form of IDE cable, copy the stuff off the old one, then remove the drive, and fit the new one in its place.

Blitzkrieger

Thanks for the info.

I have 2 HDs in my PC but one is borked. I don't want to replace it with an internal, because to transfer the data would be a pain in the ass. I realise an external HD is more expensive but you never know when it'll come in handy. I'll probably pick up an internal one somewhere down the line.

Originally posted by Lucifer.POD
but i would imagine it would be fast enough considering you can have USB web cams

I thought that too, but web cams aren't great are they? It's more stop motion than video.