USB 3.0 is undoubtedly the future, but tests conducted by Techworld suggest that laptop users in particular might need to upgrade their hardware to see much benefit over current technologies such as eSATA.
The test comprised plugging Freecom's USB 3.0 external drive, the XS Hard Drive 3.0, into a mainstream dual-core laptop using the company's new USB 3.0 Express Card laptop add-on. (See also "USB 3.0 Hard Drives Speed Ahead.")
Throughput was derived using a simple calculation based on how long the drive took to copy and paste a large number of video and image files to and from the laptop, replicating how the drive will actually be used in the real world for functions such as directory backup.
The Freecom XS operating in USB 2.0 mode managed an average throughput of 18.7MB/s for reads and only 11.1MB/s for writes, well below the theoretical maximum of USB 2.0 but in line with real-world transfer speeds on a mid-range laptop.
The same drive in USB 3.0 mode raised this to 36.6MB/s for reads and about the same or slightly slower for writes, although this fluctuated considerably for reasons that might relate to the supplied NEC driver. What matters here is the relative difference rather than the abolute figrues, which will depend on a range of factors including overall system performance.
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