USB 3.0 External Hard Disk Drives

The USB3 market is exploding with SuperSpeed backup drives and computer accessories. Many Windows users are already enjoying the benefits of SuperSpeed, and are taking advantage of the USB 3 drivers included in Windows 7. Select Mac users with PCI or ExpressCard slot Intel Macs can combine USB3 cards and USB 3.0 hard drives. USB3 for Mac is delayed - but at this point smart money should future-proof your Mac backup drive purchase by choosing a USB 3.0 backup drive now - you'll be glad you did a year or two down the road on your next computer.

USB3 SuperSpeed Hard Drives for Windows 7 PC's

The benefits of Super-Speed USB 3.0 spec are clear: Backward compatibility with USB 2.0 and the promise of hard drive backups in a FRACTION of the time it used to take. After some initial delays, USB3 ports are now being implemented in more and more computer logic boards and peripherals. On the Windows7 side of things: ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, etc. are shipping motherboards with USB 3.0 ports onboard, many using NEC's SuperSpeed 2nd-generation chipset. All the early legwork being done - has started showing up in shipping USB 3.0 drives and peripherals. It's expected that 2011 will finally bring widespread adoption of SuperSpeed - both from Intel and Apple. Watch for product announcements at MacWorld Expo and and CES in January to open the flood gate of SuperSpeed compatible accessories. But why wait? SuperSpeed is here now:

External USB 3.0 Hard Disk Backup Drives

           

1TB Super-Speed Drive	USB3 Card-Cable-Drive Combo	2.5" Portable 3.0 Interface Drive
Verbatim SuperSpeed Drive 3.5" 1 Terabyte Disk	WD USB3 Super-Speed 1TB Hard Drive With USB 3.0 PCI-e Card	Iomega eGo SuperSpeed Laptop USB3 Drive

What About Mac USB 3.0 Backup Drives?

While many Windows 7 users can enjoy SuperSpeed benefits - Apple Macintosh users are still left waiting for USB 3.0 driver support in Mac OS X Snow Leopard and SuperSpeed ports to appear Apple logic boards. Given the clear trend towards SuperSpeed - it's wise for Macintosh users to start buying USB 3.0 backup drives, partitioning and reformatting the drive for MacOS, and enjoying the backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 until Intel and Apple get thier SuperSpeed products on the market.

DIY - SuperSpeed Backup Drive Enclosures

For those wanting to assemble their own external USB3 backup drive solution - make sure the bare drive you choose is well suited to SuperSpeed's potential bandwidth. In the real word, the current crop of SATA II SuperSpeed enclosures should be paired with 7200RPM drive mechanisms with the maximum amount of onboard cache you can find. As of this writing, all the USB3 enclosures are still using internal SATA II chipsets. If you have the money - pair any of the laptop size USB 3 cases with a current generation fast SSD drive that uses a SandForce or Indilinx controller for maximum Write speeds well-matched to backing up data over USB 3.0.
           

2.5" SuperSpeed Drive Case	3.5" Aluminum USB3 Enclosure	2.5" Portable 3.0 Enclosure
Connectland USB3 Case For 9.5mm Laptop SATA Drive	Full-Size Drive Case For 3.5" SATA Drives	DIY USB3 Backup Kit AcomData Laptop Enclosure

Solid-State SSD fash drives also offer tremenous backup drive potential - if you have the budget and can live with SSD's current disk capacities. USB 3.0 currently provides data transfer rates comparable to eSATA - with far more convenience and flexibility - while delivering data rates via USB that rival an internally and directly connected drive. USB 3.0 is delivering on the promise to back up data in a fraction of the time: Minutes, not hours for Terabytes of data.