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. Select Mac users with PCI or ExpressCard slot Intel Macs can combine USB3 cards and USB 3.0 hard drives. USB 3.0 ports are now on the latest generation of Apple MacBooks. At this point, you 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.

USB 3 SuperSpeed Hard Drives for Mac And Windows PC's

The benefits of SuperSpeed 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 Windows 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. Intel's Ivy-Bridge chipset with inbuilt USB 3.0 support is finally bringing widespread adoption of SuperSpeed - both from Intel and Apple.

External USB 3.0 Hard Disk Backup Drives

           

1TB SuperSpeed Laptop Drive	SuperSpeed Desktop Drive	Portable 3.0 Interface Drive
#1 Seller Western Digital 1TB USB 3.0 Interface	Seagate Desk Series Interchangeable Interface ThunderBolt Or FireWire Option	Iomega eGo SuperSpeed Laptop USB 3 Drive

Mac USB 3.0 Backup Drives

Apple Macintosh users have USB 3.0 driver support in Mac OS X Lion and Leopard. SuperSpeed ports will appear on Apple logic boards as Apple adopts the Ivy-Bridge chipset in revised models. Given the inevitable growth of 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 III SuperSpeed drive enclosures should be paired with 7200RPM drive mechanisms with the maximum amount of onboard cache you can find. An SSD or Hybrid SSD is an even better option for putting together your own USB 3.0 enclosure solution. If you have the money - pair any of the laptop size USB 3 drive 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.