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LaCie Brings USB 3.0 Hard Drive Support to Mac Pros and MacBook Pros

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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130538-lacie_usb3_drives_500.jpg


Just as rumors of Intel pushing forward on its Light Peak connectivity standard surface, LaCie has announced support for USB 3.0 on Mac OS X with the release of a free driver to support the company's USB 3.0 hard drives.
LaCie announced today a major breakthrough, introducing industry-leading performance to Mac users with the availability of a USB 3.0 driver for Mac OS. The driver brings the fast speeds of LaCie's USB 3.0 hard drives to Mac computers and laptops - delivering transfer rates that are more than two times faster than FireWire 800!
Click to expand...
With Apple yet to support USB 3.0 hardware and CEO Steve Jobs suggesting that such support is not likely to appear anytime soon, users will need to purchase either a PCI Express Card ($49.99) or ExpressCard/34 ($59.99) to add two USB 3.0 ports to their Mac. Consequently, LaCie's USB 3.0 solutions are only compatible with Mac Pros offering a PCI Express slot and MacBook Pros offering an ExpressCard/34 slot.


130538-lacie_usb3_cards.jpg


USB 3.0 offers a theoretical maximum of 5 Gb/s, topping the 3 Gb/s available through eSATA. Real world burst performance on LaCie USB 3.0 hard drives is on the order of 130 MB/s for single hard drives and 220 MB/s for dual hard drives.

Article Link: LaCie Brings USB 3.0 Hard Drive Support to Mac Pros and MacBook Pros
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/11/04/lacie-brings-usb-3-0-hard-drive-support-to-mac-pros-and-macbook-pros/
Would be nice if most Macs had PCIe or ExpressCard slot. Only Mac Pro users and some MBP users will benefit from this
 
So, with all the USB3 discussion, what is it really? Considering USB2 is a joke for drive usage due to the inherent design of USB, does 3 fix that? Or is it just faster but still including slow downs from other devices and overall latency?
 
So is this the beginning of the end of Firewire? Or are we going to see Firewire 1600?

Edit: I just read the Lightpeak post. Question answered.
 
Anyone that needs speeds faster than Firewire 800 is currently using eSata, aren't they?

Can someone explain to me...is USB 3 all that different? Will eSata users rush out to upgrade? Yes...? No...?

If not, what's the point? Who will care? I strongly suspect eSata users will go right from that to LightPeak in a few years. Do they have ANY motivation to buy all new drives as a middle-step?
 
Obviously Lacie didn't get the memo from Steve Jobs. If he doesn't see the potential, then there is none at all and nobody will ever need anything faster than USB 2 and FireWire 800.
:apple:
 
Sweet. With a bit of luck they use NEC chips and the drivers can be somehow adapted to work with 'custom' OS X platforms. Right now the USB 3 ports on my motherboard are good for er.... charging.

I like it when technology is pushed forward in spite of the Holy One. Hopefully it'll go some way towards convincing them that yes there IS demand for USB 3.

(In-joke: The company has now turned to crystal)
 
deggs37 said:
Obviously Lacie didn't get the memo from Steve Jobs. If he doesn't see the potential, then there is none at all and nobody will ever need anything faster than USB 2 and FireWire 800.
:apple:
Click to expand...

Steve Job thinks USB 3 is too complicated for your gradma. Obviously your grandma should be the benchmark for everyone else
 
I am not an expert in this field so can somebody enlighten me:

Will these super-fast USB interfaces improve real-world usage? Will hard drives, flash drives, video cameras, etc. be able to take advantage of these speeds if my computer's hard drive cannot keep up with it? Or will it simply buffer somehow?
 
Light peak is still some time away, is it going to be in the next 13" Macbook pro refresh, unless Steve is going to make us wait until spring/summer, I doubt that. So usb 3 is here now... just not in the Mac's. Maybe Lacie jumped the gun on this one it's hard to tell.
 
linux2mac said:
Who cares? Light Peak is around the corner. USB 3.0 will be dead like Blu Ray soon.
Click to expand...

I hate making people sad. But i'll tell you this little secret. Blu ray isn't going anywhere soon. Like CDs have never really gone. You can open 100500 iTunes stores and **** like that, but there will always be a place for CDs, Blurays and whatever else.

acslater017
Internal hard drives have always been a lot faster then external ones. So, basically, they are trying to make all external drives as fast as the internal ones. (Considering all the external and internal drives are the same.[what changes is the way they connect to computer])
 
No ExpressCard/34...

Dammit. My MacBook Pro doesn't have an ExpressCard/34 slot. Why couldn't they just make an USB 2.0 adapter? :D
 
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Another port incompatible with the rest of my equipment...

What makes me sick is that I have hard drives that I can not connect to some computers right now. I have a Mini DV camera that is amazing but has Firewire port. The same with external audio devices.

I mean, I have equipment that runs just fine that were meant to last and is not compatible with todays Mac Pro because the changes in the ports.

The business behind this is to make you buy new equipment because I can not believe you can not configure the actual USB 2 ports to run USB 3 data, I mean, a cable is a cable.

The other result is making me waste money and add more trash to the world.
 
deviant said:
I hate making people sad. But i'll tell you this little secret. Blu ray isn't going anywhere soon. Like CDs have never really gone. You can open 100500 iTunes stores and **** like that, but there will always be a place for CDs, Blurays and whatever else.

acslater017
Internal hard drives have always been a lot faster then external ones. So, basically, they are trying to make all external drives as fast as the internal ones. (Considering all the external and internal drives are the same.[what changes is the way they connect to computer])
Click to expand...

Hold on let me grab my Kleenex box. But in all seriousness, I have watched more movies on Amazon on Demand and Netflix streaming versus popping a BD in my PS3 or dedicated BD player.
 
acslater017 said:
I am not an expert in this field so can somebody enlighten me:

Will these super-fast USB interfaces improve real-world usage? Will hard drives, flash drives, video cameras, etc. be able to take advantage of these speeds if my computer's hard drive cannot keep up with it? Or will it simply buffer somehow?
Click to expand...

USB2 maxes out at (theoretically) 480Mbps, or 60MB/sec. But it generally doesn't get there. Modern hard drives push out 110-130MB/sec. USB3 gets way more than that. So, yes external hard drive speeds will be 2x higher or more.
 
linux2mac said:
Hold on let me grab my Kleenex box. But in all seriousness, I have watched more movies on Amazon on Demand and Netflix streaming versus popping a BD in my PS3 or dedicated BD player.
Click to expand...

That's ok for "just watching". But there are some odd and strange people around who like to "have" their favorite movies (and music). Yes , we are strange. But hey..
And, should we talk about QUALITY ? I hope not. I'm pretty sure you know the difference between blu ray and netflix streaming. But maybe you don't need all that quality. I can understand that.
 
linux2mac said:
Hold on let me grab my Kleenex box. But in all seriousness, I have watched more movies on Amazon on Demand and Netflix streaming versus popping a BD in my PS3 or dedicated BD player.
Click to expand...

Your loss. I've watched more in the last 2 years via BD, also from Netflix. The streaming can't touch it, although I do stream plenty, too.
 
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