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

the vj said:
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.
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Are you being sarcastic? Firstly, it's not like your devices are immediately made redundant by newer hardware, if you bought them for a compatible computer then they will still be compatible with that computer after Mac Pro 15 has Firewire 98000, etc. And if in your eyes they are, as they've been "defeated" by the newer stuff, then you should well be used to that by now. Blazing progress in the tech industry is nothing new.
Secondly, "a cable is a cable". Uhh, I'm not sure what to say except that an interface has a hell of a lot more to it than just wires. If that were true, there would be no difference between a good old copper wire and a fiber optic. Besides, the port itself has a lot of hardware and software behind the scenes managing that data. There's quite a difference between USB 3.0 and 2.0 in terms of hardware alone, the connector itself has more connections than USB 2.0, I'm not sure how you could expect them to magically add connectors to your legacy port through a software update...
Your post must have been sarcastic, right?
 
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Goldfinger said:
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.
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But how will it compare due to the latency effects? Say there's a Firewire or Lightpeak rated at exactly the same speed as USB3. Which is faster in the real world?
 
the vj said:
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.
Click to expand...

Where is the problem? USB3 is backwards compatible like USB2 and for your Firewire400 devices just get one of these for 10 bucks ...

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fw_adapter.html
 
Small White Car said:
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?
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Have you seen Mac users using eSata? USB 3.0 is much better than eSata for external hard drives because eSata does not provide power for the device.
 
BRLawyer said:
Nothing important; just another STILLBORN technology like Blu-Ray. Nice move by LaCie, but ineffective nevertheless.

Move along, citizens... :rolleyes:
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I see the repertoire is expanding, it isn't 'X IS DEAD' this time. Keeping it fresh.

Hopefully Lightpeak will be adopted quickly. Seems like a great solution- USB 2 is getting old and firewire remains relatively niche.
 
Macs will get USB 3.0 when Intel/nVidia has chipsets with it built in. They don't want to use a 3rd party chip to provide USB 3.0.
 
JAT said:
But how will it compare due to the latency effects? Say there's a Firewire or Lightpeak rated at exactly the same speed as USB3. Which is faster in the real world?
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Considering firewire 400 is faster than Usb2(480,lol) i won't give that much confidence in usb3.really.
 
deviant said:
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.
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Fair enough. Actually the Netflix streaming looks sharper than my BD discs - just kidding :)

For me watching a BD movie's high end quality is like having a second slice of pie. Most of the time one piece of pie (streaming video quality) is good enough for me.
 
deviant said:
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.
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There will alway be people who collect stuff like towers of CDs or DVDs or now BRDs but those people are in the minority. Most people want to watch a movie when they want to watch it and then move on.

Heck, I know people who still watch VHS tapes, but that doesn't change the fact that VHS is effectively dead.
 
mdatwood said:
There will alway be people who collect stuff like towers of CDs or DVDs or now BRDs but those people are in the minority. Most people want to watch a movie when they want to watch it and then move on.

Heck, I know people who still watch VHS tapes, but that doesn't change the fact that VHS is effectively dead.
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VHS yes. Wait 10 years more, blu ray will be too. Not now, though. You can say (and want) what you want (lol) , it will not change anything. blu ray is here, and will be here for a while. DEAL WITH IT :)
And btw, nobody's talking about towers of useless polycarbonate. I'm talking about real masterpieces. They are few, but they deserve that.
Depends on person. Some people just wanna watch a movie drinkin' bear and eating popcorn (rambo, say hello). Some people take seriously what they watch and listen to.
 
JAT said:
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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I agree the streaming can't touch the BD quality but its still good to me. I do watch a BD from Netflix when it arrives on my door step but interestingly I do not own one BD compared to my 400 DVD movie collection I am in the process of ripping to a NAS. After spending all the money on DVD's there is no way I will invest in trading my collection in for BD. I used to go to Best Buy and buy movies and CD's on a weekly basis. Now I just download both if I need to purchase.
 
the vj said:
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.
Click to expand...
Uh, no. A cable is not a cable, not for data transfer. (maybe for analog audio) Not unless they are identical, and that doesn't happen that often, frankly. That's one big reason so many have had problems with HDMI, cables are NOT the same.
 
linux2mac said:
I agree the streaming can't touch the BD quality but its still good to me. I do watch a BD from Netflix when it arrives on my door step but interestingly I do not own one BD compared to my 400 DVD movie collection I am in the process of ripping to a NAS. After spending all the money on DVD's there is no way I will invest in trading my collection in for BD. I used to go to Best Buy and buy movies and CD's on a weekly basis. Now I just download both if I need to purchase.
Click to expand...

I'm similar on DVDs, but I do have a couple dozen BDs. I basically won't buy DVD, now. But occasionally BD, if it is useful. I'm close to moving DVDs to storage, too. But even those are usually better than streaming, no hesitations, etc. I only stream where I have to. Maybe when my connection is 100Mb, but even though HD looks decent on my 20Mb line, it just doesn't match up. Maybe my TV is too big. :D Not.
 
BRLawyer said:
Nothing important; just another STILLBORN technology like Blu-Ray. Nice move by LaCie, but ineffective nevertheless.

Move along, citizens... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Not all of us watch "HD Movies" on a 11 inch MB Air! Just because some people don't have a 60 inch KURO doesn't mean you have to hate bluray. There's no other media that's readily available in the home that looks just as good or better. Netflix/Amazon on demand/Apple TV seriously look like crap on my home theater setup. Besides if telcos/cable operators get their way, you're about ready to pay double for your streaming movies: the actual rental fee AND the bandwidth fee.
 
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.
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I've definitely watched more movies on BD in my PS3 than using Amazon on Demand or Netflix combined. There is a problem that not everyone can get broadband fast enough to get 720p so the streaming options just kick you down to 480i. On my 63" TV you can really tell the difference.
 
deviant said:
Internal hard drives have always been a lot faster then external ones.
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Unless of course you are using eSATA, which is not supported on most Macs either. eSATA is the one interface I really wanted on my iMac that it did not have. I went with FW800 for my external backup drive and also picked up a NewerTech Voyager Q with FW800 support. FW800 seems good enough for speed, but eSATA external drives and peripherals are more common and cheaper than FW800. I had to pay extra for peripherals that support FW800, and it kinda sucks paying more for something that is not as fast.

Here is an example:

NewerTech Voyager S2 (dual interface eSata/USB2) - $49.99
NewerTech Voyager Q (quad interface eSata,USB2,FW400/800) - $94.99

Anyway, I've heard that USB was never intended for external hard drives because of latency issues and no way to guarantee QoS when on a USB hub. eSATA was specifically designed for external hard drives. I don't know the specifics, but I wonder if USB 3.0 fixes some of those problems with USB 2.0 or if it just increases the theoretical maximum bit rate.

If USB 3.0 was not designed with external hard drives in mind, then it seems it would just be a faster way to talk to peripherals, pull photos from a digital cameras or sync some future version of the iPhone or iPad.
 
BRLawyer said:
Nothing important; just another STILLBORN technology like Blu-Ray. Nice move by LaCie, but ineffective nevertheless.

Move along, citizens... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

You just descibed light peak. Bluray on the other hand is doing very well, but you wouldn't know since all you know is what your god Steve jobs tells you.
 
deviant said:
Some people just wanna watch a movie drinkin' bear and eating popcorn (rambo, say hello). Some people take seriously what they watch and listen to.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's hardcore. How do you convert the bear to liquid form?
 
mdatwood said:
There will alway be people who collect stuff like towers of CDs or DVDs or now BRDs but those people are in the minority. Most people want to watch a movie when they want to watch it and then move on.

Heck, I know people who still watch VHS tapes, but that doesn't change the fact that VHS is effectively dead.
Click to expand...

Have you tried to buy a blank VHS tape lately. Almost impossible to find. I still have to deliver video content to COMCAST (for public access) on VHS and it is getting difficult to find tape.
 
lilo777 said:
Have you seen Mac users using eSata? USB 3.0 is much better than eSata for external hard drives because eSata does not provide power for the device.
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Certainly USB 2.0 does not provide enough power to power a hard drive, will USB 3.0 increase the specification on power output? That would be kinda cool. All the external hard drives I have that support USB 2.0 also have a power cord.

EDIT: Apparently there are non-flash external drives that are powered by USB -- it's just that neither I nor any of my family members own one. I never had need for such a drive, but I imagine that would be handy with a notebook computer if you needed external storage. All the drives I've come across are not "portable" and hence come with a power cord as well.

cube said:
The theoretical maximum for ExpressCard is 2.5 Gbps.
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So does that mean we should call the Lacie adapter "USB 2.5"? I thought the joke of a USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 adapter was funny. If ExpressCard really has that limit then its just sad that they are selling a USB 3.0 express card adapter.
 
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linux2mac said:
Fair enough. Actually the Netflix streaming looks sharper than my BD discs - just kidding :)

For me watching a BD movie's high end quality is like having a second slice of pie. Most of the time one piece of pie (streaming video quality) is good enough for me.
Click to expand...

Yes - but when you buy a Blu-Ray you get to keep that second piece of pie to eat later. :D
 
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