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USB 3.0 everywhere except Apple... likelihood of seeing it this week?

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bella92108

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 1, 2006
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So I want to buy a new external hard drive that's portable and fast. The Firewire800 drives that don't require power only go up to about 640GB, and ideally I want a 1TB...

Going to BestBuy and shopping online, Firewire seems to officially be dead now (unofficially it's the 5th year of it's death, lol).... and USB 3.0 is all the rage... there seems to be about a 25% surcharge on the 3.0 drives.

My hopes are that this week Apple's media event will launch new macbook pro speed bumps and\or new features... and my question is this... Since "Pro" usually means high (or at least high-er) end, Apple shouldn't bring another computer to market WITHOUT USB 3.0 or am I not safe to assume that?

I know it's been discussed, but trying to decide if I should save the 25%, or just bite the bullet and go for the 3.0... course if I get the 3.0 and the refresh on wednesday doesn't include 3.0 then I'll basically have wasted $$$
 
bella92108 said:
So I want to buy a new external hard drive that's portable and fast. The Firewire800 drives that don't require power only go up to about 640GB, and ideally I want a 1TB...
Click to expand...

Are you looking for a portable drive? because I have a SeaGate 1tb Drive with firewire 800. What do you mean by don't require power? All drives require power to operate
 
Not likely, as intel doesn't include USB 3 in their chipsets yet, so we likely won't see it until we see the Sandy Bridge MBP. Plus it is highly unlikely that a major revision to the MBP will be announced wednesday, with SB coming up fairly shortly.
 
MacOCD said:
Are you looking for a portable drive? because I have a SeaGate 1tb Drive with firewire 800. What do you mean by don't require power? All drives require power to operate
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Yes, sorry I didn't clarify. I'm looking for portable. I have a 2TB but it has to plug in and it's anything but portable :) Lots of desktop externals with firewire, sorry, I should have clarified that I'm looking for portable, LOVE the new WD Passport with USB 3.0... it's small and rugged....

Is yours FW800 in a portable? I didn't see any 1TB around
 
alust2013 said:
Not likely, as intel doesn't include USB 3 in their chipsets yet, so we likely won't see it until we see the Sandy Bridge MBP. Plus it is highly unlikely that a major revision to the MBP will be announced wednesday, with SB coming up fairly shortly.
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Aww... good point... I know you're likely right, but I hope you're wrong, lol. I really want to be on the 3.0 now after seeing the demo in the store. If it's reliant on the chipset, how do many of the HP, Dell, Acer, and Lenovo already have USB? If it's already available, it seems like it'd be a good excuse for Steve to announce "oh, and here's a couple small changes to the MBP... USB 3.0, 1440x900 resolution, and more memory" ... a cheap and easy refresh that'd be good enough to get me to buy... actually either USB 3.0 or 1440x900 would be enough for me to buy.
 
OP what do you mean when you say USB 3.0 "everywhere" accept Apple? I don't see USB 3.0 in any notebooks as Intel's chipset isn't designed with that in mind as of yet. If any notebooks have it there are limited amounts, there's not much choice for anyone so what do you mean, "everywhere"?
 
HLdan said:
OP what do you mean when you say USB 3.0 "everywhere" accept Apple? I don't see USB 3.0 in any notebooks as Intel's chipset isn't designed with that in mind as of yet. If any notebooks have it there are limited amounts, there's not much choice for anyone so what do you mean, "everywhere"?
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ASUS N82 and N61
HP Envy 15
MSI
Dell Precision M6500 line (intel chips)

Not sure why people mention the intel issue... clearly laptops have i3\5\7 and have the usb 3 so that's not a valid excuse.
 
bella92108 said:
ASUS N82 and N61
HP Envy 15
MSI
Dell Precision M6500 line (intel chips)

Not sure why people mention the intel issue... clearly laptops have i3\5\7 and have the usb 3 so that's not a valid excuse.
Click to expand...

I would like this explained as well....

I keep reading these boards and everyone says you need Sandy Bridge, but clearly other companies are doing it without it....
 
Intel has USB 3.0 built into the sandybridge chipset. Any computer that has USB 3.0 right now isn't using intel's built in chipset, but an additional one. It's like in a desktop, you add a PCI card.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
Intel has USB 3.0 built into the sandybridge chipset. Any computer that has USB 3.0 right now isn't using intel's built in chipset, but an additional one. It's like in a desktop, you add a PCI card.
Click to expand...

Understood but that doesn't explain why apple won't adopt what's clearly now a standard.
 
HLdan said:
OP what do you mean when you say USB 3.0 "everywhere" accept Apple? I don't see USB 3.0 in any notebooks as Intel's chipset isn't designed with that in mind as of yet. If any notebooks have it there are limited amounts, there's not much choice for anyone so what do you mean, "everywhere"?
Click to expand...

+1 USB 3.0 Is pretty much nowhere.
 
bella92108 said:
Understood but that doesn't explain why apple won't adopt what's clearly now a standard.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't exactly call USB 3.0 a standard today. Sure some computers have included it but there isn't exactly a lot of devices other than a few USB keys and external HDD's, outside of that, you don't really see anything else utilize it.
 
iLog.Genius said:
I wouldn't exactly call USB 3.0 a standard today. Sure some computers have included it but there isn't exactly a lot of devices other than a few USB keys and external HDD's, outside of that, you don't really see anything else utilize it.
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Externalnhard drives make up 99% of the drive for progress in external transfer speed duhh. Ugh. Have you been to a store lately? Every portable external brand (wd, seagate, iomega, hp) has discontinued their FireWire and all replaced with 3.0
 
I don't see it everywhere either. I just checked Dell's site. The Insperion 560, 570, 580, and Zino desktops and the Insperion 14, 15, and 17 all have USB 2. The same was true of HP's Presario and Pavilion laptops.

Yes, I see an increase in USB 3 peripherals, but they don't have to contend with chipset limitations like computers do.

However, I would like to see driver support for USB 3 in OS X so that I can purchase a USB 3 PCI-e card for my Mac Pro.
 
"everywhere?"

I think not, intel does not offer a USB 3 equipped motherboard, there's only a handful of usb3 devices out in the wild, clearly usb3 has not yet taken off. to that end, I don't expect to see any mac with usb3 anytime soon.
 
maflynn said:
"everywhere?"

I think not, intel does not offer a USB 3 equipped motherboard, there's only a handful of usb3 devices out in the wild, clearly usb3 has not yet taken off. to that end, I don't expect to see any mac with usb3 anytime soon.
Click to expand...

Like this person said, Intel doesn't even offer it in their chipset, delayed till 2011. Intel, the company that brought 480 Mbs USB 2 that I have never seen get over 30 MBs but killed FireWire thru marketing. USB 2 please die.
 
no idea, My Imagination boots up thinking about many things that might come out but I guess it will be the new OS pre-announcement, I just see a new MacBook Air
 
spacepower7 said:
Like this person said, Intel doesn't even offer it in their chipset, delayed till 2011. Intel, the company that brought 480 Mbs USB 2 that I have never seen get over 30 MBs but killed FireWire thru marketing. USB 2 please die.
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USB is not going anywhere soon. I'd also give a nod to apple on letting FW die.

They started dropping firewire ports just as other motherboard makers and component makers started embracing firewire.
 
maflynn said:
USB is not going anywhere soon. I'd also give a nod to apple on letting FW die.

They started dropping firewire ports just as other motherboard makers and component makers started embracing firewire.
Click to expand...

Until Apple adds either LightPeak or USB 3, I hope they don't drop FireWire just yet. USB 2 is glacially slow for mass storage devices.
 
bella92108 said:
Externalnhard drives make up 99% of the drive for progress in external transfer speed duhh. Ugh. Have you been to a store lately? Every portable external brand (wd, seagate, iomega, hp) has discontinued their FireWire and all replaced with 3.0
Click to expand...

99%??

every portable external brand?

can you stop pulling figures out of your ass?

you need to stop exaggerating, do you even have ab mbp? i don't see what makes you such a professional about these things. just the fact that you've been to a store before doesn't mean anything.

USB 3.0 and/or light peak as a standardized form of data transfer is imminent yes, so what is it that you're asking? Should you buy a USB 3.0 portable hdd for 25% more? Sure why not, what does that equate to like twenty bucks?

just to continue on your path of ridiculous statistics, since you asked the likelihood of seeing it this week i would say that there's about a 98% chance of it releasing wednesday. However don't forget that I have never worked for Apple nor do I know any inside information. I'm just a regular random person who claims to know everything /sarcasm
 
It's not everywhere because only handful of computers have it since it has not been integrated to any chipset, yet. When USB 3.0 is integrated to Intel chipsets, most computers that are being sold will have it, even Macs should.
 
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