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Usb 3.0

J

JGuez

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 20, 2008
82
0
I'm thinking about buying the new MacBook pro, the 15 inch i7 to be specific, and this thought just came to my head.

USB 3.0. Will Apple likely adapt to this technology soon? I know it's dumb to always wait for the next computer just because the specs are not caught up. If everyone did this, no one would ever buy a computer, but I'm going to own this laptop for a long time, and am I really going to want to own something that will be missing USB 3.0 when that becomes the standard in a year?
 
darngooddesign said:
Real men use Firewire.
Click to expand...
And real men don't replace all their USB2 peripherals with USB3 equivalents. Instead, by the time they might want to use USB3, it's 3 years later, they'll buy a new MBP with Light Peak.
 
stevensteven123 said:
Probably nothing now but in a year or two......
Click to expand...

It's nice to think ahead, but don't take life for granted. Enjoy your toys now and worry about that when there is need for it. When iPhone/iPad have USB 3, then you know the MacBook Pro will soon follow.
 
stevensteven123 said:
Probably nothing now but in a year or two......
Click to expand...
I still don't see the point (seriously). I can't imagine a mouse will work better using USB3 instead of USB2 or that my JPEGs transfer noticeably faster to my thumb drive.

The only point of using something with USB3 would be faster transfer speeds for external hard drives. But if you really need a fast external disk, buy a NAS drive with Gigabit Ethernet.
 
C64 said:
He means upgrading to USB3 peripherals once they're a bit more matured and you don't pay top price just for the "3".
Click to expand...

I mean that there is no point to upgrade now for tech that will be out in years. If you upgrade in a few years you will get better specs for an equivalent price.
 
Apple Expert said:
It's nice to think ahead, but don't take life for granted. Enjoy your toys now and worry about that when there is need for it. When iPhone/iPad have USB 3, then you know the MacBook Pro will soon follow.
Click to expand...

Truth.

Well, I'm just nitpicking. I'm about to spend $2300 on a laptop. Just making sure to myself this is what I want to do.:rolleyes:
 
C64 said:
He means upgrading to USB3 peripherals once they're a bit more matured and you don't pay top price just for the "3".
Click to expand...

Patrick J said:
I mean that there is no point to upgrade now for tech that will be out in years. If you upgrade in a few years you will get better specs for an equivalent price.
Click to expand...

Gotcha but I think the op was wondering if he should wait an upgrade his computer not his peripherals. I feel the same way. I'm so on the fence STILL about upgrading to a new imac. I don't, of course, have any usb 3 devices right not but I probably will in the future. If the new imacs come out in June with usb 3 or better yet, those new minimac pros that i saw come out soon after that I just bought a machine that can never be upgraded to USB3, I'll feel like if only I had some more patience, my computer would work with all the new devices that I do buy. On the other hand, if its gonna be 2011 before USB 3 makes it into macs...... I don't want to wait that long!
 
darngooddesign said:
Real men use Firewire.
Click to expand...
USB3 (4.8gbps) is 6x faster than Firewire 800. (0.8gbps)

C64 said:
And real men don't replace all their USB2 peripherals with USB3 equivalents. Instead, by the time they might want to use USB3, it's 3 years later, they'll buy a new MBP with Light Peak.
Click to expand...
USB3 devices that were only made possible by the amount of bandwidth it has, are available now.

Devices like this which enables 1080p video capture from HDMI connections or this for waveform monitoring. There are no equivalents for these devices, USB2 or Firewire 800 simply do not have the bandwidth required.

I think we will see a lot of other interesting devices for USB3 as a result of the amount of bandwidth it has for external devices, rather than simply being used as a faster way to get data on/off external hard drives. (though it's still better than FW800 for that)

So there are already devices out there that simply cannot be used with Apple's hardware, and once we get to 2011 and Intel starts supporting it, you will need a completely new system, because Apple decided to replace the expresscard34 slot with an SD card reader. Otherwise you could have at least added USB3 ports to the system and used these devices, even if it is not ideal.


I was all set to purchase a top-spec system from Apple (the only exception being a HDD instead of SSD) but now I'm having to decide between either going for a non-Apple computer (something I really do not want to do) or picking up one of the cheaper models that is more-or-less the same spec as the 3.5 year-old MBP I sold a few months back until the next update.

There is no way I could justify spending the kind of money Apple wants for their top-spec system when they don't even have USB3 support. (nevermind the fact that they have outdated GPUs and no quad-core options)
 
JGuez said:
I'm thinking about buying the new MacBook pro, the 15 inch i7 to be specific, and this thought just came to my head.

USB 3.0. Will Apple likely adapt to this technology soon? I know it's dumb to always wait for the next computer just because the specs are not caught up. If everyone did this, no one would ever buy a computer, but I'm going to own this laptop for a long time, and am I really going to want to own something that will be missing USB 3.0 when that becomes the standard in a year?
Click to expand...

If the 17" model is an option for you, get that one. That way you have an expresscad slot that will(most likely) have usb3 expresscards sooner or later if you need that tech before your next computer :cool:
 
C64 said:
And real men don't replace all their USB2 peripherals with USB3 equivalents. Instead, by the time they might want to use USB3, it's 3 years later, they'll buy a new MBP with Light Peak.
Click to expand...

Light Peak: held out for by real men.
 
andrewfee said:
There is no way I could justify spending the kind of money Apple wants for their top-spec system when they don't even have USB3 support. (nevermind the fact that they have outdated GPUs and no quad-core options)
Click to expand...

Sure, if you only look at specs you can't justify it. I don't think with apple products you could ever justify a purchase spec for spec. You have to look at what else is offered, like native osx support, awesome unibody design, it runs considerably cooler than it would if it had higher TDP cpu's and gpu's, it has a lot longer battery life than it would have with those cpu's and gpu's.

Apple computers have never been about the highest possible performance, it's about the entire package. If one is looking for best bang for buck, one should never ever consider Apple as an option. This is common knowledge, yes? Imagine how many would cause a s**tstorm if apple redesigned the case to be bulkier to accompany more efficient cooling because of the higher power draw components. No matter what they do, some will keep complaining because we all have different preferences
 
I have to agree with andrewfee, while taking instabusto's point into consideration. I was dreaming of getting a 15" Macbook Pro before the update as I expected it to have USB 3.0 or at least have the ExpressCard slot, so the new update is somewhat disappointing in that respect.

Fair enough on the CPU and GPU, though perhaps it would be an idea if Apple did make a luggable desktop replacement in its own line, as that is what many people want.

Personally I'm going to hold out for the next update hoping it's before 2011. If I spent that kind of money on my main computer (which I won''t be able to afford to replace for a couple of years) now and all of a sudden in a year I couldn't use half the new devices I need for Audio/Video then I would kick myself. I think personally the best solution all-round would have been for apple to just leave in the ExpressCard slot on the 15" - it's a popular and flexible feature that can make use of more than USB 3.0 alone.

Anyone care to speculate when they reckon USB 3 might be included?
 
inertiat said:
I think personally the best solution all-round would have been for apple to just leave in the ExpressCard slot on the 15" - it's a popular and flexible feature that can make use of more than USB 3.0 alone.

Anyone care to speculate when they reckon USB 3 might be included?
Click to expand...

I agree, i'd love to see the expresscard in the 15" model.

The way I see it is if you need something now, get it now, and if you need something else 1 year from now, sell it and buy what you need. There is never a good time to buy tech, only bad and slightly worse time.

I'm sure it's the same with quad cores with apple, once intel provides them with 32nm arrandale quadcores that are 35w tdp, sure enough you will see them in the mbp. Once intel provides them with usb3, you will see them(prolly one year from now on the usb3). I'm sure Apple wouldve liked to see better offering from intel this time around, but that didnt happen.

I'm personally torn apart on a purchace of a new 17" i7 mbp as well, I definately need a speed bump from my early 2008 c2d mbp, but i'm also thinking about quad cores etc. I use mostly logic pro and i would REALLY need the extra cores a quad core i7 offers(heavy modeling plugins).

I hate it that they didnt have a quad core this time 'round but at the same time I completely understand why they dont have that option.

It's always like this with apple, you love them and you hate them... If only osx would be available on other pc hardware without hackintoshing, and someone made as good designs as apple, huh? :rolleyes:
One can always dream...
 
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