Considerations - Not much these devices are fairly new. Most of the devices you
purchase today are of the 2.0 version with a few USB 3.o devices coming to the
market.
If your computer is three or more years old then you may have version a 1.1
controller. You will know if you have version 1.1 when you connect a 2.0 device
because you will get this error from the device manager:
"This device can perform faster if you connect it to a Super-Speed
USB 3.0 Port"
If this is the case you can purchase a card to upgrade to
3.0.
If you have version 2.0 and need more ports, a
usb hub would be easier and
cheaper, another reason for using a usb hub is if you purchase a powered hub
some devices operate better. I have a couple of external usb hard drives (small portable
20 and 40 gig drives from laptops) sometimes the computer will not recognize the
device, connect to a powered hub, no problems.
USB 3.0
Since this article was written USB specification 3.0 has passed the ISO
community and is now in Research and Development (R&D) by many companies. Spec
3.0 will have a higher connect speed in the realm of 5 MBPS (Million Bits Per
Second) where as Spec 2.0 is 400 MBPS. Also an increase in voltage supplied to
the USB device from 1.5 volts to 5.0 volts. Both of these increases will allow
for faster devices and more devices that can do more. The release of the first
USB 3.0 devices are slowly trickling on to the sales market. And any new device
will be expensive for the for seeable future.
This site contains a lot of information. As
with any publication not all information is available due to space, time, or
subject constraints.
If you have a question that you did not find the answer
on this web site you a can
ask your question here and we will endeavor to get you the most up to date
answer possible!
