Anyone doing USB 3.0 yet?

[MilesAhead]

Anyone doing anything USB 3.0 yet? Addin card? Docking station? etc..

Just curious if anyone would share their experiences so far.

[doctorhardware]

The usb 3 docking stations are $54.99 and up. Still a little pricy. Asus has a pcie x1 add in card for around $30.00.

[MilesAhead]

I was tempted to buy SIIG on egg. It's on sale for $30 with free shipping. According to my docs I have a PCI expressX1 slot open. I just hate to open boxes. The BlacX docks are supposed to be out soon. I don't know why they are missing the boat.

Still it would be cool to have a USB 3.0 dock on the PC even if my WD player is only USB 2.0. I could at least copy the video files on a lot faster.

I haven't noticed any talk of USB sticks for 3.0 yet.

On egg SIIG is one of the only USB 3.0 add in cards I saw with any user review where the user is actually using it. Most stuff is too new for people to post about yet.

[doctorhardware]

I have bought SIIG cards in the past and never had a problem.

[MilesAhead]

I have bought SIIG cards in the past and never had a problem.

Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll take the plunge. Putting in a card should be pretty easy.

[doctorhardware]

It is a piece o cake. As long as you have a open 1x pcie slot your set to go.

[MilesAhead]

Sounds cool. The main thing holding me back is the 3.0 docking stations. They are all brands I never heard of. Supposedly Thermaltake will be release both a single and dual drive USB 3.0 in the next few weeks. iirc the dual-drive was supposed to price in at around what these guys are charging for a single. Something like $70.

[doctorhardware]

The esata Thermaltake docking station I have is one of the better ones. I will wait for Thermaltake to release one then I will buy that one. Here is one from SIIG. IIG USB 3.0 SuperSpeed SATA 3G Hard Drive Docking Station w/ Cooling Fan: SC-SA0D12-S1
USECSISA0D12S1 $45.99 I would buy that one from them also.

[MilesAhead]

Looks like the Sharkoon one has 2 slots like a toaster. At first I thought it had some brain-dead design because it shows one drive of each size, like you could only put a 2 1/2 in one slot and only a 3 1/2 in the other. But I found a write-up online. Each slot can take either size and it uses a separate USB 3.0 cable for each.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817735002&cm_re=usb_3.0_docking_station-_-17-735-002-_-Product

Here's the write-up I found:

http://www.bootdaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1460&Itemid=59

[doctorhardware]

Just looking at the picture one might make that assumption. I would not think that they would be that brain dead, but it is always possible. It looks like a nice docking station.

[MilesAhead]

I suppose there's no big hurry. I should let the user reviews shake out for a bit. I was looking at the new HPs they have at Best Buy and I don't understand how they combine the options. No USB 3.0 yet of course, but they had a nice looking Pavilion w/8 GB DDR3 ram, BDROM drive, AMD Phenom II, 1/2 GB video card, but for some weird reason they put in a slow wired network. Only 100 Mb/sec in an otherwise fast machine. Price tag was around $800 or less. A network card is cheap but these HPs only come with 1 PCIexpressX1 slot open. Shame to pull something else out just to get Gigabit wired network.