SIIG USB 3.0 card

[dr_ml422]

I might be throwing down w/this here SIIG thingy. It's the the only other option now besides the other one you put in? Or was it a SIIG card to begin with? I forgot.

Heck if it's screaming faster than what I get on my e-sata card and integrated port it's definitely worth it.

[MilesAhead]

Yeah, the USB 3.0 card is SIIG. It's been fine from the beginning. I bought a couple of Sharkoon USB 3.0 docking stations. Later when one went defective I tried an SIIG USB 3.0 dock. I like the SIIG dock better. Just seems better quality and the drive runs cooler. No idle time out to mess with. I have one of the new Caviar Black 640 GB Sata 6 Gbs drives in it with 64 MB cache. I can read from it at a steady 130+ MB/sec. Really smooths out disk intensive jobs!! I think you'll be glad if you get SIIG USB 3.0 stuff.

The prices seem to have gone up on Egg but I've been finding good deals on Buy.com. I think I paid $57 for the SIIG USB 3.0 docking station, with 2 day shipping. You can probably find a good deal on the SIIG card as the one on Egg has gone up over $10 since I bought it.

[MilesAhead]

Hmmmmm, the longer I go with these USB 3.0 docks, the more I wish I got the SIIG first. The fan makes quite a bit of difference. The only way the Sharkoon cools the Sata drive is by letting it spin down due to idle time out. If you leave it spun up for any length of time, the WD Caviar Black get quite hot to the touch. I ordered another SIIG. I think the Sharkoons I'll relegate to backup status. Maybe I'll try one hooked up to the TV with a USB 2.0 cable and see if it's any smoother than the BlacX.

The SIIG just seems like a bit better quality all the way around.

[dr_ml422]

So the Sharkoons use a USB 2.0 cable? I'm lost here. You mean both the Sharkoon and SIIG 3.0 docks use a USB 2.0 cable but get upconverted to 3.0 when plugged into the 3.0 card?

1 thing I've noticed straight off the back is that the drive set into the dock really determines how much faster/slower data is transmitted. I transferred about 5GB worth of pics from a Samsung Laptop HDD to my Hitachi 1000GB PC HDD using my BlackX Docks, and avg. speed was about 7MBs per w/e I forget. Think it's in mins.

When I transferred 37 flics from 1 dock to another avg. speed was way over. I know all it took was 5hrs. and 45mins.. All flics were over or about 4.37 GBs. Think I posted it. Though that transfer was from 1 PC to another over a Lan Homenetwork at the time. That also may make a difference.

[MilesAhead]

No, the Sharkoon is USB 3.0 with a USB 3.0 cable, but the design of the connector is such you can plug a USB 2.0 cable into it. While I was waiting for my first USB 3.0 dock I was using a USB 2.0 external drive with the SIIG card. You can plug USB 2.0 cable into a USB 3.0 connector, but not the other way around.

I'm just saying I might be able to use the USB 3.0 dock with my WD USB 2.0 set top box to play movies. Only thing I'd have to see is if the idle time out will be a problem when I pause the movie. But they'll probably just stay in the closet as backups. Seemed like the BlacX the drive didn't get this hot.. probably because it couldn't be worked as hard at 24 MB/sec. But in the USB 3.0 dock they run at full speed. It definitely gets too hot. To use them on all the time I'd have to set up some kind of fan arrangement or risk losing data and killing my drives. Poor design for a full speed setup imho.

I should be getting my 2nd SIIG dock tomorrow.

[MilesAhead]

Got the 2nd SIIG dock today. I feel better already! Even doing a defrag the drive is cooler than in the Sharkoon just spinning.

[doctorhardware]

It sounds like the SIIG is a much better design then the Sharkoon docking station was. So when I am ready for the new docking stations I will go with the SIIG hard drive stations. I know that a lot of heat is generated when defraging the hard drive.

[MilesAhead]

It seems like a good way to go. Plus it's nice not to have to worry about that spin up/spin down business. The drives are always ready. You can hear the fans but they are low speed. After awhile it kinds of blends into the background unless it's 2:00 AM and there's no other sound or something. Not noisy at all.

[MilesAhead]

SIIG USB 3.0 card is back at the discount I got. $40 free shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815150161&cm_re=siig_usb_3.0-_-15-150-161-_-Product

[capricornJZ]

thanks for that info

[dr_ml422]

It sounds like the SIIG is a much better design then the Sharkoon docking station was. So when I am ready for the new docking stations I will go with the SIIG hard drive stations. I know that a lot of heat is generated when defraging the hard drive.

I 2nd this! Been busy w/other stuff. Reading and studying software. I haven't forgot about this thread. Thnx as always.

[MilesAhead]

Thanks for the replies.

[doctorhardware]

Well The 6 core CPU is here , but I am still waiting on the motherboard. The last 2 things I need is a hard drive and a video card and then it is ready to start to install the parts into that case. I have the power supply installed already, but I am thinking of taking it out and painting the interior of the case high gloss black with my air brush. I think that would make the case look real nice.

[dr_ml422]

It's going to scream!

Well The 6 core CPU is here , but I am still waiting on the motherboard. The last 2 things I need is a hard drive and a video card and then it is ready to start to install the parts into that case. I have the power supply installed already, but I am thinking of taking it out and painting the interior of the case high gloss black with my air brush. I think that would make the case look real nice.

Congrats! The new really Big Monster will be here soon!

[MilesAhead]

btw this card is on Promo at NewEgg. For $24.99 shipped I had to get another one for my dual core:

The promo ends 6/28

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815150161&cm_re=siig_usb_3.0-_-15-150-161-_-Product