One of the great new features of the new Apple portables is the addition of USB 3.0 capabilities. Now we can get data transfer speeds faster than FireWire 800 out of the same port we use for our printers and wired keyboards. More importantly, we can finally get some decent, bus-powered external drive performance on the MacBook Air, that is also able to be used on earlier systems.
Of course, the trick to getting that speed is making sure both sides of the USB chain are USB 3.o capable. Hooking a USB 2.0 drive up to a USB 3.0 port is going to – you guessed it – only run at USB 2.0 speeds. Fortunately we’ve been bringing our line of Storage Solutions over to USB 3.0 for a while now. These solutions currently have at least one USB 3.0 configuration:
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro Classic
- Newer Technology Guardian MAXimus
- OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro mini
- OWC Mercury Rack Pro
- Newer Technology Voyager drive dock
- OWC Express enclosure
All these models are ready to go, whatever your SuperSpeed storage needs may be. Of course, if your favorite enclosure line isn’t currently configured for USB 3.0, don’t worry; odds are that it will be soon. Stay tuned to the OWC Blog for future release details as they become available.
Any chance the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Aluminum enclosures will get the USB 3.0 treatment? I’ve got 3 of them in Firewire/USB2.0 but would love to have some of them in USB 3.0 for my future Mac systems.
Also, Kudos on the Mercury Pro Elite Mini. Got one a few weeks ago. Real nice!
Much of our storage line will be refreshing the USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 in time. Unfortunately, I don’t have the specifics on timing.
The new MacBook Pro Retina has two USB 3.0 ports. Are they tied together in any way? In other words, can you have a USB 2.0 device on one of those USB 3.0 ports and not have that affect a USB 3.0 drive connected by itself to the remaining USB 3.0 port?
Each port negotiates its transfer rate separately. So if you plug a USB 2.0 device into one port and a USB 3.0 device into the other, the USB 2.0 device will run at USB 2.0 speeds while the USB 3.0 device is still able to negotiate USB 3.0 speeds.
Thanks!
Also waiting for Thunderbolt drives and enclosures. Why oh why?
There’s many, many more Macs out there that could benefit from Thunderbolt interface drives (myself included). Only the 2012 models have built-in USB 3.0. Come on OWC… do it! Please? I’ll be your friend. :-)
I would love to buy a couple more quad interface drives, but need USB 3.0. Can’t wait for new quad interface (both 2.5 and 3.5″) hard drive enclosures with USB 3.0 to be released.
As mentioned in the article, others (including quad models) will be available in the future.
Is there a USB 3 card for a Mac Pro available from OWC?
We currently have several offerings.
Nice! We will be stocking many of these at MacSpecialist! I am getting not a few customers wanting USB 3.0 hard drives, and not the crappy ones they are finding at… well, the big box resellers with the blue building and yellow signs :-)
Waiting for Thunderbolt drives. :-)
It says:
Combo interface: USB 3.0, eSATA 6Gbps for maximum speed
at your page here:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/EliteALmini/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
But, when the links are selected for the individual drives (I clicked a few of them), pages have not yet been updated to include references to USB 3.0.
The Combo interface models (right column on that page) are equipped with eSATA and USB 3.0 ports.
The Quad interface models (on the left side) feature FW800/400, eSATA, and USB 2.0 ports.
Believe you were clicking through the quad interface models.
You are correct, Michael.
I thought, if Apple finally made the move to USB 3.0, that OWC’s quad interface enclosures would have been updated by now.
Maybe next time.