USB revolution

As it turned out, USB 3.0 has picked up speed again, numerically doubling the theoretical speed of USB 2.0 to 480 Mbit / sec, around 5 Gb / sec on devices. This speed creates completely new possibilities, at least for devices where a lot of data needs to be moved. Examples include external hard drives, external optical drives, and HD cameras. It’s no coincidence that the first USB 3.0 hardware also fall into this category.

We received three pieces of hardware from Kelly-Tech Ltd. Two of these are built-in interfaces, while the third is an external hard drive enclosure. Let's see them in a nice line!

Expansion card

The first victim is a low-profile card that, due to its size, can even be built into a HTPC living in a small house. Let's see the features on the box!

PCI Express 2.0 x1 connector

• PCI Express 1.0, 2.0 support
• Intel eXtensible Host Controller compatibility
• 2 USB 3.0 connectors
• Manage all USB standards (USB 3.0, USB 2.0, USB 1.1)
• Power supply via 15-pin SATA connector
• 32-bit and 64-bit support for Windows 7, Vista and XP
• NEC chipset

As you can see, the card can be inserted into a PCI Express bus, but the power supply must be solved with a SATA standard cable. You can connect two USB devices to the card, and this can be anything up to USB 1.1. The card can be ideal for motherboards that do not yet have USB 3.0 support.

ExpressCard

The second device is essentially the same as the first. The biggest difference is that while the former is for desktop, it is made for mobile computer owners. The packaging shows that there is also a CARDBUS version from the expander, we got the ExpressCard, which is much narrower on the outside than the old CARDBUS devices.

You can connect two USB devices to the card, which, like a traditional card, handle all standards up to and including USB 1.1. We can't complain about the driver, as it supports all versions of Windows up to XP. The interesting thing about the card is that it is not enough for it to arrive via the ExpressCard connector, we have to support it from one of the USB ports on the machine with the help of an external cable.

External hard drive enclosure

As we wrote, USB 3.0 has the great advantage over old standards of brutal transfer speeds. This is exploited by devices where a lot of data needs to be moved, and this can also mean an external hard drive. It is no coincidence that this was included in the package that came to us, as we also wanted to measure and see the benefits of using USB 3.0.

The box labeled Super speed USB 3.0 Storage includes a box for mobile hard drives, next to it a cable for USB 3.0, a power cord that will take up two USB ports and of course a few screws for mounting.

The tool itself is not very ornate, more precisely not at all. Gray, slightly sand-blown surface reminiscent. On the plus side, it is not sensitive to fingerprints.

Let's see the measurements then!