Introducing USB3.0
USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0 Transfer Speeds
Since around 2005, USB2.0 has been the dominant standard for connecting external devices such as hard disks, tape drives, digital cameras, memory sticks, wireless cards etc.
If you have connected any external device to a computer over the last 10 years, the chances are that you will have used USB2.0
More recently, USB 3.0 has begun to emerge. Any newly purchased computer will likely have USB3.0 ports.
USB2.0 versus USB3.0 Transfer Speeds
The main improvement is transfer speed: USB2.0 has a maximum speed of 480 mbps (megabits per second)
Whereas USB3.0 is capable of a whopping 5 Gbits/s (5000 mbps), or a 10x speed increase.
This means that if it takes an hour to transfer some data to a USB2.0 device, it could take as little as 6 minutes using a USB3.0 device.
This means that copying data to an External Hard Drive, Digital Camera, Printing a large Document, accessing USB Memory Sticks are instantly up to 10 times quicker!
So if you have a large amount of Data, it will be noticeably quicker, although if only a small amount of data to copy, then you might not necessarily seen much apparent difference
As with previous versions, USB3.0 is fully backwards compatible, therefore any USB2.0 device will work when plugged 
Another major advantage is that USB3.0 devices will work with USB2.0 ports, though obviously at a decreased transfer speed. Therefore, it will not be necessary to replace computers, or add an expansion card, just to use these new devices. USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0
Be aware that when using a USB 3 device and plugging it into a USB 2 port, it will not operate at the maximum potential speed and will instead operate at the ports speed, this being USB 2 speed. The same applies for USB 1.1
If your computer doesn't have on on-board USB 3.0 ports, you are likely able to install a USB plug-in card if you have a compatible internal slot within your computer. USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0
Would you like to Read our Article on comparing USB 1.0 and USB 2.0?
