USB 3 Card Reader

[MarkBarbieri]

I finally found one. It's a Delkin Ddreader 42 USB 3.0.

I did a quick speed comparison between the reader built into my monitor, my normal reader, and the new USB 3 reader. My test was copying two files totaling 1.2 gigabytes. I wrote down the throughput reported by Windows as well as the total time from when I dropped the file until the file copy dialog closed. I tested reads and writes. I used a Transcend 32GB 400x CF card for testing. The USB 2 reader and monitor went through a USB hub, which might have affected performance, although I never noticed a difference between direct connection and the hub.

Here are the times I saw:

Monitor-Write 8.3 MB/s, 2:33
Monitor-Read 9.6 MB/s, 2:13

USB 2 Reader-Write 17 MB/s, 1:15
USB 2 Reader-Read 19 MB/s, 1:10

USB 3 Reader-Write 34.3 MB/s, 0:36
USB 3 Reader-Read 90 MB/s, 0:19

Given that I will use the reader almost exclusively for reading, the 4x speed improvement is well worth the $35 to me.

Will you see the same gain? I don't know. It depends on the CF/SD card that you use. It depends on the drive you are writing to. It depends on the USB 3 implementation on your computer.

 

[Gdad]

I like to get myself a dish of ice cream while my pictures are downloading- I don't think 19 seconds is enough time.

 

[ukcatfan]

This is all very interesting, but who are you two guys???

I was beginning to think I would only see you all on Facebook from now on. (BTW, you have had some very nice shots lately Jeff!)

It sounds like I will be looking for USB 3 built into my next pc.