of course to the most astute youtube viewers usb 3.1 and the type c connector
aren't exactly going to be anything new but what is new is having actual
hardware to play with and try it out so here's the kit i got from MSI so i guess
the next step then is to bring you guys along for the ride while i take it for a
test drive
the Corsair hx 1200i power supply delivers 80 plus platinum efficiency for
quiet efficient power and Corsair link digital for advanced monitoring and
control click this place right here to learn more so much of the hype about the
usb 3.1 update is the all new type c
connector we've gotten updated usb connectors before micro b compared to
mini b was more difficult to orient by eye and
theoretically rated for more insertions but in my experience much more fragile
so its only real benefit was being smaller usb 3.0 type a added more pins
deeper in on the connector and came in a new sexy blue compared to the black or
white of previous usb standards but never have we gotten anything as
paradigm shifting as this the type c
connector is smaller than anything but a proprietary lightning or mini or micro b
connector all of which can only handle usb 2.0 yet it contains all the pins
necessary for 3.0 or 3.1 transfer speeds
a 5 gigabit or 10 gigabit per second while being significantly more durable
than previous connectors that were optimized for thin devices like phones
tablets and ultrabooks not to mention it's reversible on top of all of that so
you'll never have to guess what goes where and in what orientation while
fumbling around in the dark and lord knows that kind of thing would come in
handy for me if you know what i mean and there's more cool stuff too usb 3.1 will
allow some of the pins to be used for power with the usb power delivery v 2.0
specification up to 100 watts allowing
not just smartphone or tablet charging but even laptop charging and an
alternate mode that will let the type c connector be used on a per approval
basis to carry alternate signals such as displayport along with usb data so
that's cool you could plug your monitor in with one cable for display power and
the built-in usb 3.1 hub but
while these are super sweet techs and together allowed apple to build the 2015
macbook with only a three and a half millimeter headphone jack and a usb 3.1
type-c port for all its external storage displays and charging although whether
or not apple should have built such a device is an entirely separate matter
this is where the waters also get a little bit muddy when discussing usb 3.1
and the type c connector usb 3.1 works
with the old connectors which has the benefit of making it physically
backwards compatible with 3.0 2.0 or heck even 1.1 devices if you can find
drivers for anything that old but the drawback of being basically just a speed
bump then from 5 gigabit to 10 gigabit with supported 3.1 devices that's right
guys without the type c connector power
is limited and there's no support for alternate modes to carry those other
fancy signals so then with that out of the way
let's see what's inside that care package from MSI we've got an Intel 750
series PCIe SSD to ensure we've got no bottlenecks on the other side of our
file transfer tests a custom controller board that can be connected to two ssds
in raid 0 to remove bottlenecks on that side of the usb 3.1 connection two Intel
730 series SATA three six gigabit per second ssds a cable with usb 3.1 type-c
connector on one side and the horrendous
and hopefully soon to be completely forgotten to everyone but samsung note
users usb 3.0 micro b connector on the
other and finally a z97a gaming 6
motherboard complete with usb 3.1 and a
type c connector for all that functionality which leads us to
benchmarks i am completely out of space in the office right now so i actually
ended up being set up in the hallway where i've also been working on performance numbers for the network file
servers that we're deploying at the new office stay tuned because those videos will be coming soon i hope and got to
work i'll be honest with you guys between the driver that Windows 8.1
picked up on its own the one in MSI's page for the board and the slightly
newer one i found on plugable.com performance actually wasn't as good for
me as i found people reporting elsewhere on the web now to be clear i'm not
accusing other publications of posting bogus numbers and i don't think that
they are i think it's more of a reflection of the early state of this
hardware and the software drivers that go with it that from one revision to
another i can see improvements in random read and write performance at the cost
of sequential reads and writes or the other way around it just seems like
they're in the process of doing a lot of fine tuning right now
so even if we were getting the same numbers as everyone else the point is it's not
the improvement we saw going from 2.0 to 3.0 but that was never what it was made
out to be it's just a minor rev i mean if it was going to be 10 times faster
again i'm sure they'd have called it usb 4.0 what usb 3.1 is though is a
wonderful technology for the future it's an obvious replacement for the previous
mini and micro connectors whether you've got the power and the additional data on
the other side or not and in the longer term i think it's also an outstanding
competitor for Thunderbolt a faster and
in many ways more advanced technology that i've always found interesting in a
geeky sense i mean who doesn't want you know six 20 gigabit connections on their
pc but one that appears will never overcome the limits imposed on it by its
cost that puts it up against 10 gig Ethernet in any kind of professional
setting with more than a couple of users and its inability to handle more than
point-to-point connections which makes it uncompetitive with the aforementioned
10 gigabit Ethernet in my mind so right
now it looks like it's poised for huge
success the decoupling of the 3.1 speed
standard from the type c connector will undoubtedly lead to some confusion and
unnecessary trips back to best buy once folks realize they brought they bought
the wrong usb 3.1 cable but it's a small
price to pay since this way phones or
any devices that won't have any need for 10 gigabit transfer speeds for now won't
be made more expensive not to mention hotter and more power hungry buy
additional chipsets to handle usb 3.1 speeds
for no apparent reason but they can still benefit from the better connector
until such time as they're ready for turbocharged data transfer speed
something i suspect will actually just never happen since it's not like the
wireless standards bodies are sitting with their thumbs up their collective
butts either speaking of having a thumb up your butt
nick i guess since we don't have a sponsor spot for today way to go nick now my
children will starve just kidding you work hard bro so thanks guys for
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