USB 3.0 with the new XPS models

Hi,
for my new Notebook the XPS 15 I've bought a new Western Digital USB 3.0 external 1 TB hard drive. But as I tried to transfer some music the transfer speed only went up to 30 MB/s at the highest. Normally it's just about 15 - 22 MB/s even some of my old USB 2.0 drives get arround 25 MB/s with my old labtop. What am I doing wrong? I'm plugging the cable to the SS USB Port of my XPS 15.
Can anyone help?

 

Anyone?

 

Even the ext HDD should support USB 3.0 isn't it?

 

I have the exact hard drive and it does support 3.0, i have the same issue where transfers between 20 and 30 mbs

 

I wrote an email to Western Digital concerning that issue..let's see what they say about it...
Additionally I've checked the drive with Crystal Disk Mark and got 45 MB/s which is not much neither...

 

I have been away too long so I might get corrected by someone...

Unless Dell has started to use non-Intel USB controllers in their laptops you won't get USB 3.0 support in their products. Intel has yet to release a USB 3.0 USB controller in their Southbridges yet for desktops OR laptops...

If Dell has started doing it you would need a very new system...

 

Hopefully not... Maybe it's just a driver problem..

 

The new XPS 15 and XPS 17 are equipped with USB 3.0 ports. Dell uses Renesas/NEC USB 3.0 Host Controllers.

 

I know its a bit obvious but i guess you are using USB 3 cables...dont need a reply.

 

Thanks for the correction. I have been away too long to know if they had added a third party controller to handle it or not.

 

The problem is that the Controller can't handle USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 at the same time... If you plug in a USB 2.0 device together with a 3.0 you will get 2.0 speed... that sucks but I need Dell to confirm on this

 

Was is confirmed that was the issue? I'm getting at most, 68MB/s on big files with this new 2TB USB 3.0 hdd from Seagate. From what I know, it should be faster...?

 

using WD 3TB book:

usb3 write speed is about 75MBps and read is about 110MBps
esata write speed is 80MBps and read is about 110MBps

connecting the same WD book to my desktop using esata, I got the same read and write speed
connecting the same WD book to my desktop using USB 3 ePCI card (EVGA card using NEC chip), I got the same speeds as usb 3 of XPS 15.

it is definitely bottlenecked by harddrive itself.

 

If you guys are running standard 7200 RPM drives, 30-40 MB/sis actually about right -- the USB port is not the limiting factor, it's the hard drive. The only thing that's going to be able to take advantage of the extra bandwidth offered by USB 3.0 is a solid state drive. If someone has a SSD and an external enclosure sitting around, they can confirm this.

 

I wasn't sure what the speeds were for harddrives anymore. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

I have the same issue with an iomega eGo which is USB 3.0. I plug it in and Windows tells me that this device is capable of higher speeds if plugged into a USB 3 port. This is when it is plugged into the bloody USB 3.0 port. My transfer speeds have peaked at about 42MB but average the same as you. I had posted this in another thread at one point and never got a response. I'm currently using the latest drivers from the Dell site.

I saw somewhere that it may be a problem with this version of the driver as the 1.x version didn't have this issue.

 

I have just upgraded to the latest usb 3.0 driver from dell and my passport se 3.0 1tb is copying at 80 mbps

 

I get anything between 80MBps - 130MBps depending upon the file type. If its a single movie file the transfer rate is generally above 100MBps.