newbie usb HDD question

[Waddle]

I got a 80 gig external hard drive for christmas. The only problem is that I only have USB 1.1 ports on my machine. How much, if at all, is this going to bottleneck my performance.

 

[L337 M33P]

USB 1.1 = 12Mbit per second = about 1 megabyte a second.

Most definitely as HDs can transfer data at 25 MBytes/seconds.

 

[reverse]

Are you doing large file transfers each time you use it? If so, it wouldnt hurt to splurge out a few bucks on a 2.0 card.

 

[Waddle]

How wide is the PCI bus, 'cause I have two other cards on PCI so the 2.0 card would only get a 1/3 of the band width.

Thanks for the info

 

[DayUSeX]

dont worry bout the PCI bus. Unless you are running a professional sound card, a PCI graphics card, a VIDEO in/out card all at the same time you will be fine.

get the PCI card you will love it. The USB 2.0 speed is amazing. I swear my USB hard drive is faster than my IDE(80gb 8mb)

 

[SunRedRX7]

When I originally had my USB hardrive with USB1.1 it pretty much sucked. With 2.0 its as fast as my internal hardrives, so definitly go and get yourself a USB2.0 PCI card.

 

[lugee]

i agree with the post above. i take my 160gig external usb2.0/firewire around a lot and when i use it on other computers without usb 2.0. its hell. investing on usb 2.0 card is the way to go. trust me, you feel the difference in performance. transfering files will increase a lot. i think usb2.0 is 480mbps? someone correct me if im wrong.

 

[Waddle]

thanks for the help. I will definately invest in a usb 2.0 card soon.