For whatever reason, this has led to some odd name changes. USB 3.1, by contrast, is a much smaller change-so much so that the USB 3.1 specification has actually absorbed the USB 3.0 spec. Supporting USB 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 previously required a mix of different interfaces, but xHCI brought them all together and made it easier to make future additions (hence “extensible”). It introduced something called the “Extensible Host Controller Interface,” or xHCI, a single interface that could work with all extant versions of the USB spec. That’s not the version of the USB 3.1 spec that Apple is offering. We know that the USB Implementers Forum finalized the USB 3.1 spec back in 2013, and that it raises the theoretical bandwidth of the USB bus from USB 3.0’s 5Gbps to 10Gbps. It’s not the first device to use Type C, but it’s certainly the most noteworthy, and it’s the first laptop that insists on using Type C for everything from power to data to display output.Īpple’s spec page for the new MacBook says that this port supports “USB 3.1 gen 1,” which there hasn’t been much discussion about.

The announcement of the new Retina MacBook has prompted a flurry of attention to the USB Type C spec, a story we’ve been following since the port was just a gleam in the USB-IF’s eye. I would stay away from those.Further Reading USB 3.1 and Type-C: The only stuff at CES that everyone is going to use The 3.5' GoFlex bases supply less reliable DC power and Seagate has also shipped a large number of high failure rate and DOA drives in the 3.5' GoFlex kits. I have regularly used both the 2.5' USB 3.0 and 2.5' FireWire 800 adapters interchangeably with Seagate and bare SATA drives, both rotational and solid-state, and they are perfectly adequate to interface bare 2.5' drives with the arbitrary host system of your choice. The 2.5' GoFlex adapters supply power to a 2.5' drive through FireWire, USB or Thunderbolt directly, while the 3.5' adapter is a larger base which supplies power to a 3.5' drive via a wall wart. The bare GoFlex drive, of whatever generation, is nothing more than a 2.5' or 3.5' SATA hard drive in an enclosure that exposes the power and data ports on the back of the drive. The Seagate GoFlex adapters are self-contained SATA to USB, SATA to FireWire or SATA to Thunderbolt bridges. This is untrue - the variosu GoFlex options are all just direct plug SATA adapters. I realize this is all somewhat off topic, but I had to say something to clarify the statement that ' the items listed for the Seagate drive are for that drive only'. Because these are larger drives I have in continuous use, I bought the Firewire adapters, and they nearly doubled the transfer speed to these drives.

But Seagate sells an adapter that swaps out the drives' USB 3.0 interface for a Firewire 800 interface. I have a couple of Seagate Backups+ drives that came USB 3.0 enabled. However, if there was an adapter that could allow me to connect all of my USB 3.0-capable drives to my iMac's Firewire 800 port and harness its higher speed (compared to my iMac's USB 2.0 ports), it would be worth spending money on such a device because it would work with every USB 3.0 drive I've bought or will buy.Īs to your last few sentences, I'm not sure what you're saying. I'm using these drives for long-term storage of data, so spending considerably more money to get Firewire drives would not make any sense at all.

That wasn't my question.Īnd, yes, I do buy the USB versions because they are cheaper. MichelPM-Of course I know that there are external drives with Firewire 800, and I knew that when I bought my external drives (and all without having to do a bit of research). Radiation Mac-Thank you for the information.

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