Get the Most Out of USB 3.0 Flash Drives

This may seem obvious to technically minded people but given the similar look of standard USB ports you could forgive unsuspecting users for thinking that there is no difference between them all.

However, if you look closely you can quickly work out which devices you should connect to which USB ports.

Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0 Flash Drive

Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0 Flash Drive

If you see in the receptacle of a USB device a blue colour then it will be a USB 3.0 (or SuperSpeed) device. These devices can operate up to a maximum of 5Gbps (that’s 625 megabytes per second before overheads) which is a massive step up from the maximum of 480Mbps (or 60 megabytes per second) of USB 2.0 devices. In order to achieve the best possible throughput with such a device you need to connect it to a USB 3.0 port however not every USB port on the latest computers will be a USB 3.0 port. Furthermore, some computers won’t have them at all.

So how do you identify a USB 3.0 port?

USB 3.0 ports on the Panasonic AX2 Ultrabook

USB 3.0 ports on the Panasonic AX2 Ultrabook

In a similar fashion with USB 3.0 devices, if you can see blue inside a USB port then it will be USB 3.0 capable. Otherwise, the USB port may have SS next to the USB logo adjacent to the port indicating that it is a SuperSpeed (AKA USB 3.0 port).

As long as the USB device and the USB port are both blue or indicate that they are SuperSpeed then you’ll get the best possible performance. USB devices without a blue USB receptacle should be connected to uncoloured USB ports so you can keep your USB 3.0 ports for USB 3.0 devices.

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