USB3 drives

[Flatliner]

Is Airspy a USB3 device? From what I read unless the device that is transferring information to the computer is a USB3 device then it will only transfer at USB2 speeds even though it is plugged into a USB3 port? If that is not correct let me know as I haven't bought my computer yet and there is still time to change my purchase from the t420 to the x220 that has a USB3 drive.

Thanks
Moonbounce

It's not USB3.

 

[br0adband]

And connecting the Airspy to a USB 3.0 port does not automagically imply you'll get better performance either since the port will fall back to USB 2.0 compatibility mode with 480 Mbps overall throughput potential - while the 10 MHz of bandwidth sent as IQ data is quite a lot, it won't saturate the USB 2.0 bus capacity.

"It's the drivers... it's always the drivers..."

Stick with the t420.

 

[Forts]

Airspy is USB2... But I found trying to use a USB2 HDD at the same time would really bog down my laptop. Using a USB3 HDD was much easier on the system.

 

[br0adband]

Well in that specific usage yes it would improve things somewhat. A USB controller can handle 1 to 4 ports typically so, it might have been a situation where you were using two USB ports on the same controller at one time and it wasn't handling the throughput well - putting the Airspy on a USB 3.0 port attached to a controller that isn't being used by anything else obviously would allow that controller to handle it all without needing to "share" the throughput so yeah, that's a good use for it if you have one (meaning a USB 3.0 port and no USB 3.0 devices).

Whatever works...