souljacker
innit
That's not what you said.
The USB "standard" is decending into chaos
- Thread starter Sunray
- Start date
That's not what you said.
editor
hiraethified
I thought it was pretty clear: Android phones and Chromebooks have been all chargeable by the same USB-C cable for years.
But to make it crystal clear for pedants: USB-C equipped Android phones and USB-C equipped Chromebooks have been all chargeable by the same USB-C cable for years.
There.
souljacker
innit
Thanks for clearing it up.
strung out
💩 🤣 🍆 💦 🧐 👻 🐝 🐈⬛
All Android phones? My last Android phone definitely wasn't on USB-C.
editor
hiraethified
Post #62.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
That kind of demonstrates how it's failing as a standard though.
And yeah I might be overthinking it...but how is one to know? Anyone who's ended up with slightly the wrong cable or adapter knows the danger of underthinking. A consistent, clear standard should help to make the level of thinking required, clear.
The speed could be relevant by the way as the internal drive in my new Mac can do 5-10gbps. So the difference between the 5gbps and 10 Gbps USB versions could potentially be worth being aware of.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
All of this.
souljacker
innit
I thought Macs used SATA3? Either way, it won't be reading and writing at that speed (I don't think so anyway).
teuchter
je suis teuchter
It's one of the new M1 ones. I don't think anyone actually knows what it is! But appears that read and writes speeds are potentially pretty fast. I don't know...all a bit beyond my expertise.
How fast is the SSD inside an M1 Mac?
How fast is the internal SSD? Benchmarks range from around 2.7 GB/s up to nearly 20 GB/s. Which are right? Some new figures, in need of more measurements.
eclecticlight.co
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
I bought the same enclosure you linked to on Amazon for an XBox a couple of weeks ago. Ignore those stated speeds, they're hypothetical. You'll never see those speeds in the real world, or anything even close to them. The fastest you'll ever see is about 560/530 MB/s read/write, as that's as fast as the SSD can read/write.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Sure, but there are other enclosures, which can take faster SSDs, and in those cases it might become relevant.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
One example: Connecting an Android streaming box to the PC to flash new firmware, and you're switching back and forth between USB power and power from the mains adapter.examples? I've always used USB-A to connect stuff and have never done that.
souljacker
innit
It's in the spec of USB. If you make an A-A cable you are supposed to put a power block in the middle. It's because you can fry components if they are both sending power. That's actually why the B connectors are all so different from A. I don't know how USB-C handles this though as it's years since I worked a lot with USB. I suspect they have some sort of switch in the USB port to stop it happening but I couldn't say for sure.
None of this is to say that A-A cables don't exist though. I had a webcam years ago that had A-A for it's connection but it's not standard.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Do you have an example of an SSD that can read/write faster than 5Gb/s?
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Eg this one claims around 2,500 MB/s which is 20Gb/s unless I have messed up my conversions.
Samsung Portable SSD X5 | Specs & Features | Samsung Semiconductor Global
Portable SSD X5 delivers fast speeds and safeguards data. It has a 2TB capacity and the fastest bandwidth up to 40Gb/s that brings speed and performance.
www.samsung.com
Or this, which would have to go in an enclosure, claims 2000MB/s
Intel 665p 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe 3D NAND SSD/Solid State Drive
Buy from Scan - 1TB Intel 665p Series, M.2 (2280) PCIe 3.0 (x4) NVMe SSD, QLC 3D3 NAND, 2000MB/s Read, 1925MB/s Write, 160k/250k
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Indeed, but I thought we were discussing SATA SSDs, as that's what you linked to on Amazon?Eg this one claims around 2,500 MB/s which is 20Gb/s unless I have messed up my conversions.
Samsung Portable SSD X5 | Specs & Features | Samsung Semiconductor Global
Portable SSD X5 delivers fast speeds and safeguards data. It has a 2TB capacity and the fastest bandwidth up to 40Gb/s that brings speed and performance.
Or this, which would have to go in an enclosure, claims 2000MB/s
Intel 665p 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe 3D NAND SSD/Solid State Drive
Buy from Scan - 1TB Intel 665p Series, M.2 (2280) PCIe 3.0 (x4) NVMe SSD, QLC 3D3 NAND, 2000MB/s Read, 1925MB/s Write, 160k/250kwww.scan.co.uk
Funnily enough just the other week I dropped off my usb-c charger to someone in hospital and it failed to charge their phone. Turned out to be an incompatibility with 2 manufacturers fast charge system - so tbf a deviation from the standard - but still confusing as they were both just usb-c and I just expected then to work.
In practice usb works just fine 9/10 times, it's difficult to fuck up and much better than what preceded it. Most of the problems are down to shite cables rather than the spec itself. Most of those variations of standards don't matter to most people and the alternative would be things just not working at all rather than working with slightly degraded performance.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
You thought wrong. I presented that as a "semi random example" to demonstrate potential for cable confusion.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Where's the confusion? It's a type A to type A USB 3.0 cable. It'll work on any type A to type A USB 3.x setup. The attainable speed will depend on the connected devices.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
As I already explained, I would need to connect it to a type C port. Also as already explained, I might need to connect it via a dock or hub. Also as already explained, I might want to consider a faster SSD in which case the variety of USB3.x might become relevant to whether or not I could actually take advantage of that extra speed.
So you get your top spec cable with it or if you need a replacement you can buy one to the published spec. But you can also use one of many other not quite compatible cables that you probably have laying around or easy to borrow or available from Poundland that'll still work - just with slightly degraded performance. Seems better than a cable that doesn't work at all to me.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
If you want speeds greater than 10Gb/s, you'll need a type C cable and a peripheral that utilises USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 or faster. It isn't rocket science.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Fair enough, we shouldn't complain that the USB standard has become very confused, because the only alternative is something that doesn't work at all.
I think that most people will have had the experience of thinking they've got a USB cable of the right type lying around, and then finding they haven't. They've got 5 all the same but the wrong type and then a bunch of other ones that are all different but also aren't the right type. As in, they've got the wrong plug on them, not that they might be slightly sub par spec.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
I didn't say it was rocket science.
I said it was confusing.
And there's more than one type of "type C cable" so that is an insufficient specification.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
It's for an Apple laptop. Buy a Thunderbolt 3 cable. If you need the cable to be longer than 0.5m and still want to achieve the theoretical 40Gb/s speeds, you'll need an active cable of 2m or less.
HTH.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Here's a lengthy article explaining why any advice to just get a "type C cable" is negligent and amateur in the extreme.
Best USB-C & Thunderbolt 3 Cables 2021
Best USB-C & Thunderbolt 3 Cables 2021
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Nope, I'm just trying to explain it in the simplest terms possible to someone who seems to be having a problem understanding.
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