USB 3 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES

With any external hard drive interface, keep in mind that you will only achieve its maximum data transfer rate if your computer and the external hard drive support it. USB 3.0 is capable of 625MB/s. However, check the rated speed of the external drive. For example, the Lacie 4TB d2 USB 3.0 Professional Storage Drive is rated at up to 180 MB/s. The G-Technology 6TB G-Drive G1 USB 3.0 Hard Drive is rated at up to 226MB/s. Note that, in both cases, these speeds exceed the 106MB/s requirement of ProRes HQ 4K video at 24 fps. That can only be a good thing.

USB 3.0 has is finally a standard part of PC hardware, and millions of existing USB devices already on the market work with it already. Thunderbolt has more muscle, but USB 3.0 will reach 100 percent of PCs in 2016, Thunderbolt reaches less than a sixth of laptops and an even smaller percentage of desktop PCs.