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I’m looking for an adapter that will let me use a USB 3.0 port as a Gigabit Ethernet port. This is proving surprisingly hard to find! Is there some reason why this product is either unavailable or very obscure? Is there an online shop (US/Canada) where I can buy such an item?
Newegg, TigerDirect, NCIX, etc… don’t seem to carry such an item. I find this surprising since it will provide at least double the bandwidth—possibly quadruple—compared to a USB 2.0 Gigabit Ethernet adapter.
Firstly, no gigabit adapter plugged into a network will get anywhere near the maximum speed. USB 2 provides a theoretical maximum that is "good enough". For what it's worth, I have a USB 2 / ethernet adapter and it's good enough for me. I see around 200 - 250Mbps. – None – 2012-01-21T03:27:47.470
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@Randolph West: I've found that USB2 tends to max out at about 30MB/s for drives; this agrees with your findings for the ethernet adaptor. Tom's Hardware got speeds of about 111MB/s on a gigabit network (compared to the theoretical maximum of 125 MB/s). My drives aren't that fast (yet), but they're at least twice 30MB/s, so it's worth it for me to use USB 3.
– intuited – 2012-01-21T04:01:13.110Shopping recommendations are off-topic according to the FAQ.
– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2012-01-21T04:20:36.7432@techie007: Duly noted. The main point of the question is to ask why they are difficult to find, so the question is I think still valid. – intuited – 2012-01-21T04:41:47.707
@RandolphWest that's simply not true. Decent network kit,and crtically decent ethernet adapters, will happily saturate 1Gbps networks. I regularly get 100MB/s copying over gig ethernet to/from SSD equipped laptops. – Dean Smith – 2012-06-15T14:45:37.843
@Dean, I stand by my original comment. USB 2.0 has a theoretical maximum of 60MB/s (480Mbps), from which I get ~30MB/s. Gigabit Ethernet has a theoretical maximum of 125MB/s (1000Mbps). It is impossible, even with the best equipment available, to saturate GbE with a USB 2.0 adapter. Your saturation is happening at the USB interface, or else you're on USB 3.0. Most likely, though, you're seeing artefacts from file caching. – None – 2012-06-18T05:15:45.530