external harddrive question

[chaffe[seagreens]]

I am insearch of a 1TB external harddrive. got a go-pro hero camcorder and plan on screwing around a lot with it. want to create a dedicated harddrive for storage. I see that some are usb 2 and some are usb 3. how do I find out on my computer if I have the capibility to get the 3.0. do I even need to look into this? or should I just get the 2.0. thanks. Seagreens

[Boss Llama]

If you know your motherboard, we can look up your connections easily. If you don't, check if any of your external USB ports (especially the rear ones) are blue colored - that's the color USB 3.0 ports are, so that may indicate one. If your board is older than last year, it probably doesn't have it.

USB 3.0 is a specific type of USB port, though is cross-compatible with other stuff at lower/older speeds. To get USB 3.0 functionality you need the port, the device, and the cable to all be able to handle it.

[Mortis462]

What Al said, look for a blue colored USB port for 3.0. If you are looking at drives Western Digital is starting to sell quite a few USB 3.0 drives that come with a PCI USB 3.0 card bundled with the external drive, something to be on the look out for.