Buffalo Launches New New USB 3.0 Card

People who missed the announcement of a new USB 3.0 host controller can be sure Buffalo didn't, as the company used said chip in the making of its new USB 3.0 card.

Some motherboards might not have built-in USB 3.0 ports, or so but they are insufficient, so there are those things called add-in-boards.

Buffalo created such a board, which adds four ports to any system, so long as said desktop has a motherboard with a free PCI Express slot.

Essentially, it is supposed to work at sequential read speed of 371 MB/s and 322 MB/s when writing, which is to say, a whole lot.

The company reached these rates when it tested the card on one of the 12 TB USB 3.0 DriveStation storage devices (it uses 4 HDDs).

In Japan, it is already listed, at a price of 4,200 Yen, which is about the same as $54.62, or 39.71 Euro.

In other words, the card is very expensive and, even though other parts of the world will, probably, hand it for less, the sum probably won't be overly accessible even then.

Of course, if the above mentioned speeds really are genuine (and they hold true for other items besides the DriveStation), Buffalo might just have a reason to expect compensation.

Then again, with how weak sales of certain items are getting, it isn't likely that many people will actually take the leap and buy the item.

After all, USB 3.0 is practically on every motherboard nowadays, even if the controller chip is the NEC µD720200 instead of the Renesas µD720201.

Speaking of this NEC chip, Buffalo tested that one too, on the same setup, and managed 'only' 305 MB/s read and 226 MB/s write.

In the end, prospective buyers, and time, will decide the degree of success of this new four-port USB 3.0 card.