The other day I bought a USB 3 drive for my new Retina MPB. I had read about the speed of USB3 and wanted to compare it to Thunderbolt.
So what I did was three tests. My test was a folder with 5GB of random stuff, some large files and some smaller files. First I used the included USB3 cable with the GoFlex FreeAgent drive, then I moved the drive to the GoFlex Thunderbolt Caddy.
7:41 - Thunderbolt to USB 2
2:29 - USB 3 to Retina Flash Drive
1:11 - Retina Flash Drive to Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt Caddy
The important thing to remember about either the USB3 or Thunderbolt Caddy solution is that these are bus powered, and as I’ve said many times in the past, when you are doing field acquistion, you REALLY don’t want to be dependant on AC power for anything. There are too many people on a set that can be wrapping power and not think that the “data tech nerd” could possibly still be working.
Oh, and yea, I don’t pretend to be a photographer… this was snapped on my iPhone.