Those $100 Apple USB-C cables might actually be worth it

Post #443,859 by drook 1/8/24 3:55:56 PM 1/8/24 3:55:56 PM Reply	Those $100 Apple USB-C cables might actually be worth it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD5aAd8Oy84 Imaging shows the amount of hardware that might - or might not - be inside your cables. Did you know there are charge-only USB-C cables? I didn't. Then there are the ones that should be considered charge only, but they don't tell you that. Oh! And the ones that are actually not reversible. You need to plug them in right way up, but it's even worse than USB-B, because it will actually plug in, just not do anything. -- Drew
Post #443,860 by static 1/8/24 7:23:11 PM 1/8/24 7:23:11 PM Reply	They made it too complex. It was obviously defined without regard to how people will cut corners. I have a charge-only USB-C (to A) cable - it came with my new camera. When I discovered it was charge-only, I very quickly labelled it! Wade.
Post #443,862 by Another Scott 1/9/24 9:47:33 PM 1/9/24 9:47:33 PM Reply	I've been getting NVMe sticks for USB data transfer. The USB-IF - https://www.usb.org/ - should be run out of town on a rail because of the way they name this stuff. It's easy to get a fast NVMe stick for not a lot of money, and an external USB 3.x enclosure can be had for $20 or so. And you would expect decent speed with it! And you'd be wrong. There are at least 4 flavors of USB 3.x - 5 Gbps, 10 Gbps, 20 Gbps, and 40 Gbps. Most of the cheap enclosures are the slowest, of course. But you won't know that if you just see "USB 3.x! Fast! Woot!!" I recently got one of these 20 Gbps enclosures and a 2TB WD Black stick to work with a USB C hub with a 20 Gbps PCIe interface card - "USB 3.2 Gen 2x2". Yes, people are supposed to understand what "USB 3.2 Gen 2x2" means. [ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ] I actually get close to 300 MB/s sustained writes with it on giant files, rather than barely 100 MB/s on others (the USB C hub may be a bottleneck). 40 Gbps stuff is double or more the price, and Apple's cables are a reflection of that (Thunderbolt 3 is 40 Gbps) - all this stuff isn't the same. All this USB stuff requires too much attention to the small print by buyers. It's aggravating. Grr... Cheers, Scott.
Post #443,863 by drook 1/10/24 10:21:02 AM 1/10/24 10:21:02 AM Reply	Didn't know it was that bad My biggest gripe is that they put too much into the cables. Cables should be dumb. And the ones that look the same should be the same. Of course we've been violating this since the 1/4-inch jack was standard. A guitar cable is not the same as a speaker cable. You could plug either in and it will "work" but be noisy as hell and potentially dangerous, depending on the amount of power involved. -- Drew
Post #443,874 by scoenye 1/12/24 8:57:10 PM 1/12/24 8:57:10 PM Reply	You need one of these Dual USB-C
Post #443,875 by drook 1/13/24 1:47:18 PM 1/13/24 1:47:18 PM Reply	And you have to put them in right side up -- Drew

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