External Hard Drive for consoles, is it a problem?

[dahuman]

BaldrSkies said:

cbarroso09 said:

BaldrSkies said:
The problem with the specific case of the Wii U is that it uses USB 2.0, which is just outrageously slow for the large data transfers required of modern games. Had Nintendo gone with USB 3.0 there would be no such issue. The fact of the matter is, combined with the lack of an ethernet port, it was a total cheap out that would have only slightly increased the cost of manufacture, but causes the console and the consumer suffering.

Also, the Xbox360 and PS3 both use 2.5" SATA drives, the same drives used in laptop computers. Not exactly difficult, although I believe it's necessary to do some modifications for the 360 drive.

No need, I have played Batman Arkaham City from my hard drive and it is faster than using discs. 

The transfer rate of a 2.0 USB is about 35MB/s, while the usual disc readers are 15MB/s. Wii U has a 22MB/s reader. 

Yes optical is slow, but it's going obsolete too. There's a reason why many modern console games install data to the hard drive like a PC, because it greatly increases load speeds for the game.

And I'd love to see USB2.0 drives that can actually maintain 35MB/s speeds during multiple file transfers, a lot of external drives seem lucky to hit 25-30, the USB powered 2.5" drives tend to be even worse...

I'll do some benchmarks on USB2 when I get home since I have like, 5+ external drives  to test on, but I have to goto a Mythbusters show tonight so the results prolly won't come in until tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure I've easily hit 35MB/s before.