You see that front-panel USB-C port on the fancy Fractal Design Terra Mini-ITX case? That’s a USB 3.2 x2, and if you plug it into a standard USB 3 header on a motherboard the system chucks an error and won’t boot. That’s my experience, anyway.
So it was with some trepidation that I picked up the Crucial X10, wondering if I would be able to squeeze every last delicious drop of bandwidth out of its exotic USB connection. USB 3.2 x2 (20 Gbps) seems like a slightly odd choice in a world where phones have 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Type-C connectors and PCs have 40 Gbps USB4 ports on them, as well as the multi-lane data highways that are the modern flavours of Thunderbolt. It’s faster, sure, but many PCs aren’t going to be able to make the best use of it, and real speed freaks are going to be looking at USB4 or Thunderbolt drives to force multiple gigabytes through the wires in mere seconds.
