USB's theoretical speed is well and good but:

1- I've never reached it. Not even close

2- When doing file transfers over USB 2.0, my PC suffers from mini-freezes

3- Some of my USB 2.0 periperals won't work, or will even hang my PC, when connected at 2.0 speeds, I have to force 1.0 to get them to work.

On the other hand, I never had a problem (neither speed nor compatibility nor sluggishness) with FireWire.

My take on it is that early USB was designed for slow periperals: kb, mouse, printer... and specifically not HD. There must be something in the way USB 1.0 and 2.0 were done that made them unreliable ressources hogs for high speeds/big transfers.

Do you know if USB 3.0 fixes that, or is it just a faster release of them same very touchy s**t ?