Enabling the Next-Generation File Server with SMB 3.0
The primary driver for most of the changes in SMB 3.0 was the desire to make SMB an enterprise-application protocol. That is certainly where you'll see the biggest benefit to SMB. But there are still benefits for regular clients, such as Windows 8 clients. (SMB 3.0 is unavailable for OSs earlier than Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.)