Suggestion for adding USB 3.0 card

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I want to add a PCI express card to add USB 3.0 to d.esktop.
Online search turns up a lot of no-name brand cards.

Anyone have any suggestions on what brand, etc. to buy?

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I don’t know what PC you have so here are my picks and reasoning:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=-1&IsNodeId=1&Description=usb%203.0%20card&bop=And&CompareItemList=-1|15-124-120^15-124-120%2C15-124-122^15-124-122%2C15-290-068^15-290-068%2C15-290-067^15-290-067%2C15-287-019^15-287-019&percm=15-287-019%3A%24%24%24%24%24%24%24

Cheapest two have a different USB controller and include low profile brackets if needed with 1 yr warranty. The Vantec uses the same controller as the Syba SD-PEX20139 but has a 2 yr warranty. On a system without USB3 I suspect good chance your PCI-E x1 slots are not revision 2. If rev. 1 they will be a bottleneck to max. USB3 speed—though you never get as much as promised anyway.

The two most expensive (3 yr warranty) contain either USB3-A or USB3-C ports (your preference) support USB3.1 (or at least claim to) but most importantly have PCI-E x4 connectors. If you have a x4 or longer available then that would remove the bottleneck even if the slot is rev. 1.x and even for USB3.1 protocol.

All will allow you to plug in a front panel 2 x USB3 port into the card’s 19-pin header. Some contain a 4-pin Molex meant to connect your PSU to supply extra power to drive powered external devices.

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Thank you Fascist Nation. Good explanation of the detail that I did not understand. I do, indeed have PCI-E x1 slots.

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So, given that I have PCI-E x1 slots, is it worth bothering to put a usb 3.0 card in? Is it going to be “faster than usb 2.0” that I already have?

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So, given that I have PCI-E x1 slots, is it worth bothering to put a usb 3.0 card in? Is it going to be “faster than usb 2.0” that I already have?

Yes it will be noticeably faster, just not as fast as it could be. Keep in mind for the speed difference it will need be a USB3 device. Otherwise a USB2 device will run at USB2 speeds.

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I bought the following on Ebay: “4 Port PCI-E To USB 3.0 HUB PCI Express Card Adapter VL805 Chipset 5 Gbps Speed”. I paid about $10 with free shipping.

Basically, it looked like a good deal, so I bought it. And it has worked flawlessly. The only problem was that the driver disk included four different drivers, but there was no information as to which was right for my card. So I used the VEN/DEV methodto see which was correct, and installed that driver. Everything has worked perfectly since doing that.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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