Does anything even use USB type C for PC peripherals?

crytt

crytt

Explorer
Lots of current and next-gen motherboards have USB Type C port as their selling point but does anything even use these ports?
It seems extremely pointless.
 
Considering most of the devices and mobiles being supplied with Type C cable, it seems we will end up needing more Type C ports on the PCs/Laptops. I bought Type A to Type C and Type C to Type A converter because of this.
 
Type C is usually the fastest port on a motherboard. Either USB 3.2 Gen 2 for older, USB3.2 Gen 2x2, USB 4 or Thunderbolt. Type C is usually on the box as marketing term for general public in my opinion. As for what devices use type C.

My current type C devices which are anything where I need higher data transfer rate. Anything above 10gbps or USB 3.2 Gen 2 is usually type C. Anything beyond 20 gbps will be only type C.
External SSDs. My Samsung T7 Gets me a speed of 1000 MB/s which is not possible on wrong USB A port.
My UHS II card reader. I prefer to use type C.
My thunderbolt dock. What is type C only.
My capture card which can do 4 cameras with audio.
My wireless audio receiver is type C only
I can connect via type A but that just means slower speed. I would not buy a motherboard if it doesn't have a type C port.

Additionally motherboard type C ports usually have the highest power delivery. Usually 15 watts is the bare minimum for a type C port. So if you want to charge your phone a type C port would be the fastest. If all you connect is lower speed devices like mouse and KB then yeah its probably useless to you.

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I use it for connecting ssd when i need more speed. I converted my m.2 ssd by using an enclosure to an external ssd. Although the enclosure reduces the speed but the speed i get with type c to type c is considerably more than that of type c to a.
 
My portable 4TB hdd is faster on usb c port using usb c to usb 3 adapter compared to directly connecting it to usb 3 port on my laptop.
I use usb c headphone too instead of laptop internal audio.
 
crytt said:
Lots of current and next-gen motherboards have USB Type C port as their selling point but does anything even use these ports?
It seems extremely pointless.
Click to expand...
Almost every new peripheral these days is type C
USB A is almost about on the verge of becoming a relic. Only older peripherals that I have are A only.

If one had to choose between a mobo/PC/laptop with C only vs A only today, it would be stupid to opt for the latter
 
superczar said:
If one had to choose between a mobo/PC/laptop with C only vs A only today, it would be stupid to opt for the latter
Click to expand...
That seems dumb because you're essentially giving up legacy support. USB lasted so long because it is a very well designed communication port on the hardware level even if it can't transfer smart values correctly.
 
For desktops, we are still behind in terms of utilizing the potential of Type C.

Laptops use dp alt/thunderbolt, so they can use variety of docks and accessories.

We need an easier and cheaper implementation of thunderbolt on desktops, currently the implementations vary from add-in PCIe thunderbolt cards with internal DP cable (that you need to plug from your display out on motherboard/GPU) or built into motherboard (With a fragile eDP cable or again DP-In cable).
This is partly due to TB3 being Intel proprietary technology, hence it never became widespread on desktops. With USB4 being widely adopted now, we could maybe see more widespread implementations.

The thing with USB-C on desktops is, the use cases are very limited. We don't need docks since the motherboards already have enough ports. Maybe your PC is in another room? But long thunderbolt cables are out of reach for most. Demand for optical thunderbolt doesn't really exist anywhere except some enthusiasts.

Since the demands are still low, and most consumer motherboards have limited ports, manufacturers still prefer USB-A for peripherals (Also maintains backwards compatibility - and there is actually no need of high speed transfer rates for things like keyboard and mice). Portable external media like SSDs, Card Readers etc have started using Type-C but they also might include USB-A adapters/cables.
 
crytt said:
That seems dumb because you're essentially giving up legacy support. USB lasted so long because it is a very well designed communication port on the hardware level even if it can't transfer smart values correctly.
Click to expand...
You really aren't giving up legacy support..
C to A is a dumb pin-to-pin conversion .. so at worst, all you need is a 200/- pigtail cable
So if you had to choose 1 , you would still pick the better protocol since its anyway fully backward compatible..

Anyway, I am not even advocating that A ports should be eliminated on desktops .. just that in the hypothetical scenario where you had to choose one or the other, C is the way to go
Having even 2 or 3 USB3 gen 2 C ports gives you 20gbps or 30gbps for external peripherals which is far better than the typical 2X 5gbps and 6x 480mbps ports on a desktop board.
 
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